Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 9
This is a list of selected December 9 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
December 9: Independence Day in Tanzania (1961); Army Day in Peru
- 1425 – Pope Martin V issued a papal bull establishing what later became the Catholic University of Leuven (Arenberg Castle pictured), the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium.
- 1905 – Legislation establishing state secularism in France was passed by the Chamber of Deputies of France, triggering civil disobedience by French Catholics.
- 1979 – A World Health Organization commission of eminent scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated from nature.
- 1990 – Lech Wałęsa became the first person elected President of Poland in a direct presidential election after the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe.
- 2008 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was arrested for a number of corruption crimes, including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat that was being vacated by then-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.