1909

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s - 1900s - 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s

Years: 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 - 1909 - 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914

• January 5 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama
• January 16 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole
• January 28 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War
• February 12 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded
• February 24 - The Hudson Motor Car Company[?] is founded
• March 18 - Einar Dessau[?] uses a short-wave radio[?] transmitter becoming the first to broadcast as a ham radio operator.
• March 23 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
• March 31 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• April 6 - Robert Peary allegedly reaches the North Pole
• April 27 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Murat V.
• July 25 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft

• Change of US president from Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) to William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
• Albert I of Belgium succeeds Leopold II.
• Foundation of the Boy Scouts of America

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1909 in film
  • Thomas Edison formed the Motion Picture Patents Company[?]
• 1909 in literature
• 1909 in music
• 1909 in sports

Births:

• January 1 - Barry Goldwater, American politician
• January 3 - Victor Borge, Danish entertainer
• January 5 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician
• January 8 - Willy Millowitsch[?], actor (+ 1999)
• January 15 - Gene Krupa, drummer (+ 1973)
• January 16 - Ethel Merman, singer, actress (+ 1984)
• January 22 - U Thant[?], 3rd United Nations Secretary General (+ 1974)
• January 22 - Ann Sothern[?], actress (+ 2001)
• February 3 - Simone Weil, philosopher (+ 1943)
• February 9 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (+ 1994)
• February 9 - Carmen Miranda, actress, singer (+ 195)
• February 11 - Joseph Mankiewicz[?]
• February 11 - Max Baer[?] (The Livermore Larruper), American boxer/actor
• February 15 - Guillermo Gorostiza Paredes, Spanish football player
• February 15 - Miep Gies[?], Anne Frank friend, biographer
• February 24 - August Derleth, American writer
• March 1 - David Niven, actor (+ 1983)
• March 2 - Mel Ott[?], Baseball Hall of Famer
• March 4 - Harry Helmsley[?], real estate entrepreneur (+ 1997)
• March 19 - Louis Hayward[?], actor (+ 1985)
• March 22 - Gabrielle Roy, author (+ 1983)
• March 27 - Golo Mann[?], historian and publicist (+ 1994)
• April 13 - Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, Polish/American mathematician
• April 30 - Juliana of the Netherlands
• May 7 - Edwin H. Land, inventor and founder of Polaroid
• May 10 - Mother Maybelle Carter[?], country musician
• May 15 - James Mason, British actor
• May 19 - Bruce Bennett[?], actor
• May 30 - Benny Goodman, American jazz musician
• June 20 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor
• July 28 - Malcolm Lowry, British novelist
• July 30 - C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and author
• August 25 - Ruby Keeler, singer, actress (+ 1993)
• September 14 - Peter Scott, British painter
• September 21 - Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanian politician
• September 28 - Al Capp, American cartoonist
• October 28 - Francis Bacon, British painter
• November 18 - Johnny Mercer, American songwriter
• November 24 - Gerhard Gentzen, German mathematician
• Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian
• Giulio Racah, Italian mathematician and physicist
• Mohammed Daoud Khan, Afghan president

Deaths:

• January 14 - Arthur William a Beckett, British journalist
• April 12 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, British poet
• May 19 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer
• August 27 - Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist
• December 17 - Leopold II of Belgium

Nobel Prizes:

• Physics - Guglielmo Marconi, Carl Ferdinand Braun[?]
• Chemistry - Wilhelm Ostwald
• Medicine - Emil Theodor Kocher
• Literature - Selma Lagerlöf[?]
• Peace - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert[?] and Paul Henribenjamin Balluet D'estournelles De Constant, Baron De Constant De Rebecque[?]