December 9th is

Official Lost & Found Day *

National Pastry Day

Weary Willie Day *

International Anti-corruption Day *

International Day of Veterinary Medicine

The International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims *
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MORE! John Milton, Grace Hopper, and Lech Walesa, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Antigua & Barbuda: Vere Cornwall Bird Sr Day
(1^st Prime Minister after independence)

Argentina – Día feríado con fines turísticos (holidays for tourists day) 

Germany – Ennepetal:
Christmas Rock Night

Indonesia – Jakarta:
Djakarta Warehouse Project

Kiribati – Peace Day

Tanzania – Republic Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears at the hill of Tepeyac, Mexico City, to Juan Diego, the first indigenous Catholic saint from the Americas

1608 – John Milton is born, English poet and philosopher

1745 – Maddalena Laura Sirmen is born in Venice, Italian violinist and composer

1779 – Tabitha Babbit born, American Shaker toolmaker and inventor an improved spinning wheel head, and refinements of the circular saw

1783 – The first executions at Newgate Prison take place

1793 – New York City’s first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster

1803 – The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress, and sent to the states for ratification. It directs Electors to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President

1848 – Joel Chandler Harris is born in Georgia, American writer, Uncle Remus stories

1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Canada

1854 – Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” is published in England, brilliantly glorifying a military fiasco

1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of a U.S. state

1882 – Joaquín Turina born, Spanish-French composer

1883 – Joseph Pilates born, German-American fitness expert, developed Pilates

1884 – Levant M. Richardson patents the ball-bearing roller skate

1886 – Clarence Birdseye born, American ‘father of the modern frozen food industry

1892 – Widowers’ Houses, George Bernard Shaw’s first play, opens in London

1897 – After covering the 1896 Congrès Féministe International (International Feminist Congress) for the leading French newspaper Le Figaro, newly converted women’s rights activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper La Fronde in Paris

1898 – Emmett Kelly is born, American circus clown, ‘Weary Willie’ *

1905 – The French Chamber of Deputies passes Concernant la séparation des Églises et de l’État, a law separating church and state

1906 – Grace Murray Hopper born, U.S. navy officer and computer scientist, computer programming language COBOL

1907 – Christmas Seals go on sale for the first time, in a Delaware post office

1917 – WWI British Field Marshal Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem, Palestine

1922 – Hydroelectric engineer Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland

1926 – The United States Golf Association legalizes the use of steel-shafted golf clubs

1937 – Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing

1942 – Aram Khachaturian’s ballet “Gayane” is first performed by the Kirov Ballet

1946 – The “Subsequent Nuremberg trials” begin with prosecution of physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia

1948 – The UN General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, currently ratified by 143 countries – The International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims *

1950 – Joan Armatrading born, British singer-songwriter

1953 – General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company

1958 – The extreme anti-communist John Birch Society is founded in the United States

1960 – Sperry Rand Corporation unveils the Univac 1107 computer

1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain

1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona, and David Lean’s film of Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O’Toole has its world premiere in London

1963 – The Supremes release their first album, Meet the Supremes

1964 – The John Coltrane Quartet records “A Love Supreme”

1965 – A Charlie Brown Christmas, first in a series of Peanuts television specials, debuts on CBS

1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as “The Mother of All Demos”, publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS)

1974 – George Harrison releases his album Dark Horse

1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first  human disease driven to extinction

1990 – Lech Walesa won Poland’s first direct presidential election in the country’s history, and Slobodan Milosovic was elected president in Serbia’s first free elections in 50 years

1991 – European Community leaders agree to begin using a single currency in 1999

1992 – American troops land in Somalia for Operation Restore Hope

1993 – The U.S. Air Force destroys the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty; and Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope

2003 – The UN General Assembly adopts the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), and declares December 9 is International Anti-corruption Day *

2013 – First celebration of Official Lost & Found Day * – make a list of what’s gone missing, your keys, a hat or sweater, whatever, and try again to track them down

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Visuals

• Candlelight vigil at Pakistani School attacked by the Taliban
• International flags
• The Virgin of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego
• The American Minerva, 1793
• Uncle Remus quote – Joel Chandler Harris
• International Anti-corruption Day

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