December 9

536 – The Byzantine Roman Empire’s general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed as the Goths garrison that had occupied the city flees, restoring the city to Roman rule.

1775 – Underestimating Colonial Militia strength in southeast Virginia by more than half, the British troops and Loyalists under the command of Lord Dunsmore are defeated in battle near Great Bridge, suffering such heavy losses it ends British rule in Virginia.

1835 – The Texian Revolutionary Army captures San Antonio de Bexar, following a siege lasting nearly 2 months and begin to refortify the Alamo Mission.

1861 –  The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War,  to investigate the progress of the war against the Confederacy, is established by Congress.

1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first Black governor of a U.S. State following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth.

1911 – An explosion at the Cross Mountain Mine near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

1917 – During World War I,  the Army of Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire.

1941 – China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan.
The American 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.

1946 – The second convening of a military tribunal at Nuremberg begins with prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.

1950 – Swiss born American laboratory chemist Harry Henrich Golodnitsky Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

1968 – Inventor Douglas Engelbart gives what became known as “The Mother of All Demos”, publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System, a predecessor to the ARPANET, which developed into the internet.

1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction. 10 years later, however, the U.S. Army decided to inoculate all troops due to a single case of a soldier coming down with the disease from an unknown source.

1987 – The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by Palestinian terrorists.

1992 – President Bush deploys U.S. troops, in Operation Restore Hope, to Somalia to help create a secure environment for humanitarian efforts there.

2006 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-116 carrying parts of the International Space Station.

2008 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.