August 9

August 9 is the 221st day of the year (222nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, leaving 144 days until the end of the year. Situated in the middle of the eighth month, the date has borne witness to a number of watershed moments in modern history: it was on August 9, 1945, that the second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki; on August 9, 1965, that Singapore became an independent republic; and on August 9, 1974, that the presidency of Richard Nixon formally ended with his resignation. The date is also marked today by national holidays in Singapore and South Africa and by a United Nations international day devoted to the world's indigenous peoples.

Calendar Position and Background

In the Gregorian calendar, adopted progressively from 1582 onward, August 9 falls roughly two-thirds of the way through the year. In countries still using the Julian calendar for liturgical purposes, the corresponding date in the 20th and 21st centuries is July 27. The month of August takes its name from the Roman emperor Augustus, under whom the month formerly known as Sextilis was renamed and given its present length.

In Western astrology, persons born on August 9 fall under the sign of Leo (until approximately August 22). Traditional almanac associations for the month include the peridot, spinel, and sardonyx as birthstones and the gladiolus and poppy as birth flowers. Climatically, the date falls in late summer in the Northern Hemisphere and late winter in the Southern Hemisphere; in much of Europe it coincides with the main holiday season, which has often shaped the political and public character of events occurring on this day.

Historical Events

The following is a selection of notable events that have occurred on August 9 across history:

• 48 BC – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus in Thessaly, a turning point in the Roman civil war.
• AD 378 – Gothic forces rout the Roman army at the Battle of Adrianople; Emperor Valens is killed, an event many historians regard as a milestone in the decline of the Western Roman Empire.
• 1173 – Construction begins on the bell tower of Pisa Cathedral, the structure later famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• 1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
• 1814 – The Treaty of Fort Jackson ends the Creek War, forcing the Creek people to cede roughly 23 million acres of land in present-day Alabama and Georgia.
• 1830 – Following the July Revolution, Louis Philippe is proclaimed "King of the French," inaugurating the July Monarchy.
• 1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed in Washington, settling the disputed boundary between Maine and New Brunswick and resolving other Anglo-American questions.
• 1854 – Henry David Thoreau's Walden; or, Life in the Woods is published in Boston.
• 1902 – Edward VII is crowned King of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey, the ceremony having been postponed from June owing to his emergency appendicitis.
• 1930 – The character Betty Boop makes her first appearance in the Fleischer Studios cartoon Dizzy Dishes.
• 1936 – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Berlin Olympics, in the 4×100-meter relay, a result widely seen as undermining the racial ideology of the host regime.
• 1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, opening the