December 9

December 9 is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 22 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 480 – Odoacer, first Germanic king of Italy, occupies Dalmatia and establishes his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate.
• 536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed, the Gothic garrison flee the capital.
• 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: the Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami.
• 1425 – The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.
• 1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops lose the Battle of Great Bridge, and leave Virginia soon afterward.
• 1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
• 1824 – Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
• 1835 – The Texian Army captures San Antonio, Texas.
• 1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
• 1856 – The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
• 1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
• 1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is founded.
• 1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.
• 1897 – Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.
• 1905 – In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
• 1911 – A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.
• 1917 – World War I: In Palestine, Field Marshal Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem.
• 1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is announced the first president of Poland.
• 1931 – The Constituent Cortes approves the constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
• 1935 – Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in gangland murder.
• 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing – Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing.
• 1940 – World War II: Operation Compass – British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
• 1941 – World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.
• 1941 – World War II: The 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.
• 1946 – The "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" begin with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.
• 1946 – The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.
• 1950 – Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• 1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
• 1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.
• 1958 – The John Birch Society is founded in the United States.
• 1960 – The first episode of the world's longest-running television soap opera Coronation Street is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
• 1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
• 1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
• 1965 – The Kecksburg UFO incident: a fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined the object.
• 1966 – Barbados joins the United Nations.
• 1968 – NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.
• 1969 – United States Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.
• 1971 – The United Arab Emirates join the United Nations.
• 1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.
• 1973 – British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.
• 1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
• 1981 – Philadelphia Police Department officer Daniel Faulkner is killed during a routine traffic stop; Mumia Abu-Jamal is later convicted for it and he goes on to become "perhaps the world's best known death-row inmate" before his sentence is commuted to life without parole in December 2011.
• 1987 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
• 1988 – The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland is officially opened.
• 2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
• 2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.

Births

• 1447 – Chenghua Emperor of China (d. 1487)
• 1508 – Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (d. 1555)
• 1561 – Edwin Sandys, English politician (d. 1629)
• 1571 – Metius, Dutch mathematician and astronomer (d. 1635)
• 1579 – Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (d. 1639)
• 1594 – Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (d. 1632)
• 1608 – John Milton, English poet (d. 1674)
• 1610 – Baldassare Ferri, Italian singer (d. 1680)
• 1652 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician (d. 1723)
• 1667 – William Whiston, English mathematician (d. 1752)
• 1717 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German historian (d. 1768)
• 1721 – Peter Pelham, English-American organist and composer (d. 1805)
• 1728 – Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, Italian composer (d. 1804)
• 1745 – Maddalena Laura Sirmen, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1818)
• 1748 – Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)
• 1751 – Maria Luisa of Parma (d. 1819)
• 1787 – John Dobson, English architect, designed Eldon Square and Lilburn Tower (d. 1865)
• 1806 – Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (d. 1838)
• 1813 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (d. 1885)
• 1837 – Émile Waldteufel, French composer (d. 1915)
• 1842 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian activist (d. 1921)
• 1845 – Joel Chandler Harris, American journalist and author (d. 1908)
• 1847 – George Grossmith, English actor and singer (d. 1912)
• 1850 – Emma Abbott, American soprano (d. 1891)
• 1861 – Hélène Smith, French psychic (d. 1929)
• 1867 – Gregorios Xenopoulos, Greek journalist and author (d. 1951)
• 1868 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1934)
• 1870 – Ida S. Scudder, Indian physician (d. 1960)
• 1871 – Joe Kelley, American baseball player (d. 1943)
• 1875 – Harry Miller, American race car designer and builder (d. 1943)
• 1876 – Berton Churchill, American actor (d. 1940)
• 1876 – Pauline Whittier, American golfer (d. 1946)
• 1882 – Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (d. 1949)
• 1883 – Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician (d. 1950)
• 1883 – Alexander Papagos, Greek general and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1955)
• 1883 – Joseph Pilates, German physical culturist, developed Pilates (d. 1967)
• 1886 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (d. 1956)
• 1887 – Tim Moore, American actor and comedian (d. 1958)
• 1889 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (d. 1966)
• 1891 – Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet (d. 1917)
• 1895 – Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish politician (d. 1989)
• 1895 – Conchita Supervía, Spanish soprano (d. 1936)
• 1897 – Hermione Gingold, English actress (d. 1987)
• 1898 – Emmett Kelly, American clown (d. 1979)
• 1899 – Jean de Brunhoff, French author (d. 1937)
• 1900 – Albert Weisbord, American activist, founded the Communist League of Struggle (d. 1977)
• 1901 – Carol Dempster, American actress (d. 1991)
• 1901 – Jean Mermoz, French pilot (d. 1936)
• 1901 – Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-German author and playwright (d. 1938)
• 1902 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (d. 1985)
• 1904 – Robert Livingston, American actor (d. 1988)
• 1905 – Dalton Trumbo, American author and screenwriter (d. 1976)
• 1906 – Grace Hopper, American navy officer and computer scientist, developed COBOL (d. 1992)
• 1909 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (d. 2000)
• 1911 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)
• 1911 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (d. 1986)
• 1911 – Ryūzō Sejima, Japanese army officer and educator (d. 2007)
• 1912 – Tip O'Neill, American politician, 55th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1994)
• 1914 – Max Manus, Norwegian activist (d. 1996)
• 1914 – Frances Reid, American actress (d. 2010)
• 1914 – Ljubica Sokić, Serbian painter (d. 2009)
• 1915 – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-Austrian soprano (d. 2006)
• 1916 – Kirk Douglas, American actor
• 1916 – Jerome Beatty Jr., American author (d. 2002)
• 1917 – James Angleton, American CIA officer (d. 1987)
• 1917 – James Rainwater, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
• 1918 – Joyce Redman, Irish actress (d. 2012)
• 1919 – William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
• 1920 – Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian politician, 10th President of Italy
• 1922 – Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (d. 1991)
• 1925 – Dina Merrill, American actress
• 1926 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• 1926 – Jan Křesadlo, Czech psychologist (d. 1995)
• 1927 – Pierre Henry, French composer
• 1928 – André Milhoux, Belgian race car driver
• 1928 – Dick Van Patten, American actor
• 1929 – John Cassavetes, American actor, screenwriter, and director (d. 1989)
• 1929 – Bob Hawke, Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia
• 1930 – Buck Henry, American actor, screenwriter, and director
• 1931 – William Reynolds, American actor
• 1931 – Ladislav Smoljak, Czech actor, screenwriter, and director (d. 2010)
• 1932 – Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (d. 2013)
• 1932 – Billy Edd Wheeler, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1933 – Ashleigh Brilliant, American author
• 1933 – Morton Downey, Jr., American singer-songwriter, actor, and talk show host (d. 2001)
• 1933 – Monique Miller, Canadian actress
• 1933 – Orville Moody, American golfer (d. 2008)
• 1934 – Judi Dench, English actress
• 1934 – Junior Wells, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (The Aces) (d. 1998)
• 1936 – Ben Pon, Dutch race car driver
• 1937 – Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)
• 1938 – John Braheny, American singer-songwriter and author (d. 2013)
• 1938 – David Houston, American singer-songwriter (d. 1993)
• 1938 – Deacon Jones, American football player
• 1940 – Clancy Eccles, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2005)
• 1941 – Mehmet Ali Birand, Turkish journalist (d. 2013)
• 1941 – Beau Bridges, American actor and director
• 1941 – Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Charlatans and The Acoustic Warriors)
• 1942 – Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer (d. 1997)
• 1942 – Dick Butkus, American football player
• 1943 – Pit Martin, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
• 1943 – Joanna Trollope, English author
• 1944 – Neil Innes, English singer-songwriter and actor (Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and The Rutles)
• 1944 – Tadashi Irie, Japanese mobster
• 1944 – Ki Longfellow, American author
• 1944 – Bob O'Connor, American politician, 57th Mayor of Pittsburgh (d. 2006)
• 1945 – Matti Mäntylä, Finnish actor
• 1945 – Michael Nouri, American actor
• 1946 – Dennis Dunaway, American bass player and songwriter
• 1946 – Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician
• 1946 – Shatrughan Sinha, Indian actor
• 1947 – Tom Daschle, American politician
• 1947 – Jaak Jõerüüt, Soviet-Estonian politician
• 1948 – Marleen Gorris, Dutch director
• 1949 – Tom Kite, American golfer
• 1949 – Nando Parrado, Uruguayan survivor of the 1972 Andes flight disaster
• 1950 – Joan Armatrading, St. Kitts-born English singer-songwriter
• 1952 – Liaqat Baloch, Pakistani politician
• 1952 – Michael Dorn, American actor
• 1953 – Cornelis de Bondt, Dutch composer
• 1953 – World B. Free, American basketball player
• 1953 – John Malkovich, American actor
• 1954 – Phil Bryant, American politician, 63rd Governor of Mississippi
• 1954 – Herman Finkers, Dutch comedian
• 1954 – Henk ten Cate, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1955 – Otis Birdsong, American basketball player
• 1955 – Chamras Saewataporn, Thai composer
• 1956 – Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author
• 1957 – Peter O'Mara, Australian guitarist and composer
• 1957 – Donny Osmond, American singer-songwriter and actor (The Osmonds)
• 1957 – Steve Taylor, American singer-songwriter and producer (Chagall Guevara)
• 1958 – Rikk Agnew, American guitarist (The Adolescents, D.I., Social Distortion, and Christian Death)
• 1958 – Nick Seymour, Australian bass player, songwriter, and producer (Crowded House, Deadstar, and Tarmac Adam)
• 1959 – John Martin Scripps, English murderer (d. 1996)
• 1960 – Stefen Fangmeier, American director
• 1960 – Terry Moran, American journalist
• 1960 – Dobroslav Paraga, Croatian politician
• 1960 – Juan Samuel, Dominican baseball player
• 1961 – David Anthony Higgins, American actor
• 1961 – Joe Lando, American actor
• 1962 – Felicity Huffman, American actress and producer
• 1963 – Dave Hilton, Jr., Canadian boxer
• 1963 – Crown Princess Masako of Japan
• 1964 – Hape Kerkeling, German actor and comedian
• 1964 – Johannes B. Kerner, German sportscaster
• 1964 – Paul Landers, German guitarist (Rammstein, Feeling B, and First Arsch)
• 1965 – Joe Ausanio, American baseball player
• 1965 – Vecepia Towery, American reality contestant, winner of Survivor: Marquesas
• 1966 – Michael Foster, American drummer (FireHouse)
• 1966 – Kirsten Gillibrand, American politician
• 1966 – Montserrat Gil Torné, Andorran politician
• 1966 – Dave Harold, English snooker player
• 1966 – Toby Huss, American actor
• 1966 – Dana Murzyn, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1966 – Spencer Rochfort, Canadian-American actor
• 1966 – Julio Alberto Rodas Hurtarte, Guatemalan footballer
• 1966 – Mateo Romero, American painter
• 1966 – Gideon Sa'ar, Israeli politician
• 1966 – Kadyrbek Sarbayev, Kyrgyzstan politician
• 1966 – Shane Scott, American director and producer
• 1966 – Martin Taylor, English footballer and coach
• 1966 – Natee Thongsookkaew, Thai footballer
• 1967 – Joshua Bell, American violinist
• 1967 – Jason Dozzell, English footballer
• 1967 – Gheorghe Popescu, Romanian footballer
• 1968 – Kurt Angle, American wrestler and actor
• 1968 – Brian Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Weezer, Space Twins, and The Relationship)
• 1968 – Brent Price, American basketball player
• 1969 – Jakob Dylan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Wallflowers)
• 1969 – Bixente Lizarazu, French footballer
• 1969 – Allison Smith, American actress
• 1969 – Sebastian Spence, Canadian actor
• 1970 – Kara DioGuardi, American singer-songwriter and producer (Platinum Weird)
• 1970 – Lance Krall, American comedian and actor
• 1971 – Geoff Barrow, English musician, composer, and producer (Portishead, Beak, and Quakers)
• 1971 – Petr Nedvěd, Czech ice hockey player
• 1972 – Reiko Aylesworth, American actress
• 1972 – Tré Cool, German-American drummer (Green Day, The Lookouts, Foxboro Hot Tubs, and The Network)
• 1972 – Backhouse Mike, American singer-songwriter and producer
• 1972 – Fabrice Santoro, Tahitian-French tennis player
• 1973 – Fabio Artico, Italian footballer
• 1973 – Bárbara Padilla, Mexican-American soprano
• 1974 – Canibus, Jamaican-American rapper and actor (The Hrsmn)
• 1974 – Aloísio da Silva Filho, Brazilian footballer
• 1974 – Wendy Dillinger, American footballer and coach
• 1974 – Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani singer
• 1976 – Chris Booker, American baseball player
• 1977 – Saskia Garel, Canadian actress
• 1977 – Shayne Graham, American football player
• 1977 – Imogen Heap, English singer-songwriter (Frou Frou and Urban Species)
• 1978 – Gaston Gaudio, Argentine tennis player
• 1978 – Jesse Metcalfe, American actor
• 1979 – Chen Hao, Chinese actress and singer
• 1979 – Olivia Lufkin, Japanese-American singer-songwriter (D&D)
• 1979 – Stephen McPhail, Irish footballer
• 1980 – Simon Helberg, American actor
• 1980 – Ryder Hesjedal, Canadian cyclist
• 1981 – Mardy Fish, American tennis player
• 1981 – Dia Mirza, Indian actress
• 1982 – Tamilla Abassova, Russian cyclist
• 1982 – Nathalie De Vos, Belgian runner
• 1982 – Ryan Grant, American football player
• 1982 – Bastian Swillims, German sprinter
• 1983 – Jermaine Beckford, English footballer
• 1983 – Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer
• 1984 – Leon Hall, American football player
• 1984 – Angel Guirado, Spanish–Filipino footballer
• 1985 – Wil Besseling, Dutch golfer
• 1987 – Kostas Giannoulis, Greek footballer
• 1987 – Mat Latos, American baseball player
• 1987 – Hikaru Nakamura, American chess player
• 1988 – Kwadwo Asamoah, Ghanaian footballer
• 1989 – Lindsey Evans, American model
• 1990 – LaFee, German singer-songwriter
• 1991 – Prince Joachim of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
• 1991 – Choi Minho South Korean singer, dancer, and actor (Shinee)
• 1993 – Laura Smulders, Dutch cyclist
• 1995 – McKayla Maroney, American gymnast
• 2001 – Ronnie Paris, American child abuse victim (d. 2005)

Deaths

• 748 – Nasr ibn Sayyar, Arabian general and politician (b. 663)
• 1165 – Malcolm IV of Scotland (b. 1141)
• 1437 – Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1368)
• 1544 – Teofilo Folengo, Italian poet (b. 1491)
• 1565 – Pope Pius IV (b. 1499)
• 1603 – William Watson, English priest (b. 1559)
• 1625 – Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (b. 1547)
• 1636 – Fabian Birkowski, Polish author and preacher (b. 1566)
• 1641 – Anthony van Dyck, Belgian painter (b. 1599)
• 1669 – Pope Clement IX (b. 1600)
• 1674 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English politician (b. 1609)
• 1706 – Peter II of Portugal (b. 1648)
• 1718 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer (b. 1650)
• 1793 – Yolande de Polastron, French educator (b. 1749)
• 1798 – Johann Reinhold Forster, German botanist (b. 1729)
• 1830 – Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher, Danish surgeon (b. 1757)
• 1854 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese journalist and author (b. 1799)
• 1858 – Robert Baldwin, Canadian politician, 3rd Premier of Canada West (b. 1804)
• 1887 – Mahmadu Lamine, Senegalese military leader
• 1906 – Ferdinand Brunetière, French author and critic (b. 1849)
• 1916 – Natsume Sōseki, Japanese author (b. 1867)
• 1924 – Bernard Zweers, Dutch composer and educator (b. 1854)
• 1930 – Rube Foster, American baseball player (b. 1879)
• 1932 – Roquia Sakhawat Hussain, Bangladeshi social worker (b. 1880)
• 1935 – Walter Liggett, American journalist (b. 1886)
• 1937 – Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
• 1941 – Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Russian author, poet, and philosopher (b. 1865)
• 1943 – Georges Dufrénoy, French painter (b. 1870)
• 1952 – Abe Manley, American businessman (b. 1885)
• 1955 – Hermann Weyl, German mathematician (b. 1885)
• 1963 – Daniel O. Fagunwa, Nigerian author (b. 1903)
• 1964 – Edith Sitwell, English poet and critic (b. 1887)
• 1965 – Branch Rickey, American baseball player and executive (b. 1884)
• 1967 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and judge (b. 1898)
• 1970 – Artem Mikoyan, Soviet businessman, co-founded the Mikoyan Company (b. 1905)
• 1970 – Feroz Khan Noon, Pakistani politician, 7th Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1893)
• 1971 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
• 1971 – Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (b. 1874)
• 1972 – Louella Parsons, American columnist (b. 1881)
• 1975 – William A. Wellman, American director (b. 1896)
• 1979 – Fulton J. Sheen, American archbishop (b. 1895)
• 1981 – Daniel Faulkner, American police officer (b. 1955)
• 1982 – Leon Jaworski, American prosecutor (b. 1905)
• 1984 – Razzle, English drummer (Hanoi Rocks) (b. 1960)
• 1992 – Vincent Gardenia, American actor (b. 1922)
• 1993 – Danny Blanchflower, Irish footballer and manager (b. 1926)
• 1994 – Garnett Silk, Jamaican singer (b. 1966)
• 1995 – Toni Cade Bambara, American author (b. 1939)
• 1995 – Douglas Corrigan, American pilot (b. 1907)
• 1996 – Patty Donahue, American singer-songwriter (The Waitresses) (b. 1956)
• 1996 – Mary Leakey, English archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1913)
• 1996 – Alain Poher, French politician, President of France (b. 1909)
• 1996 – Diana Morgan, Welsh playwright and screenwriter (b. 1908)
• 1998 – Shaughnessy Cohen, Canadian politician (b. 1948)
• 1998 – Archie Moore, American boxer (b. 1913)
• 2001 – Michael Carver, Baron Carver, English field marshal (b. 1915)
• 2002 – Mary Hansen, Australian guitarist and singer (Stereolab) (b. 1966)
• 2002 – Ian Hornak, American painter and sculptor (b. 1944)
• 2002 – Stan Rice, American painter and poet (b. 1942)
• 2003 – Norm Sloan, American basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
• 2003 – Paul Simon, American politician (b. 1928)
• 2004 – David Brudnoy, American radio host (b. 1940)
• 2004 – Lea De Mae, Czech actress (b. 1976)
• 2005 – György Sándor, Hungarian pianist (b. 1912)
• 2005 – Robert Sheckley, American author (b. 1928)
• 2007 – Thore Skogman, Swedish singer and actor (b. 1931)
• 2007 – Gordon Zahn, American sociologist (b. 1918)
• 2008 – Ibrahim Dossey, Ghanaian footballer (b. 1972)
• 2008 – Yuri Glazkov, Soviet astronaut (b. 1939)
• 2009 – Gene Barry, American actor (b. 1919)
• 2010 – John Eleuthère du Pont, American murderer (b. 1938)
• 2010 – James Moody, American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1925)
• 2010 – Dov Shilansky, Israeli politician (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Béla Nagy Abodi, Hungarian painter (b. 1918)
• 2012 – Barbara Alby, American politician (b. 1946)
• 2012 – Mathews Mar Barnabas, Indian bishop (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Ivan Ljavinec, Czech bishop (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Patrick Moore, English astronomer (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Alex Moulton, English engineer and businessman, founded the Moulton Bicycle Company (b. 1920)
• 2012 – Jenni Rivera, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1969)
• 2012 – Charles Rosen, American pianist (b. 1927)
• 2012 – Riccardo Schicchi, Italian porn producer, co-founded Diva Futura
• 2012 – Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor, co-created the bar code (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

• Anna's Day, marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve, as well as a Swedish name day, celebrating all people named Anna. (Sweden and Finland)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St. Anne (Orthodox Church)
  • Juan Diego
  • Leocadia
  • Nectarius of Auvergne
  • Peter Fourier
  • December 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Independence Day, celebrate the independence of Tanganyika from Britain in 1961. (Tanzania)
• International Anti-Corruption Day (International)
• National Heroes Day, formerly V.C. Bird Day. (Antigua and Barbuda)
• Yuri's Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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