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HISTORY & TIMELINE
9 February

A journey through
9 February in history

The ninth day of February has seen the premiere of Verdi’s last opera, the Beatles on American television, Halley’s Comet at its closest to the Sun and the first atoms of element 112. This timeline follows 9 February from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1825
John Quincy Adams, photographed by Mathew Brady in his later years.John Quincy Adams, photographed by Mathew Brady in his later years.Image: Mathew Brady · Public domain
politics · Americas

The House of Representatives chooses John Quincy Adams as president

Four men ran for president in 1824. Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, won the most popular votes and 99 electoral votes, but not a majority, so under the Constitution the House of Representatives had to choose among the top three: Jackson, John Quincy Adams and William Crawford. On 9 February 1825, voting by state, the House elected Adams on the first ballot. Henry Clay, the Speaker, who had come fourth, had thrown his support behind Adams, and when Adams then made Clay secretary of state, Jackson’s supporters cried ‘corrupt bargain’. The charge dogged Adams’s presidency, and Jackson beat him easily in 1828.

Source: US House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives: the House elected John Quincy Adams as president ↗
1849
Giuseppe Mazzini, who led the Roman Republic as one of its three triumvirs.Giuseppe Mazzini, who led the Roman Republic as one of its three triumvirs.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

Rome proclaims a republic and ends the pope’s rule

In 1848 revolutions swept across Europe. In Rome, where the pope was also king of central Italy, radicals demanded a constitution and war on Austria; after his chief minister was murdered in November, Pope Pius IX fled the city. An assembly elected by all adult men met in January and early February 1849, and on 9 February it declared the pope’s worldly rule at an end and proclaimed the Roman Republic. Giuseppe Mazzini became its leading figure and Giuseppe Garibaldi led its defence. It lasted only five months: a French army besieged the city and restored the pope in July. But the republic’s constitution, and its stand, became part of the story of Italian unity.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Italy, the Revolutions of 1848 ↗
1893
Falstaff hidden in the laundry basket at Ford's house, in Ettore Tito's drawing of the first production for The Graphic, 18 February 1893.Falstaff hidden in the laundry basket at Ford’s house, in Ettore Tito’s drawing of the first production for The Graphic, 18 February 1893.Image: Ettore Tito · Public domain
culture · Europe

Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, is first performed

Giuseppe Verdi had not written an opera since Otello in 1887, and at almost eighty the most famous composer in Italy was expected to retire. Instead he and the poet Arrigo Boito turned to Shakespeare’s fat knight, Sir John Falstaff, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Falstaff opened at La Scala in Milan on 9 February 1893 before a glittering audience, with ticket prices many times the usual. It was Verdi’s only successful comedy, a quick, witty score that ends with a great fugue on the words ‘all the world’s a joke’. It was his last opera.

Source: Metropolitan Opera: the dazzling success of Falstaff ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1934
A map of the four members of the Balkan Entente: Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia.A map of the four members of the Balkan Entente: Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia.Image: Alex:D · Public domain
politics · Europe

Four Balkan states sign a pact of mutual defence

After the Balkan Wars and the First World War, the countries of south-eastern Europe distrusted one another and feared that Bulgaria, which had lost land in both wars, would try to win it back. On 9 February 1934, in Athens, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the Balkan Pact, promising to guarantee one another’s borders and to coordinate their foreign policies through a permanent council. Bulgaria and Albania stayed out. The Entente could do nothing against the growing power of Germany and Italy, and it fell apart when the Second World War came to the region.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Balkan Entente ↗
1950
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.Image: United Press · Public domain
politics · Americas

Senator Joseph McCarthy claims to hold a list of communists

In early 1950 Americans were alarmed by the Soviet atomic bomb, the communist victory in China and the conviction of the former State Department official Alger Hiss. Joseph McCarthy, a little-known senator from Wisconsin, saw his chance. Speaking to a women’s Republican club in Wheeling, West Virginia, on 9 February 1950, he said he held in his hand a list of 205 people in the State Department known to be communists. The number kept changing and he never produced the list, but the charge made him famous. For four years ‘McCarthyism’ ruined careers across government, universities and Hollywood, until the Senate censured him in 1954.

Source: United States Senate: ‘Communists in government service,’ McCarthy says ↗
1964
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr around the time of their Ed Sullivan appearance, February 1964, photographed by Bernard Gotfryd.John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr around the time of their Ed Sullivan appearance, February 1964, photographed by Bernard Gotfryd.Image: Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain
culture · Americas

The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show

Two days after landing in New York, the Beatles made their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show on the evening of 9 February 1964. More than 70 million people, around a third of the country, are thought to have watched them play All My Loving, She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand. It was one of the most watched programmes in American television history until then, and it is often called the moment the 1960s truly began. Within weeks the Beatles held the top five places in the American singles chart.

Source: The Beatles (official site): the first US visit ↗
1986
Halley's Comet photographed from Easter Island on 8 March 1986 by W. Liller for the International Halley Watch.Halley’s Comet photographed from Easter Island on 8 March 1986 by W. Liller for the International Halley Watch.Image: NASA/W. Liller · Public domain
science · Global

Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to the Sun

Halley’s Comet returns to the inner solar system about every 76 years. It was the first comet whose return was predicted, by the astronomer Edmond Halley, and records of its visits stretch back more than two thousand years. On 9 February 1986 it reached perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, well inside the orbit of Venus. Its 1986 visit was a poor one for watchers on Earth, but a fleet of spacecraft went to meet it, and in March the European probe Giotto flew past its nucleus and photographed it: a dark, potato-shaped lump of ice and dust about 15 kilometres long. The comet is due back in 2061.

Source: NASA Science: 1P/Halley ↗
1996
The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, where element 112 was made.The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, where element 112 was made.Image: commander-pirx · CC BY-SA 3.0
science · Europe

Scientists in Darmstadt create the first atom of element 112

Elements heavier than uranium do not survive in nature and have to be made in the laboratory, by smashing lighter atoms together in the hope that they fuse. The heavier the element, the rarer the success. At the GSI laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany, a team led by Sigurd Hofmann fired zinc nuclei at a lead target for weeks. On 9 February 1996 they detected a single atom of element 112, which decayed in a fraction of a millisecond. After the discovery was confirmed, the element was named copernicium, after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, in 2010.

Source: GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research: element 112 ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2018
The PyeongChang Olympic Stadium lit up on the night of the opening ceremony, 9 February 2018.The PyeongChang Olympic Stadium lit up on the night of the opening ceremony, 9 February 2018.Image: Steven Williams · CC BY-SA 3.0
sport · Asia

North and South Korea march together at the PyeongChang Olympics

South Korea had bid three times before winning the right to hold the Winter Olympics, in the mountain county of PyeongChang. In the months before the Games, tension with North Korea over its nuclear and missile tests was at a height. At the opening ceremony on 9 February 2018 athletes from North and South Korea entered the stadium together behind a single Korean unification flag, carried by one athlete from each side, to the loudest cheers of the night. The two countries also fielded a joint women’s ice hockey team.

Source: Olympics.com: PyeongChang 2018 welcomes the world with a message of peace and hope ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 9 February, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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