Today in News History

On July 9, several notable moments in the history of News stand out. In 551, A major earthquake strikes Beirut, triggering a devastating tsunami that affects the coastal towns of Byzantine Phoenicia, causing thousands of deaths. In 869, The 8.4-9.0 Mw Sanriku earthquake strikes the area around Sendai in northern Honshu, Japan. Inundation from the tsunami extended several kilometers inland. In 1918, In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101 and injuring 171 people, making it the deadliest rail accident in United States history. In 1958, A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay; five people were killed. In 1979, A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld outside their home in France in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. In 1982, Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground. In 1997, A Fokker 100 from the Brazilian airline TAM launches engineer Fernando Caldeira de Moura Campos into 2,400 meters of free fall after an explosion that depressurized the aircraft. In 1999, Days of student protests begin after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory at the University of Tehran. In 2006, One hundred and twenty-five people are killed when S7 Airlines Flight 778, an Airbus A310 passenger jet, veers off the runway while landing in wet conditions at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia. In 2011, A rally takes place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to call for fairer elections in the country. Together, these milestones provide historical context for today's news news and ongoing narratives.