THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― JULY 9

July 9 is the 191st day of the year (192nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 175 days remaining until the end of the year.  

NATIONAL SUGAR COOKIE DAY 

48 BC – The Battle of Dyrrhachium: Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. The battle was a victory for Pompey, albeit not a decisive one.[2] The battle preceded the Battle of Pharsalus which was the decisive battle of the Civil War. Caesar, by various stratagems, managed to retreat south with the remainder of his army and avoided being caught by the pursuing cavalry of Pompey. He sent some of his cohorts to reinforce the garrisons of Apollonia and Oricum, and propelled the bulk of his remaining troops into Thessaly. The Caesarian general Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus and the Pompeian general Scipio Nasica were both in that country with their respective armies, and both Caesar and Pompey then aimed to link up with their corresponding forces in Thessaly. Upon entering Thessaly, Caesar captured the town of Gomphi and regrouped with Domitius, allowing his men to resupply, rest and then move towards Pharsalus, wherethe decisive battle would soon be fought.

1499 – The Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho returns to Lisbon, after discovering the sea route to India as a companion of Vasco da Gama.

1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1832 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States. Andrew Jackson’s disaffection with the powerful central bank and its “paper money” can be traced as far back as the First Bank of the US. Jackson lost everything during the time when the market expansion and the availability of western lands should have offered safe opportunities for economic improvement to more and more individuals. Jackson blamed the banking system for his personal financial misfortunes (all involving land speculation and worthless bank notes). With overwhelming support of the masses, Jackson was elected president in 1828 and given power to seek change. In 1829, he warned Congress in his first annual address that “both the constitution and the expediency of the law creating this are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow citizens.” With this statement President Jackson declared war on the Second Bank of the United States.

1913 – The temperature in Death Valley, California, hits 134 °F (57 °C), the highest temperature ever to be recorded on Earth.

1921 – Belfast's Bloody Sunday: Sixteen people are killed and 161 houses destroyed during rioting and gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The violence of the period in Belfast was cyclical, and the events of July 1921 were followed by a lull until a three-day period starting on 29 August, when another 20 lives were lost in the west and north of the city. The conflict in Belfast between the IRA and Crown forces and between Catholics and Protestants continued until the following summer, when the northern IRA was left isolated by the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in the south and weakened by the rigorous enforcement of internment in Northern Ireland.

1925 – The Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,349 in 2015), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side. William Jennings Bryan (left), three-time presidential candidate, argued for the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney, spoke for Scopes. 

1941 – WWII, the Jedwabne pogrom: The massacre of Jewish people living in and near the village of Jedwabne in Poland. Described as a massacre or a pogrom by postwar historians, it resulted in the death of at least 340 Polish Jews of all ages,[2] locked in a barn later set on fire. In 1949 the Communist People's Republic of Poland launched a treason and murder trial which was later condemned as a miscarriage of justice because suspects had been tortured during interrogation.[5] After a fresh investigation, concluded in 2003, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance stated that the pogrom was committed by Polish inhabitants of the town, with the complicity of the German Ordnungspolizei.

1942 – World War II: An American pilot spots a downed, intact Mitsubishi A6M Zero on Akutan Island (the "Akutan Zero") that the US Navy uses to learn the aircraft's flight characteristics.

1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people come to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter Paul and Mary. The movement included a large rally, marches, and demands to the City of Chicago. These specific demands covered a wide range of areas besides open housing, and included quality education, transportation and job access, income and employment, health, wealth generation, crime and the criminal justice system, community development, tenants rights, and quality of life. The Chicago Freedom Movement was the most ambitious civil rights campaign in the North of the United States, lasted from mid-1965 to early 1967, and is largely credited with inspiring the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

1976 – One American and three British mercenaries are executed in Angola following the Luanda Trial. The two remaining Americans, Grillo and Acker, were released in 1982 in a prisoner exchange worked out by the United States Department of State. The British prisoners were released in 1984 after negotiation by the British Foreign Office.

1985 – The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland harbor by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira. France initially denied responsibility, but two French agents were captured by New Zealand Police and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder. As the truth came out, the scandal resulted in the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu. The two agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison. They spent just over two years confined to the French island of Haobefore being freed by the French government

1991 – Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of the Russian Federation. On 31 December 1999, under enormous internal pressure, Yeltsin announced his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of his chosen successor, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin left office widely unpopular with the Russian population.

1997 – In London scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

1998 – Catholic Church sexual abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Rudolph Kos, a former priest. ― From latimes.com 

2011 – Russian cruise ship Bulgaria is sunk in Volga near Syukeyevo, Tatarstan, resulting in 122 deaths.

Today's Births

1509 – John Calvin, French pastor and theologian (d. 1564)

1839 – Adolphus Busch, German brewer, co-founded Anheuser-Busch (d. 1913)

1951 – Cheryl Wheeler, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.