What Happened on October 9?

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• Guerrilla leader Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army. (1967) Guevara was a Marxist revolutionary who became well-known for helping Fidel Castro rise to power in Cuba. He was in Bolivia attempting to start a revolution. His death resulted in a sort of martyrdom and hero-worship for revolutionary movements in the Third World.


• North Korea claimed it tested its first nuclear weapon. (2006) North Korea was the first country to give warning of a nuclear test, and the subsequent explosion brought questions regarding its legitimacy. There was some radioactive fallout, but the explosion was unusually small. Some suspect it may have been a misfire, but the shroud of secrecy surrounding the test prevented other countries from confirming one way or the other.


• German troops seized Antwerp, Belgium, in World War I. (1914) The "Siege of Antwerp" was one of the first major military actions of World War I. The attack sent more than one million soldiers and civilians fleeing to the Netherlands, many of whom never returned to Belgium.


• NASA's robotic spacecrafts LCROSS and Centaur landed on the moon. (2009) The two spacecrafts were part of the "Lunar Precursor Robotic Program" (LPRP), which is aimed at establishing regular human travel to the moon in the future.


• Yale University was founded. (1701) The Collegiate School of Connecticut was charted on this day and became Yale College in 1718, when it was renamed to honor school benefactor Elihu Yale. Yale houses the world's second-largest academic library and is the third-oldest university in the US.


• Google bought YouTube Inc. (2006) YouTube was acquired through a $1.65 billion US Dollar stock purchase.


• A worldwide postal system was created. (1874) Over 20 nations signed the Treaty of Bern which created the General Postal Union. This international postal body was established to organize and regulate the free exchange of international mail.


• A woman piloted a plane round-trip across the US for the fist time. (1930) Aviator Laura Ingalls flew from New York to California and back. Ingalls set many aviation records, including the longest female solo flight. She was the first of any gender to fly around South American solo.


• The last supernova that was observable in this galaxy occurred. (1604) Supernova 1604, or Kepler's Supernova, was observed in the Milky Way. A supernova is a powerful explosion of a star. It generates energy equal to what the Sun will generate in its entire existence and can be more than a billion times brighter.


• The SR-71 Mach 3+ aircraft flew for the last time. (1999) The SR-71, or Blackbird, was an aircraft developed for reconnaissance missions for NASA and the US Air Force. In 1976, it set a record for the fastest manned airspeed at 2,193.2 miles per hour (about 3,529.6 kilometers per hour), which it continued to hold in 2010.