December 9: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

Google unveiled a quantum chip that completes 33.3 trillion years of calculations in 1 nanosecond.

Willow, as the new chip was named, is one of the largest technological breakthroughs of 2024, with scientists unable to call it anything other than "mindboggling."

Over 40 camels were disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival’s beauty pageant.

With a $66 million cash prize, it's no wonder people are tempted to skew the odds in their camel's favor. Sixteen camels were cut from the contest for having botox injections, with another twenty-seven disqualified for having stretched-out body parts.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, premiered in Los Angeles.

The CIA Torture Report was released.

This report detailed the CIA's use of torture on detainees between 2001 and 2006. This report was over 6,700 pages long, describing the history of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.

Brokeback Mountain film was released, directed by Ang Lee, and based on the story by Annie Proulx.

US Marines landed in Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope in order to secure the trade routes to deliver food to the people.

The first Women’s Pro Basketball League (WBL) game took place, with the Chicago Hustle vs. the Milwaukee Does.

Jim Morrison was arrested on stage.

After an undisclosed incident between Morrison and a police officer prior to the show, Morrison became the first rock stock ever taken into custody in the middle of a performance. He was dragged off stage and charged with obscenity and incitement to riot.

A giant ball of fire was seen arching across the sky from Michigan to Pennsylvania.

The Kecksburg UFO incident was seen in six US states, as well as in Ontario, Canada. Witnesses reported sonic booms, pieces of metal debris, and grass fires before the object crash-landed near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. NASA announced in 2005 that the object was really just a Soviet satellite that failed to stay in orbit.

The first Domino’s Pizza opened in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The French parliament passed a law that fully separated all activities of the church and the state.

There were three main principles behind the new law: it allowed greater freedom of religion, it forced the state to remain more neutral, and it took less power away from the church.

US President Benjamin Harrison dedicated the Chicago Auditorium which was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.

At the time, it was the largest building in the US.

The first traffic lights were installed in London.

J P Knight's invention was located outside the Palace of Westminster. These original traffic lights used semaphore arms and were illuminated at night using red and green gas lamps.

Alfred Tennyson’s poem “Charge of the Light Brigade” was published in “The Examiner.”

North America’s first YMCA was established in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Juan Diego saw the Virgin of Guadalupe, an apparition of the Virgin Mary, for the first time in Tepeyac, Mexico City.