December 9 in history — What Happened Today in History

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (with rinderpest in 2011 being the other).

British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.

Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.

U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.

Douglas Engelbart gave 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 (NLS).

Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; with witnesses reporting something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh.

Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.

The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.

An Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes near Anadyr, killing all 12 people on board.

Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.

Cold War: Harry 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 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

The Genocide Convention is adopted.

The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.

The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.

World War II: China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan.

World War II: Operation Compass: British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.

Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Asaka launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanking.

Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities.

Walter Liggett, an American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.

The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.

Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.

World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire.

World War I: The Kingdom of Romania signs the Armistice of Focșani with the Central Powers.

A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

In France, a law separating church and state is passed.

National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).

Cem Ince, German politician

Mark McMorris, Canadian snowboarder

Laura Smulders, Dutch cyclist

Langston Galloway, American basketball player

Choi Min-ho, South Korean singer and actor

Ashleigh Brewer, Australian actress

SungWon Cho, American YouTuber and actor

Denise Hannema, Dutch cricketer

Eric Bledsoe, American basketball player

Kwadwo Asamoah, Ghanaian footballer

Kostas Giannoulis, Greek footballer

Gerald Henderson Jr., American basketball player

Mat Latos, American baseball player

Blagoje Paunović, Serbian footballer and manager (born 1947)

Jože Toporišič, Slovenian linguist and author (born 1926)

Hristu Cândroveanu, Romanian editor, literary critic and writer (born 1928)

John Gabbert, American soldier, lawyer, and judge (born 1909)

Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, Polish pianist and educator (born 1930)

Eleanor Parker, American actress (born 1922)

John Wilbur, American football player (born 1943)

Béla Nagy Abodi, Hungarian painter and academic (born 1918)

Patrick Moore, English lieutenant, astronomer, and educator (born 1923)

Alex Moulton, English engineer and businessman, founded the Moulton Bicycle Company (born 1920)

Jenni Rivera, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (born 1969)

Charles Rosen, American pianist and musicologist (born 1927)

Riccardo Schicchi, Italian director and producer, co-founded Diva Futura (born 1953)