August 9

Independence Day
Singapore : August 9 1965

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.

The aim of the movement was to bring the British Government to the negotiating table by holding the Allied War Effort hostage. The call for determined but passive resistance that signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the movement is best described by his call to Do or Die, issued on 8 August at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay, since re-named August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution Ground). However, almost the entire Congress leadership, and not merely at the national level, was put into confinement less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, and the greater number of the Congress khiland were to spend the rest of the war in jail.

On 8 August 1942, the Quit India resolution was passed at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The draft proposed that if the British did not accede to the demands, a massive Civil Disobedience would be launched. However, it was an extremely controversial decision. At Gowalia Tank, Mumbai, Gandhi urged Indians to follow a non-violent civil disobedience. Gandhi told the masses to act as an independent nation and not to follow the orders of the British. The British, already alarmed by the advance of the Japanese army to the India–Burma border, responded the next day by imprisoning Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. The Congress Party's Working Committee, or national leadership was arrested all together and imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort. They also banned the party altogether. Large-scale protests and demonstrations were held all over the country. Workers remained absent en masse and strikes were called. The movement also saw widespread acts of sabotage, Indian under-ground organisation carried out bomb attacks on allied supply convoys, government buildings were set on fire, electricity lines were disconnected and transport and communication lines were severed. The Congress had lesser success in rallying other political forces, including the Muslim League under a single mast and movement. It did however, obtain passive support from a substantial Muslim population at the peak of the movement.The movement soon became a leaderless act of defiance, with a number of acts that deviated from Gandhi's principle of non-violence. In large parts of the country, the local underground organisations took over the movement. However, by 1943, Quit India had petered out.

August 9 : International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is observed on August 9 each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. This event also recognizes the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection.

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)

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