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9th August

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1936: Owens wins 4th gold medal


Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympic Games, setting a world record in the relay. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler promoted the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin as a showcase of Aryan supremacy. However, Ohio State University’s Jesse Owens, an African American, confounded the Fuhrer’s racist dogma by winning the 100 and 200 meter events, the long jump and on 9 August 1936, the relay. His relay team set a new world record, and Hitler, who had planned to shake hands with all the Olympic victors, left the stadium rather than congratulate the African-American track stars.

2001

In Israel, a suicide bomber strikes at a restaurant in Jerusalem killing 15 people.

1999

In Britain, Charles Kennedy is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats.

1985

Arthur Walker, a retired U.S. Navy officer, is found guilty of espionage for passing top-secret documents to his brother, who passed them on to Soviet agents.

1979

The first nudist beach in Britain is established in Brighton.

1974

U.S. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as President following the resignation of Richard Nixon over the Watergate Affair.

1971

The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Brian Faulkner, introduces internment - the ability to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists without trial.

1965

Singapore gains its independence, becoming an independent republic within the British Commonwealth after seceding from Malaysia.

1945

The Second World War: The second atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki; an estimated 70,000 people are killed.

1942

In India, Mahatma Gandhi and 50 other senior figures are arrested after the All-India Congress initiates a quit India campaign against British rule.

1902

In England, the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.

1842

The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed between America and Britain, agrees the frontier between the United States and Canada.

1483

In Italy, the first mass takes place at the Sistine Chapel.

378 AD

A large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey.

48 BC

Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus.

1969

In America, the bodies of actress Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski, and four others are found at a house in Beverly Hills, California. Members of a commune known as The Family, led by Charles Manson are later arrested, tried and jailed for the killings.

1964

American singer Whitney Houston.

1949

British ice skating champion John Curry

1937

Australian tennis champion Rod Laver.

1927

English actor Robert Shaw.

1918

US film director Robert Aldrich.

1809

Texan lawyer and army officer William Travis

1757

Scottish engineer Thomas Telford.

1631

English poet John Dryden.

1593

English author Isaac Walton

1995

Jerry Garcia, leader of the rock band Grateful Dead, dies of an apparent heart attack.

1975

Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovitch.

1969

US actress Sharon Tate found murdered in a house at Beverly Hills, California.

1919

Italian composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo.