On This Day in History – January 9 | Events, Birthdays & Facts

by hpmom January 9, 2026

January 9, 2026

On This Day in History – January 9

475 – Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee Constantinople, temporarily losing his throne.
1349 – The city of Basel, Switzerland, blames its Jewish population for the Black Death, leading to mass persecution.
1768 – Philip Astley stages the first modern circus performance in London.
1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1861 – Mississippi becomes the second U.S. state to secede from the Union, helping trigger the American Civil War.
1909 – Ernest Shackleton leads the Nimrod Expedition to within 97 miles of the South Pole, the closest attempt at the time.
1916 – The Battle of Gallipoli officially ends during World War I.
1960 – Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt, transforming the Nile’s flow and agriculture.
2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the first iPhone, reshaping the future of mobile technology.
2020 – The World Health Organization announces the emergence of a novel coronavirus in China.

1431 – Joan of Arc, French national heroine and military leader (traditional birth date)
1788 – Lord Byron, English poet and leading figure of Romanticism (d. 1824)
1890 – Karel Čapek, Czech writer and inventor of the word “robot” (d. 1938)
1913 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)
1941 – Joan Baez, American folk singer and activist
1944 – Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
1954 – Dave Weckl, American jazz drummer
1964 – Michelle Forbes, American actress
1982 – Catherine, Princess of Wales

1873 – Napoleon III, Emperor of France (b. 1808)
1901 – Annie Edson Taylor, American schoolteacher (b. 1838)
1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer (b. 1856)
1968 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1934)
1996 – Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist (b. 1916)
2002 – Dave Legeno, British actor (b. 1963)
2015 – Rod Taylor, Australian actor (b. 1930)
2018 – Lydia Clare, British novelist (b. 1947)
2022 – Bob Eubanks, American television personality (b. 1938)

The first iPhone announcement on January 9 revolutionized smartphones and modern computing.
Lord Byron became famous almost overnight after the publication of his poetry.
Nikola Tesla died alone in a New York hotel room, largely unrecognized at the time.
The modern circus tradition traces its roots to performances on this date.
Static electricity experiments date back to ancient Greek philosophers.
January 9 has been linked to major cultural and technological turning points.