On This Day: 9 May

Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy		1009
Lincoln Cathedral consecrated		1092
Edward I of England, leading the Ninth Crusade, disembarks at Acre (on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, in modern Syria)		1271
England and Portugal sign the Treaty of Windsor, formally ratifying their alliance – now the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world that is still in force		1386
Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of Florence for 23 years, dies aged 43		1492
William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, and one of the Pilgrim Fathers, dies		1657
The figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England		1662
Irish adventurer Colonel Thomas Blood (Captain Blood) attempts to steal the Crown Jewels, disguised as a clergyman		1671
Five men arrested during a raid on Mother Clap's molly house – "an inn or tavern primarily frequented by homosexual men" in London – are executed at Tyburn		1726
During Pontiac's War against British forces, the Siege of Fort Detroit begins		1763
London's Victoria Embankment opened		1874
An earthquake off the coast of Peru, of magnitude 8.8, kills 2,541 – including some as far away as Hawaii and Japan		1877
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London		1887
The first Horseless Carriage Show (10 cars displayed at London's Imperial Institute)		1896
Australia's first parliament opens in Melbourne		1901
City of Truro becomes the first steam locomotive in Europe to exceed 100 mph		1904
'The Great Lafayette', an illusionist, dies in a fire at the Empire Theatre, Edinburgh – along with his company, a lion and a horse		1911
The works of Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863–1938 – described as "the father of Fascism") are placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican		1911
Germany repels Britain's second attempt to blockade the Belgian port of Ostend		1918
Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians published		1918
Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the North Pole (according to his later claim)		1926
Canberra becomes the capital of Australia		1927
John Masefield is appointed Poet Laureate, following the death of Robert Bridges		1930
Piccadilly Circus lit by electricity for the first time		1932
Italy formally annexes Ethiopia, four days after taking control of the capital Addis Ababa		1936
Scotland Yard announces the first use of police dogs		1938
Neville Chamberlain resigns as prime minister		1940
The German submarine U–110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine, which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages		1941
The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin–Karlshorst		1945
The Channel Islands are liberated from German occupation		1945
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates in favour of Prince Umberto (Umberto II)		1946
Czechoslovakia's Ninth–of–May Constitution comes into effect		1948
Britain's first launderette opens in London's Queensway		1949
Prince Rainier III becomes chief of state of Monaco		1949
Luxembourg–born French statesman Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, which according to him was indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. The 'Schuman Declaration' is considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union		1950
West Germany admitted to NATO		1955
John Osborne's Look Back in Anger opens at the Royal Court Theatre, London		1956
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo has its world premiere in San Francisco		1958
The US Food and Drug Administration announces that it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill		1960
The Beatles sign a recording contract with Parlophone		1962
Between 75,000 and 100,000 protesters demonstrate against the Vietnam War in front of the White House		1970
Israeli troops free 92 hostages from an airliner held by Palestinian Black September in Jerusalem		1972
Impeachment proceedings opened against US president Richard Nixon		1974
The body of kidnapped Italian prime minister Aldo Moro is found in a car in central Rome		1978
Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000–strong Jewish community of Iran		1979
LOT Flight 5055 crashes after take–off in Warsaw, killing all 183 people on board		1987
Australia's new Parliament house in Canberra inaugurated		1988
William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Senator Robert Kennedy, charged with sexual battery		1991
Dame Shirley Porter, former Tory leader of Westminster City Council, found guilty of gerrymandering		1996
Former President F. W. de Klerk withdraws the National Party's support from the South African government		1996
NATO blames "faulty intelligence" for the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade		1999
Phoenix Consortium buys Rover Group from BMW for £10		2000
129 football fans die in a stampede in a stadium in Accra, the capital of Ghana, after police fire tear gas into the crowd following a controversial decision by the referee		2001
A 38–day stand–off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ends, after the Palestinian occupiers agree to the deportation of 13 suspected terrorists among them to several different countries		2002
Akhmad Kadyrov, Pro–Kremlin president of Chechnya, killed by a bomb at the Dynamo stadium in Grozny		2004
Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow's Red Square, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day (the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945)		2015
Barisan Nasional, the governing coalition of Malaysia since the country's independence in 1957, suffers defeat in a general election		2018

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On This Day: 9 May