October 9

768 – Brothers Carloman and Charlemagne are crowned kings of the Franks in Noyon, France.

1000 – The Norse sagas record that this day, Leif Ericson discovers “Vinland”, which is likely where a Viking village later named L’Anse aux Meadows, was founded on the island of Newfoundland, Canada.

1238 – After retaking Valencia from the moors during the Reconquista, Jaume el Conqueridor of Aragon is crowned as James I of the Kingdom of Valencia.

1604 –  Actually observing the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter, which was linked in the astrology of the time to the Star of Bethlehem, SN1604, (named “Kepler’s Supernova” after the european astronomical discoverer) Johanees Kepler observes what is now classed as a Type Ia supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus, visible even during the day for over 3 weeks with records of its sighting existing in Europe, China, Korea, and Arabia, and is the most recent supernova to be observed within the Milky Way galaxy

1635 – Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony after religious and policy disagreements and founds Providence Plantations on land bought from Wampanoag Chief Massasoit, which later becomes the English colony of Rhode Island.

1701 – The Collegiate School of Connecticut, later renamed Yale University, is chartered in New Haven by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut

1812 –  In a naval engagement on Lake Erie during the War of 1812, American naval forces under the command of Lieutenant Jesse Elliott, capture the British ships; HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.

1825 – The private sloop Restauration arrives in New York Harbor from Norway, the first organized immigration from Norway to the U.S.

1873 – A meeting of 15 naval officers at the U.S. Naval Academy establishes the U.S. Naval Institute.

1936 – Boulder Dam, now renamed Hoover Dam, begins electric power generation

1967 – Ernesto “Che” Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.

1974 – Oskar Schindler dies in Hildesheim, Germany

1986 – Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC) launches as the “4th” US television network.

1992 – The Peekskill meteorite, a 27.7 pound meteorite crashes into a parked car in Peekskill, New York

2006 – North Korea conducts its first nuclear test.

2007 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its then all time high of 14,164 points before rapidly declining due to the 2007/2008 financial crises.

2009 – NASA’s Lunar Precursor Robotic Program intentionally crashes the spent Centaur upper stage and data-collecting Shepherding Spacecraft in the crater Cabeus near the south pole of the Moon so that the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) can observe the impact