Here are a few notable things that have happened on December 9 in history, across different years and places:
Major historical events
- In 536, the Byzantine general Belisarius entered Rome during the Gothic War, taking the city after the Gothic garrison withdrew, a key moment in Justinian’s attempt to reconquer former Western Roman territories.
- In 1775, during the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Great Bridge near Norfolk, Virginia effectively ended organized British rule in the colony by forcing royal forces to withdraw.
- In 1917, during World War I, British-led forces under General Edmund Allenby captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire, a significant turning point in the Middle Eastern theatre.
Politics, law, and human rights
- In 1905, France passed a landmark law formally separating church and state, helping establish the modern principle of laïcité in French public life.
- In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, creating a key legal framework for prosecuting this crime under international law.
- In 1922, Gabriel Narutowicz was elected the first president of Poland after the country regained independence following World War I.
Science, technology, and society
- In 1822, physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel presented work to the French Academy of Sciences that introduced terms like linear and circular polarization and supported the wave theory of light.
- In 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London, using semaphore arms by day and gas-lit red and green signals at night.
- In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established in Montreal, marking the start of a long-running social and community organization presence on the continent.
If you tell what kind of events interest you most (wars, science, pop culture, your country, etc.), a more tailored list for December 9 can be given.
