April 9th Major News Events

1959 America's First Astronauts

1959 : NASA the National Aeronautics and Space Administration introduces America's first astronauts to the world, Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr., and Donald Slayton to take part in Project Mercury, America's first manned space program.

1969 UK Race Relations

1969 : As race relations continue to worsen in Britain a group of cConductors and drivers on Wolverhampton buses who are practicing Sikhs have won the right to wear turbans on duty after the leader of a Sikh group, Sohan Singh Jolly, had threatened to burn himself to death in protest.

1984 UK Miners Strike

1984 : Violence at picket lines during the Miners Strikes in the coal industry leads to 100's of picketers arrested during violent clashes with police outside two working coal pits in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

1986 France Renault

1986 : The French government ruled against the privatization of leading French car maker Renault but did agree to shares in the car maker to the public.

1992 U.S.A. Manuel Noriega

1992 : Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami of drug and racketeering charges.

1999 Ibrahim Bare Mainassara

1999 : The president of Niger, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, has been assassinated in an apparent coup attempt.

2001 American Airlines Gets Bankrupt TWA

2001 : Trans World Airlines established in 1930 filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 as part of the deal for American Airlines to acquire Trans World Airlines making American Airlines the No. 1 carrier in the United States.

2008 Olympic Torch Relay Protests

2008 : Olympic Torch Relay arrives in San Francisco, California where once again large numbers of protesters disrupt the progress of the torch and force a change in it's route.

2009 U.S. 'Black Sites' closed

2009 : The U.S. has stopped running its global network of secret prisons, according to the C.I.A. Director Leon Panetta. "C.I.A. no longer operates detention facilities or black sites," he has written. He went on to say that the any remaining sites would be decommissioned. The 'black sites' have been used to detain terrorism suspects, and were used to subject them to 'torturous' interrogation methods. Obama had vowed to shut down the facilities shortly after taking office.

2010 Iran reveals its ‘third generation’ centrifuges

2010 : Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taunted the United States for trying to halt Iran's nuclear program, and showcased an improved centrifuge, which officials say will enrich uranium six times faster than the existing models. Barack Obama, who has been trying to get tougher U.N. sanctions on Tehran, has said that sustained world pressure would prompt Iran to revise its nuclear calculations. Ahmadinejad, in a speech to mark Iran's National Nuclear Day, has called this week's U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction treaty "a masquerade" which was hiding their true intentions. "We consider nuclear weapons to be against humanity," he said.

2011 US Congress Agrees on Budget Deal

2011 : The United States Congress narrowly escaped a government shut down when the Democrats and Republicans were able to reach a temporary deal on the budget. The deal was reached only one hour before the deadline, after which the government would have had to shut down many non-essential services. Congress agreed on a stop-gap budget which would allow them to work on the larger budget while the government could continue to run.

2012 Somalia Bombing in Market Kills Twelve

2012 : Twelve people died and another thirty were injured after a bomb exploded in a busy market in the town of Baidoa in Somalia. The Islamist group al-Shabab stated that its military operations were behind the blast and that they had been targeting Ethiopian and Somali troops. The governor of the area stated the most of the dead were made up of women and children.

2014 School Stabbing in Pennsylvania

2014 : A sixteen year old suspect went into a school near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with two knives and stabbed twenty-two people. While there were several injuries, there were no reported deaths and all the victims were expected to survive the attack. The suspect was later charged with twenty-one counts of assault and four counts of attempted homicide.