September 9 Through History

Explanation: On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress officially adopted the name 'United States of America' to designate the former colonies. This name change symbolized the final break with the British Crown, one month after the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776.

Explanation: L'Avare, inspired by the play Aulularia by the Latin playwright Plautus, features Harpagon, an obsessive miser. The play was initially given a lukewarm reception by Parisian audiences, but today it is one of the most performed comedies in the world.

Explanation: Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, cardinal and Prime Minister of Louis XIII, was born on that day. An architect of the centralization of royal power in France, he also founded the Académie française in 1635 and played a decisive role in the Thirty Years' War to weaken the Habsburgs.

Explanation: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed on September 9, 1948, under the leadership of Kim Il-sung, backed by the USSR. This proclamation came a few weeks after that of the Republic of South Korea on August 15, 1948, cementing the division of the Korean peninsula.

Explanation: The Berne Convention is the first international treaty on copyright. It establishes the principle that an author's works are automatically protected in all signatory countries without the need for prior registration. It now has more than 180 member countries.

Explanation: Amalthea was discovered by American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard at Lick Observatory in California. It is the first satellite of Jupiter to have been discovered after the four great Galilean moons observed in 1610. Amalthea is red in color, probably due to the presence of sulfur.

Explanation: The Stono Rebellion was led by an enslaved man of African origin named Jemmy. During this uprising, around 80 enslaved people marched toward Spanish Florida hoping for freedom, but it was quickly crushed. It led to the adoption of an even harsher slave code in South Carolina.

Explanation: Leo Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula governorate. Besides 'War and Peace' (1869), he wrote 'Anna Karenina' (1878) and developed a distinctive moral and religious philosophy, Tolstoyism, advocating non-violence and influencing Mahatma Gandhi, among others.

Explanation: La Rochelle, driven by its mayor Michel Crépeau, launched this pioneering initiative in sustainable urban mobility. The idea has since been adopted at the national and European level, giving birth each year to the World Car-Free Day on September 22.

Explanation: Viking 2 was the 2nd American Mars probe of the Viking program. It landed on Mars on September 3, 1976, in the Utopia Planitia plain. Together with its twin Viking 1, it carried out the first chemical analyses of Martian soil in search of traces of life, with no conclusive results.