On This Day for August 9 - Pompey defeated by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus, Amedeo Avogadro is featured, and more

Created: 2020-08-09 10:02 Updated: 2020-08-09 10:02 Notebook: On this Day in History

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August 09

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

Amedeo Avogadro

FEATURED EVENT

48 bce

Pompey defeated by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus

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MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2014: Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, resulting in days of civil unrest and protests fueled by tensions between Ferguson's predominantly black population and its predominantly white government and police department.

1995: American musician Jerry Garcia, who personified the hippie counterculture for three decades as the mellow leader of the rock band the Grateful Dead, died of a heart attack. [Test your knowledge of musical groups.]

1988: Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings , a deal that shocked the sports world and stunned his home country, where he was a national icon. [See where Wayne Gretzky ranks on our list of the 10 greatest hockey players of all time.]

1974: Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as president of the United States, succeeding Richard Nixon, who had resigned. [Who becomes president after the president and vice president?]

1969: American actress Sharon Tate and four others were murdered by followers of Charles Manson , leader of a communal religious cult known as the “Family.”

1945: The second atomic bomb dropped on Japan by the United States in World War II struck the city of Nagasaki. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]

SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1968

Gillian Anderson
American actress

1963

Whitney Houston
American singer and actress

1967

Deion Sanders
American football and baseball player

1896

Jean Piaget
Swiss psychologist

1899

P.L. Travers
British author