August
9 : Quit India Movement Day
The
Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan) or
the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement
in India launched in August 1942 in response to
Gandhi's call for immediate independence of India
and against sending Indians to World War II.
Events
48 BC – Caesar's civil war: Battle of Pharsalus
– Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus
and Pompey flees to Egypt.
378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large
Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by
the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens is
killed along with over half of his army.
681 – Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the
south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine
armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the
Danube delta.
1173 – Construction of the campanile of the cathedral
of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa)
begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese,
is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born
Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.
1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with
the celebration of a Mass.
1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of
the First French Empire.
1814 – Indian Wars: the Creek sign the Treaty
of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama
and Georgia.
1842 – The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed,
establishing the United States-Canada border east
of the Rocky Mountains.
1854 – Henry David Thoreau published Walden.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain
– At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General
Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces
under General John Pope.
1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole – A small
band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United
States Army
1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way
telegraph.
1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are
crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland.
1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes
at Brownsea Island in southern England.
1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori,
near Lucknow, India
1930 – Betty Boop made her cartoon debut in Dizzy
Dishes.
1936 – Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad
– Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the
games becoming the first American to win four
medals in one Olympiad.
1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested
in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit
India Movement.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island – Allied
naval forces protecting their amphibious forces
during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal
are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese
Navy cruiser force.
1944 – The United States Forest Service and the
Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring
Smokey Bear for the first time.
1944 – Continuation war: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk
Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet
Union against Finland during the Second World
War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish
and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to
defensive positions, and the front remains stable
until the end of the war.
1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when
an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United
States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed
outright.
1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and
becomes the first and only country to date to
gain independence unwillingly.
1965 – A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy,
Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.
1969 – Followers led by Charles Manson murder
pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski),
coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech
Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent
high-school graduate Steven Parent.
1971 – The Troubles: The British security forces
in Northern Ireland launch Operation Demetrius.
Hundreds of people are arrested and interned,
thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed
in the violence that followed.
1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal,
Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the
United States to resign from office. His Vice
President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.
1988 – Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton
Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the
most controversial player transactions in hockey
history, upsetting many Canadians.
1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses
a 38-year hold on national leadership.
1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his
Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the
fourth time fires his entire cabinet. On the same
day, Chris Jericho makes his WWF debut by interrupting
The Rock with a millennium clock.
2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists were arrested
in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened
in the United Kingdom. The arrests were made in
London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire,
in an overnight operation.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Edith Stein
Firmus and Rusticus
Herman of Alaska (Russian Orthodox Church and
related congregations)
Jean Vianney
Nath Í of Achonry
Romanus Ostiarius
Secundian, Marcellian and Verian
August 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Day of the World's Indigenous People
(International)
National Day, celebrates the independence of Singapore
from Malaysia in 1965.
National Peacekeepers' Day, celebrated on Sunday
closest to the day (Canada)
National Women's Day (South Africa)
For details, contact Datacentre
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