This Day In History : April 9

1959 United States

NASA Names First 7 Astronauts for Project Mercury

On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced the world to its first astronauts selected for Project Mercury. Known as the "Mercury Seven," these astronauts were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. Their mission was to pioneer human spaceflight for the United States.

Also on This Day in History April 9

Discover what happened on April 9 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries,
famous births and notable deaths.

Births on This Day, April 9
  • 1864 Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti

    English electrical engineer who promoted the installation of large electrical generating stations and alternating current distribution networks in England.

  • 1816 Charles-Eugène Delaunay

    French mathematician and astronomer whose theory of lunar motion advanced the development of planetary-motion theories.

  • 1815 Alphonse(-Eugène) Beau de Rochas

    French railway engineer who originated the theoretical principle of the four-stroke internal-combustion engine and provide a theoretical pressure diagram (1862).

  • 1919 J. Presper Eckert Jr.

    American engineer and inventor of the first general-purpose electronic computer, a digital machine that was the prototype for most computers in use today.

  • 1869 Élie-Joseph Cartan

    French mathematician who greatly developed the theory of Lie groups and contributed to the theory of subalgebras.

Deaths on This Day, April 9
  • 1850 William Prout

    English biochemist and physiologist who is noted for his discoveries concerning digestion, metabolic chemistry, and atomic weights.

  • 1922 Patrick Manson

    Scottish physician and parasitologist who has been called the “father of tropical medicine.” He was the first to identify an insect for the spread of infection (1877-79).

  • 1934 Oskar von Miller

    German electrical engineer who fostered the electric-power industry in Germany and founded the Deutsches Museum of science and technology in Munich.

  • 1889 Michel-Eugène Chevreul

    French chemist who began the study of the chemistry of fats. He discovered fatty acids, which led to a great improvement in the quality of stearin candles and in the fats used to make soaps.

  • 1626 Francis Bacon

    English philosopher remembered for his influence promoting a scientific method.

1895

Saturn's rings

In 1895, a spectrogram made by American astronomer James Keeler proved that the rings of Saturn were indeed composed of meteoric particles, as predicted by James Maxwell.
1969

First flight of British Concorde prototype 002

In 1969, the British Concorde prototype 002 left Filton airport, Bristol, on its first flight with test pilot Brian Trubshaw at the controls.
1860

World's First Recording of the Human Voice Created

On April 9, 1860, the world's first recording of the human voice was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Using his phonautograph, he recorded a snippet of the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune." This groundbreaking achievement paved the way for the development of sound recording technology.
1994

STS-59 (Endeavour) Launches into Orbit

On April 9, 1994, NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on mission STS-59. The mission focused on the Space Radar Laboratory, aiming to study Earth’s environment using radar imaging. The seven-member crew conducted experiments over an 11-day mission, providing valuable data on the planet's surface and atmosphere.
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