1092: Lincoln Cathedral was consecrated. For 249 years it was reputedly the tallest building in the world. Writer John Ruskin declared that “The cathedral of Lincoln (see ©BB picture) is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have.”
1386: Treaty of Windsor between Portugal and England is ratified at Windsor cementing and strengthening ties between the two kingdoms. The treaty guarantees the mutual security of both nations and strengthens commercial ties. It is the oldest diplomatic alliance still in force.
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1671: An attempt was made to steal the Crown Jewels. As part of an elaborate plan, Colonel Thomas Blood befriended the keeper of the jewels and frequently visited. After some time, Colonel Blood requested to see the treasures, at which point he knocked the keeper of the jewels unconscious and stabbed him. While Colonel Blood was taking the jewels, the keeper woke up and alerted the guards.
1936: Seven months after invading Ethiopia and driving Emperor Haile Selassie I into exile, Italy annexed Ethiopia as part of Italian East Africa
1960: Five months away from national independence, Nigeria joins the Commonwealth, becoming the 11th former British colony to do so.
1960: The first birth control pill is approved. On May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the world’s first commercially produced birth-control pill—Enovid-10, made by the G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, Illinois.
1969: Carlos Lamarca begins his fight against Brazil’s military dictatorship. Lamarca was a member of the communist organization Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR) and is well known for his urban guerilla actions. Brazilian forces killed him in 1971.
1978: On May 9, 1978, the body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro is found, riddled with bullets, in the back of a car in the center of historic Rome. He was kidnapped by Red Brigade terrorists on March 16 after a bloody shoot-out near his suburban home. The Italian government refused to negotiate with the extreme left-wing group, which, after numerous threats, executed Moro on May 9. He was a five-time prime minister of Italy and considered a front-runner for the presidency of Italy in elections due in December.
1979: Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed. An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.
1987: Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo died aged 78. He was an economist, lawyer, journalist, and one of the founding fathers of Nigeria. He led AG (1st republic) and UPN (2nd republic).
1990: Nelson Mandela departs South Africa for the first time since 1962, on a six-nation tour of Africa.
1996: The British House of Commons voted to maintain the Ministry of Defence ban on homosexuals serving in the armed forces.
1997: Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war. Peterson, a Vietnam veteran, devoted himself to promoting reconciliation between the two countries. About 2.5 million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, were killed during the war.
2001: Accra Sports Stadium Disaster: 129 Ghanaian football fans die in a stampede caused by the firing of teargas by police following a decision by the referee in a crucial match between arch-rivals Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko
2006: The publication of the book Tyrants: The World’s 20 Worst Living Dictators. The section devoted to sub-Saharan Africa lists Cameroon’s Paul Biya as the region’s worst dictator, followed by Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
2012: The brand-new Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crashes. The regional jet was the first airliner produced in Russia since the end of the USSR in 1991. The doomed flight was a demonstration tour carrying potential customers. All 45 people on board perished in the crash, which was caused by pilot error.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: May 9
Dana Perino, 52 years
Dana Perino, co-host of the Fox News show The Five, served as the White House Press Secretary, under President George W. Bush, from 2007 to 2009. She was nominated by Barack Obama to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, has worked as a publishing executive, and has taught part-time. She was born in 1972.
Tony Mochama, 49 years
Kenyan journalist and author was born in 1975 in Nairobi, Kenya. Beginning his journalism career in 2002, he wrote criticism and opinion pieces for various publications before expanding into Young Adult fiction, poetry, and an Afro-futurism novel.
Ernest Shonekan (9 May 1936 – 11 January 2022)
Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan GCFR was a Nigerian lawyer and statesman who served as the interim head of state of Nigeria from 26 August 1993 to 17 November 1993. He was titled Abese of Egbaland from 1981. He died at the age of 85.
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