Born on this day 9th February
1666 George Hamilton
1747 John Thomas Duckworth
1846 Whitaker Wright
1865 Mrs. Patrick Campbell
1891 Ronald Colman
1901 Brian Donlevy
1909 Heather Angel
1914 Gypsy Rose Lee
1915 Lennard Pearce
1922 Jim Laker
1936 Clive Swift
1940 Brian Bennett
1942 Carole King
1942 Ben E King
1943 Joe Pesci
1949 Bernard Gallacher
1958 Sandy Lyle
1958 Cyrille Regis
1960 Holly Johnson
1979 David Gray
1982 Chris Weale

Died on this day
1881 Fyodor Dostoevsky
1952 Bill Haley
2002 HRH Princess Margaret

Music

1957 Elvis Presley topped the US singles chart with ‘Too Much’.

1964 The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers.

1972 Paul McCartney’s group Wings began their first UK tour in a small club in Nottingham.

1984 Brits award winners included Culture Club, David Bowie, Annie Lennox and Paul Young.

1985 Standing at the top of the UK singles charts were Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson with ‘I Know Him So Well’.

Sport

1895 William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.

1900 The Davis Cup competition is established.

1983 Australia beat New Zealand by 6 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in their best of 3 match for the World Series Cup.

1992 Scottish snooker player Stephen Hendry won the final of the Benson and Hedges Masters with a 9-5 victory over John Parrot at the Wembley Conference Centre.

People & Showbiz

1555 Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake.

1949 American actor Robert Mitchum was jailed for 2 months in Los Angeles for smoking marijuana.

1994 Emma Thompson made Oscar history by becoming the first performer to be nominated twice in the same year-as Best Actress in ‘Remains of the Day’ and Best Supporting Actress in ‘In The Name Of The Father’.

General Events

1923 Dobrolet, the Soviet State Airline was launched. It was renamed Aeroflot 9 years later.

1971 The first British soldier was killed in Northern Ireland since troops arrived in August 1969.

1972 The government announced a state of emergency following the month-long strike by miners.

1990 British Rail announced it was to introduce a minimum £10 fine to anyone travelling without a ticket. This was an attempt to stop fare evasion which had cost the company an estimated £50 million a year.

1991 In the Gulf crisis, Allied Military commanders said that the air war should go on for at least another 2 weeks.