This day in history

9 February

Events

• 1598:  The English Parliament is dissolved, having enacted a Poor Law statute whose basic tenets are followed until 1834. Parish tithes for the relief of destitution through the institution of workhouses and the appointment of Guardians of the Poor complement regularized punishments for undeserving so-called Sturdy Beggars.
• 1621:  Alessandro Ludovisi, cardinal of Bologna, is elected Pope Gregory XV, following the death of Pope Paul V on 28 January.
• 1670:  Following his death of Frederick III, Christian V succeeds his father as king of Denmark.
• 1674:  Owing to parliamentary pressure, King Charles II of England is forced to negotiate the Treaty of Westminster, thereby bringing the third Anglo-Dutch war to an end. The Dutch accept the British right of salute in the Channel and agree to pay a small indemnity. New York City is returned to Britain but the Dutch monopoly of trade in the East Indies is preserved.
• 1788:  The Habsburg monarch and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
• 1801:  The Treaty of Lunville, following the French defeat of Austria in Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign of 180001, marks the virtual destruction of the Holy Roman Empire. France gains all territory west of the Rhine, including Belgium and Luxembourg. The grand duchy of Tuscany is ceded to the duchy of Parma to form the new kingdom of Etruria, and recognition is given to the Batavian, Cisalpine, Helvetian, and Ligurian republics.
• 1849:  The Papal States in Italy are proclaimed a republic (the Roman Republic) under the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini.
• 1934:  Greece, Turkey, Romania, and Yugoslavia form the Balkan Entente as a counterpart to the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia), with the aim of preventing attack by another Balkan state.
• 1996:  The Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on the Isle of Dogs, east London, England, breaking its ceasefire which has been in force since August 1994; two people die.
• 1998:  US scientist David Ho reports the discovery of the HIV virus in a 1959 blood sample and suggests that the transfer from ape to human occurred in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
• 2001:  The horror film Hannibal is released in the USA, directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, and Gary Oldman.
• 2002:  In the final of UK television's hit talent show Pop Idol, Will Young beats Gareth Gates with 53% of the 8.7 million telephone votes cast.
• 2002:  The exhibition Van Gogh and Gauguin The Studio of the South opens at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• 2005:  The Brit Awards for popular music are held in London, England. Best British Group: Franz Ferdinand; Best British Album: Hopes and Fears by Keane; Best British Single: Your Game by Will Young; Best British Male Solo Artist: The Streets; Best British Female Solo Artist: Joss Stone; Best British Breakthrough Act: Keane; Best International Male Solo Artist: Eminem; Best International Female Solo Artist: Gwen Stefani; Best International Group: Scissor Sisters; Best International Breakthrough Artist: Scissor Sisters ; Best International Album: Scissor Sisters by Scissor Sisters; Outstanding Contribution: Bob Geldof.

Births and Deaths

• Nevil Maskelyne
  1811: Nevil Maskelyne, English astronomer who developed a method of determining longitude by observing the Moon, and published The British Mariner's Guide (1763) and the Nautical Almanac (1766), dies in Greenwich, London, England (78).
• Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
  1881: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist best known for Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (187980), dies in St Petersburg, Russia (59).

Data provided by Helicon Publishing