Thursday, October 9, 2008
                        2006 North Korean nuclear testing
                    
Saturday, October 9, 2004
                         Direct elections for president are held for the first time in 
Afghanistan. Interim president 
Hamid Karzai is eventually declared the winner.
                    
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
                        Lawrence Lessig argues Eldred v. Ashcroft in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.  The case challenges retroactive copyright extensions passed by Congress, and potentially affects millions of copyrighted works.
                    
                        The European Commission of the European Union has announced that ten countries – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia – have met its criteria for entry, opening the way for an expansion of the EU from 15 member states to 25.  The European Parliament has still to consider each candidate individually and the final decision will require the approval of the current member states.
                    
                        The 2001 anthrax attacks continue as anthrax letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey, to Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
                    
Thursday, October 9, 1975
Fiji becomes independent.
                    
 Thursday, October 9, 1969
                        October 12 ndash Days of Rage: In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the Chicago Eight Trial.
                    
Wednesday, October 9, 1963
                         In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the 
Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.
                    
                         Uganda becomes independent within the Commonwealth of Nations.
                    
Thursday, October 9, 1958
Wednesday, October 9, 1957
                        The orbit of the last stage of the R-7 Semyorka rocket (carrying Sputnik I) is first successfully calculated on an IBM 704 computer by teams at The M.I.T. Computation Center and Operation Moonwatch, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
                    
                         WWII: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a 9-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
                    
                         The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.
                    
                         The Mexican government crushes a rebellion in 
Vera Cruz.
                    
                         Sir William Horwood, London Metropolitan Police Service commissioner, is poisoned by arsenic-filled chocolates.
                    
Saturday, October 9, 1920
Wednesday, October 9, 1918
                         Landgrave Friedrich Karl of Hessen-Kassel is elected King of Finland.
                    
Thursday, October 9, 1913
Thursday, October 9, 1890
                          The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft "Eole" takes place in Satory, France. It flies uncontrolled approximately 
                          American Civil War ndash Battle of Tom's Brook: Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
                    
Wednesday, October 9, 1861
Thursday, October 9, 1845
                         The eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church.
                    
                         Serfdom is abolished in Prussia by law.
                    
Wednesday, October 9, 1799
Wednesday, October 9, 1776
Wednesday, October 9, 1771
                         The 
Dutch merchant ship "
Vrouw Maria" sinks off the coast of 
Finland Captain Raymund Lourens and his crew escape unharmed.
                    
Thursday, October 9, 1760
                         Russian troops enter 
Berlin, but soon withdraw.
                    
Pierre Antoine Motteux's English translation of the novel "
Don Quixote" is first published. Motteux publishes it under the name "Peter Motteux". While popular among readers, it will eventually come to be known as one of the worst translations of the novel, totally betraying the spirit of 
Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece.
                    
 
                        Robert Walpole enters Parliament and soon makes his name as a spokesman for Whig policy.
                    
                        The Philharmonic Society ("Academia philharmonicorum") is established in 
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
                    
Saturday, October 9, 1621
                         The Treaty of Pavia is signed between Spain and Savoy, under which Savoy returns Monferrato to Mantua.
                    
Saturday, October 9, 1604
Monday, September 29, 1544 (Julianian calendar)
                        The Mongols burn the suburbs of Peking. Roberts,  J: History of the World.. Penguin, 1994.
                    
Portuguese explorers encounter the island of 
Taiwan and call it "Ilha Formosa" (Beautiful Island).
                    
 
                         French forces under the Dauphin assault Boulogne, but are ultimately unsuccessful.
                    
                        Gustav I of Sweden signs an alliance with France.
                    
Friday, September 29, 1514 (Julianian calendar)
Friday, September 30, 1446 (Julianian calendar)
Saturday, October 1, 1390 (Julianian calendar)
                        Ko Cheng succeeds Che Bong Nga as King of Cha (now eastern Vietnam).
                    
                        Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), is built.
                    
                        Mahmud succeeds Sandaki as Mansa of the Mali Empire.
                    
                        The Ottomans take Philadelphia, the last Byzantine enclave of any significance in Anatolia.
                    
                        Sikandar But-shikan succeeds Sikandar Shah as Sultan of 
Kashmir.
                    
Thursday, October 2, 1264 (Julianian calendar)
                         King Alfonso X the Wise recapture the town of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain from the Muslims.
                    
Friday, October 2, 1192 (Julianian calendar)
                         The Third Crusade ends. Richard I of England and Saladin negotiate visiting rights for pilgrims to come to the Holy City of Jerusalem.
                    
                        Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich of Novgorod burns down Tartu and Otepää Castles in Estonia.
                    
Sunday, October 3, 1003 (Julianian calendar)
                        The construction of Brihadeeswarar temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India, starts. Chola Dynasty, Early Medieval period.