1909

Events

January–February

• January 7 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
• January 9 - The British Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, led by Ernest Shackleton, arrives at the farthest south reached by any prior expedition, at 88°23' S, prior to turning back due to diminishing supplies.
• January 11 – The International Joint Commission on US-Canada boundary waters is established.
• January 16 - Members of the Nimrod Expedition claim to have found the magnetic South Pole.
• January 24 - The White Star Liner RMS Republic sinks the day after a collision with SS Florida off Nantucket. Almost all of the 1,500 passengers are rescued.
• January 28 - The last United States troops leave Cuba, after being there since the Spanish–American War of 1898.
• February 2 - The Paris Film Congress opens. It is an attempt to create a cartel of leading European producers similar to the MPPC in the United States.
• February 5 - Leo Baekeland announces the creation of bakelite hard thermosetting plastic.

  March–April

• March 10 - The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed in Bangkok.
• March 18 - Einar Dessau uses a shortwave radio transmitter in Denmark.
• March 21 - The remains of the Báb are placed in the Baháʼí Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa, at this time within the Ottoman Empire.
• March 31 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• March 31 - Construction begins on the RMS Titanic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.
• April 4 - The association football team Sport Club Internacional is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• April 6 - Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and four Inuit explorers – Ootah, Ooqueah, Seegloo and Egigingwah – come within a few miles of the North Pole.
• April 9 - The Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act is passed in the United States Congress.
• April 11 - The city of Tel Aviv is founded by the Jewish community, on the outskirts of Jaffa.
• April 13 - A countercoup begins in the Ottoman Empire.
• April 14 - Adana massacre: Ottoman Turks kill 15,000–30,000 Armenian Christians, in the Adana Vilayet.
• April 18 - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
• April 19 - The Anglo-Persian Oil Company is incorporated.
• April 23 - In Portugal, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Lisbon, killing at least 60 people.
• April 27 - Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

  May–June

• May 19 - Russian ballet is brought to the Western world when the Ballets Russes opens a tour produced by Sergei Diaghilev at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, with 55 dancers, including Vaslav Nijinsky.
• June 2 - French forces capture Abéché, capital of the Wadai Empire in central Africa.
• June 15 - Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's Cricket Ground in London and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.

  July–August

• July 1 - In London, Indian nationalist student Madan Lal Dhingra assassinates Curzon Wyllie, political aide to the Secretary of State for India.
• July 16 - A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. He proceeds to leave Persia for the Russian Empire, reportedly seeking the assistance of Nicholas II of Russia in regaining the throne.
• July 25 - Louis Blériot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
• July 25–August 2 - "Tragic Week" : The city of Barcelona experiences a workers' uprising.
• July 26 - Blue Anchor Line passenger/cargo liner, on her second voyage from Australia to Britain, leaves Durban and is lost without trace with all 211 aboard.
• August 2 - The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane, a Wright Military Flyer, from the Wright brothers.
• August 8 - Max Heindel formally founds the Rosicrucian Fellowship in Seattle, Washington.

  September–October

• September 4 - Japan and China sign the Gando Convention, which gives Japan a way to receive railroad concessions in Manchuria.
• October - Suzuki Weaving Machine Manufacturing, predecessor of the Suzuki motorbike and compact car brand in Japan, is founded in Shizuoka Prefecture.
• October 8 - An earthquake in the Zagreb area leads Andrija Mohorovičić to identify the Mohorovičić discontinuity.
• October 12 - The association football team Coritiba is founded in Curitiba, Brazil.
• October 13 - An agreement by Germany, Italy and Switzerland gives the Germans and Italians access to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.
• October 26 - Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated by An Jung-geun, an activist of the Korean independence movement, at the Harbin railway station in Manchuria.

  November–December

• November 18 - In Nicaragua, 500 revolutionaries are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya. The United States responds by sending 2 warships.
• November 28 - Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 is premièred in New York City with the composer as soloist.
• December 4 - Montreal Canadiens, a well known professional ice hockey club in Canada, is founded.
• December 14 - New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth, to create the Australian Capital Territory.
• December 19 - The association football team Borussia Dortmund is founded in Dortmund, Germany.
• December 23 - King Albert I of Belgium succeeds his uncle, Leopold II, on the throne.
• December 28 - The first manned heavier-than-air powered flight in South Africa is made at East London, by French aviator Albert Kimmerling, in a Voisin 1907 biplane.

  Undated

• Karl Landsteiner, Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper first isolate the poliovirus.

  Births

January to April

January

• January 1
• * Dana Andrews, American actor
• * Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalist leader
• January 2 - Barry Goldwater, American politician
• January 3 - Victor Borge, Danish-born American entertainer
• January 5 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician
• January 9
• * Anthony Mamo, 1st President of Malta
• * Patrick Peyton, Irish-born American priest, saint
• January 13 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist convicted of setting fire to the German Reichstag building in 1933
• January 15
• * Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer
• * Gene Krupa, American jazz drummer
• January 19 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone
• January 22
• * Porfirio Rubirosa, Dominican diplomat, race-car driver and polo player
• * Ann Sothern, American actress
• * U Thant, Burmese United Nations Secretary General
• January 24 - Martin Lings, British Islamic scholar
• January 25 - Robert Rex, 1st Premier of Niue
• January 28 - Colin Munro MacLeod, Canadian-American geneticist
• January 30 - Saul Alinsky, American community organizer

  February

• February 1 - George Beverly Shea, American gospel singer, songwriter
• February 3 - Simone Weil, French philosopher
• February 7 - Amedeo Guillet, Italian army officer
• February 9
• * Harald Genzmer, German composer
• * Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian actress, singer
• * Dean Rusk, American politician
• February 11
• * Max Baer, American boxer, actor
• * Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American filmmaker
• February 12 - Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter
• February 14 - Yeom Dong-jin, Korean militant
• February 15
• * Miep Gies, Austrian-born Dutch humanitarian
• * Guillermo Gorostiza Paredes, Spanish footballer
• February 16
• * Hugh Beaumont, American actor
• * Jeffrey Lynn, American actor, film producer
• February 18
• * Matti Järvinen, Finnish javelin thrower
• * Wallace Stegner, American writer
• February 19 - Enrico Donati, Italian-born American painter
• February 20 - Heinz Erhardt, German comedian, musician, entertainer, actor and poet
• February 21 - Hans Erni, Swiss painter, sculptor
• February 24 - August Derleth, American writer
• February 25 - Geoffrey Dummer, English electrical engineer
• February 26 - King Talal of Jordan
• February 28 - Stephen Spender, English writer

  March

• March 7 - Roger Revelle, American scientist, scholar
• March 11 - Jules Engel, Hungarian-born American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director and teacher
• March 19 - Louis Hayward, South African-born actor
• March 22 - Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author
• March 24 - Clyde Barrow, American outlaw, member of Barrow Gang
• March 26
• * Héctor José Cámpora, Argentine Peronist politician, 38th President of Argentina
• * Chips Rafferty, Australian actor
• March 27 - Golo Mann, German historian
• March 28 - Nelson Algren, American author

  April

• April 6 - William M. Branham, American Christian minister
• April 8
• * John Fante, Italian-American writer
• * John P. Metras, American coach of Canadian football
• April 13
• * Stanislaw Ulam, Polish-born American mathematician
• * Eudora Welty, American author
• April 22
• * Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Spyros Markezinis, Prime Minister of Greece
• * Indro Montanelli, Italian journalist
• April 24 - Bernhard Grzimek, German zoo director, zoologist
• April 26 - Marianne Hoppe, German actress
• April 27 - Guillermo León Valencia, 21st President of Colombia
• April 30 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands