February 9th Major News Events

1979 UK Football Transfer Record Over a Million

1979 : England forward Trevor Francis signs for Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest side in Britain's first £1m transfer deal.

1981 U.S.A. Bill Haley

1981 : Bill Haley dies at age 56 he brought the existing genre of rock and roll into the spotlight with his chart-topping single "Rock Around the Clock," in 1955, you can find more information and other music on our 1950s Music Page

9 Feb, 1996 Kasparov

1996 : The legendary Russian Chess Grandmaster Kasparov loses his first chess game ever to IBM's chess computer Deep Blue. He did go on to gain three wins and two draws and easily wins the match.

2001 USS Greenville

2001 : An American submarine (USS Greenville) accidentally struck a Japanese fishing boat and nine lives were lost. This event took place off the coast of Hawaii in Pearl Harbor.

2002 UK Princess Margaret

2002 : Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died at age 71 after suffering a massive stroke.

2008 Pakistan Political Unrest

2008 : The political unrest in Pakistan continues following the murder of Benazir Bhutto and the detention of the deposed chief justice. An estimated 100,000 supporters of Benazir Bhutto turned out for her party's first major election rally since her assassination. Meanwhile in the capital of Islamabad riot police used water cannons and tear gas on protesters over the detention of the deposed chief justice. Also at a political gathering Saturday in northwestern Pakistan, a bomb is detonated killing at least 25 people.

2008 Turkey Eases the Use of Headscarves

2008 : Turkey's parliament has approved the two constitutional amendments that will ease the ban on women wearing Islamic headscarves in universities. This has been a divisive issue in Turkey, where the state is supposed to be secular. The government has said that the ban would mean that many girls were denied an education, but the secular establishment see this as a first step to allowing a more prominent Islamic influence on the state. This has been the final vote on it, in which lawmakers voted 411-103 in favour of the constitutional amendments that will allow equal treatment from state institutions and 'no one can be deprived of (his or her) right to higher education.'

2009 Thirty Mummies Discovered at Saqqara

2009 : A storehouse of thirty Egyptian mummies has been unearthed inside a 2,600-year-old tomb. These have been found in the excavation of the necropolis at Saqqara outside Cairo. The tomb was discovered at the bottom of a 36-foot-deep shaft, announced the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The ancient warehouse dates back to around 640 B.C. and the 26th dynasty, which was Egypt's last independent kingdom before it was overthrown by a succession of foreign conquerors, beginning with the Persians and ending with the Ptolemies.

2009 Cyber-Security Review Ordered

2009 : The Obama administration has ordered an inter-agency review of the government's cyber-security efforts. The sixty-day examination will be headed by Melissa Hathaway, who was the Cyber-coordination Executive to the Director of National Intelligence. The review is set to last sixty days and takes in all the plans, programs and activities of other official U.S. cyber- security research. It is hoped that this will result in a strategy to improve the way in which the U.S. defends itself against net-borne threats.

2011 Islamic University Damaged by Bomb

2011 : The Islamic University of Afghanistan in Jalalabad was damaged by a bomb blast. The University founded by Westerner, John Butt, had received threats previously. Authorities believed that the attack was carried out by the Taliban. There were no injuries caused by the blast.

2012 Arrest Warrant Issued for Former Maldives President

2012 : An arrest warrant has been issued in the Maldives for the former president Mohamed Nasheed. Nasheed resigned a few days earlier amid protests, but claims that he was forced to resign in a coup.

2013 Knights of Malta Celebrate Anniversary

2013 : The Knights of Malta, a Catholic church military order, celebrated their 900 year anniversary in Rome. The order was created during the middle ages and is one of only few still operating.

2014 Legal Rights Extended for Same-Sex Couples

2014 : The United States Attorney General Eric Holder stated in a speech the the Justice Department was going to make a greater effort to extend rights to same-sex partners. Some of the rights to be extended included being able to make visits at federal prisons and the right not to testify against a spouse in court.