09 June History
- 1064 - Coimbra, Portugal falls to Ferdinand, king of Castile.
- 1534 - Jacques Cartier sails into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
- 1790 - Civil war breaks out in Martinique.
- 1861 - Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke begins working in Union hospitals.
- 1863 - At the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, Union and Confederate cavalries clash in the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War.
- 1923 - Bulgaria's government is overthrown by the military.
- 1931 - Robert H. Goddard patents a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
- 1942 - The Japanese high command announces that "The Midway Occupation operations have been temporarily postponed."
- 1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declares that Japan will fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
- 1951 - After several unsuccessful attacks on French colonial troops, North Vietnam's General Vo Nguyen Giap orders Viet Minh to withdraw from the Red River Delta.
- 1954 - At the Army-McCarthy hearings, attorney Joseph Welch asks Senator Joseph McCarthy "Have you no sense of decency?"
- 1959 - The first ballistic missile-carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, is launched.
- 1972 - American advisor John Paul Vann is killed in a helicopter accident in Vietnam.
- 1986 - NASA publishes a report on the Challenger accident.
09 June Birthdays
- 1640 - Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1672 - Peter I, Russian Czar (1682-1725).
- 1781 - George Stephenson, English engineer, inventor of the steam locomotive.
- 1791 - John Howard Payne, American playwright and actor.
- 1865 - Carl Nielsen, Danish composer.
- 1877 - Meta Vaux Warrick, sculptor.
- 1891 - Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist.
- 1901 - George Price, cartoonist.
- 1915 - Les Paul, American guitarist and electric guitar innovator.
- 1916 - Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense under presidents Kennedy and Johnson.