Thursday 9th of May 1805

Poet, philosopher, historian and playwright Friedrich Johann Christoph Schiller dies of tuberculosis at the age of 46 in Schillerhaus, Schillerstraße 12, Weimar, Thüringen, Germany.

Tuesday 9th of May 1837

Automobile manufacturing pioneer Adam Opel is born in Rüsselsheim, Hessen, Germany.

Wednesday 9th of May 1860

Murderer William Francis Kemmler aka John Hart known for becoming the first man executed using an electric chair is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Saturday 9th of May 1874

Archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter known for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun is born in London, Kensington, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Thursday 9th of May 1907

Nazi leader and Reichsjugendführer Baldur Benedikt von Schirach is born in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Saturday 9th of May 1908

Arbeitseinsatzführerin in Ravensbrück KZ Greta Bösel is born as Greta Müller in Elberfeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Thursday 9th of May 1912

Actor Pedro Armendáriz is born as Pedro Gregorio Armendáriz Hastings in Mexico City, Mexico.

Monday 9th of May 1921

Founding member of the Weiße Rose resistant group Sophie Magdalena Scholl is born in Rathaus, Hauptstraße 14, Forchtenberg am Kocher, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friday 9th of May 1924

15-year-old Heinz Martin is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Saturday 9th of May 1936

Murderer Zane Brown Hill is born in Beaverdam, North Carolina, United States.

Monday 9th of May 1938

Serial killer Carroll Edward Cole aka Silent Rage is born in Sioux City, Iowa, United States.

Saturday 9th of May 1942

32-year-old Pauline Coral Buchan O'Brien Thompson is strangled by serial killer Edward Leonski aka The Singing Strangler in Spring Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Saturday 9th of May 1959

59-year-old Dorothy Pearce is raped and beaten to death by serial killer Wendell Lightbourne aka The Cannibalist Golf Caddy in Southlands Beach, Bermuda, United Kingdom.

Thursday 9th of May 1968

Poet and Lesbian Rights pioneer Mercedes de Acosta dies of a brain tumour at the age of 75 in New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 9th of May 1976

20-year-old Marcella Claxton is attacked with a hammer by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper in Roundhay Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Claxton survived but required extensive brain surgery and needed 52 stitches to close the wounds in her head.

Sunday 9th of May 1976

Journalist and leader of the Rote Armee Fraktion Ulrike Marie Meinhof commits suicide by hanging with a towel at the age of 42 in Justizvollzugsanstalt Stammheim, Asperger Straße 60, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

On demand of Meinhof's attorney Klaus Croissant and the International Committee for Political Prisoners an international investigation commission was created in order to examine the conditions surrounding Meinhof's death. The German authorities refused to give the complete (first) autopsy report to the commission, hindering their investigation. In 1978 the committee published its report, concluding that: "The formal claim that Ulrike Meinhof committed suicide by hanging is unfounded, given the fact that the investigation results reasonably converge to the conclusion that she could not hang herself. Most probably Ulrike Meinhof was already dead before she was hanged and there are warning signs indicating the involvement of a third party regarding her death."

Tuesday 9th of May 1978

Italian Christian Democratic politician Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro is murdered by the Red Brigades at the age of 62 in Via Michelangelo Caetani, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Moro's body was left in the trunk of a red Renault 4.

Tuesday 9th of May 1978

9/11 terrorist Marwan al-Shehhi is born in Ras Al Khaimah, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.

al-Shehhi was the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175 crashing the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks. al-Shehhi was the youngest hijacker-pilot to participate in the attacks.

Wednesday 9th of May 1979

Graduate student John Harris is injured when he opens a box left by 37-year-old Mathematician and serial bomber Theodore John 'Ted' Kaczynski aka The Unabomber in Northwestern University Technological Institute, Evanston, Illinois, United States.

Harris suffered minor cuts and burns. Bomb #2 consisted of a cigar box and a pipe bomb triggered by a battery-operated filament that ignited explosive powders. The package contained a number of small finger-sized pieces of wood glued to its outer container.

Saturday 9th of May 1981

30-year-old Irish republican hunger striker Joe Joseph McDonnel starts hungerstriking in Maze Prison, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

McDonnel went 61 days without food before dying on 8 July 1981.

Sunday 9th of May 1982

17-year-old Regina Spielman is stabbed to death by serial killer Michael Wolpert aka Der Neu-Isenburger Frauenmörder in Dietzenbach, Hessen, Germany.

Sunday 9th of May 1982

26-year-old Serial killer David Edwin Mason garottes his cellmate Boyd Johnson to death with a towel in Alameda County Santa Rita Jail, 5325 Broder Blvd, Dublin, California, United States.

Monday 9th of May 1983

The body of 21-year-old Victim of Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer Daniel Scott McNieve is found in Clayton, Indiana, United States.

Monday 9th of May 1983

18-year-old Jimmy Roberts is beaten and stabbed to death by serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Friday 9th of May 1986

19-year-old Laurent Bureau is raped and beaten to death by serial killer Francis Heaulme aka The Emmaus Murderer aka Le Routard du Crime in Périgueux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.

Friday 9th of May 1986

Pierre Carette, Bernard Sassoye, Didier Chevolet and Pascale Vandegeerde of Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC start hungerstriking in the prisons of St. Gillis and Vorst in Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

Friday 9th of May 1986

Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 72 in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.

Saturday 9th of May 1987

183 die in LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 Ilyushin Il-62M 'Tadeusz Kościuszko' crash in Rezerwat przyrody Las Kabacki im. Stefana Starzyńskiego, Warszawa, Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland.

The last words inside the cockpit recorded by the CVR at 11:12:13 were: "Dobranoc! Do widzenia! Cześć, giniemy!" (Good night! Goodbye! Bye, we're dying!).

Wednesday 9th of May 1990

34 Jewish graves are destroyed, and the freshly buried body of 81-year-old Félix Germon is mutilated with a spear thrust through the chest and rectum by a so-called neo-Nazi commando in Cimetière Juif, Place Maurice Charretier, Carpentras, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

On 24 April 1997 four skinheads were sentenced between 20 months and two years imprisonment.

Friday 9th of May 1997

45-year-old William R. Reese is shot dead by serial killer Andrew Cunanan aka American Gigolo/American Psycho in Finn’s Point National Cemetary, Pennsville, New Jersey, United States.

Friday 9th of May 1997

76-year-old Sam Samuel Joseph Arcuri and his 69-year-old wife Luella Babin is bludgeoned to death by serial killer Daniel Blank aka The Parish River Killer in LaPlace, Louisiana, United States.

Tuesday 9th of May 2000

Rapist and murderer William Joseph Kitchens aka Red is executed by lethal injection at the age of 37 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 9th of May 2001

127 die in Accra Hearts of Oak (The Phobians) Sporting Club and the Asante Kotoko (Porcupine Warriors) Sporting Club football game stampede in Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana.

Accra scored two late goals, and a referee called 2–1 Accra, resulting in disappointed Kotoko fans throwing plastic seats and bottles onto the pitch. The police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd.

Thursday 9th of May 2002

Rapist and murderer Reginald Lenard Reeves is executed by lethal injection at the age of 28 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Reeves' final meal request was for four pieces of fried chicken and two Cokes.

Thursday 9th of May 2002

A plot forbidden for flying objects in Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Wednesday 9th of May 2007

Cop killer Philip Ray Workman is executed by lethal injection at the age of 54 in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

Workman's last meal request was a large vegetarian pizza to be given to a homeless person. The prison officials denied his request and Workman refused to eat anything.  

Wednesday 9th of May 2012

Hair stylist Vidal Sassoon dies of leukemia at the age of 84 in Los Angeles, Bel Air, California, United States.

Saturday 9th of May 2020

Musician Little Richard dies of bone cancer at the age of 88 in Tullahoma, Tennessee, United States.

Thursday 9th of May 2024

Film director Roger William Corman aka The Pope of Pop Cinema dies of natural causes at the age of 98 in Santa Monica, California, United States.