What happened in 1909

15 entries recorded for 1909, listed by date. That was 117 years ago.

1909 at a glance

January 4
Aeneas Mackintosh
Historical event
British explorer Aeneas Mackintosh, a member of the Nimrod Expedition, escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
January 19
Deed
Historical event
A deed was recorded for David Hanbury to sell Island No. 2 in northern California to his brother John for $10 ($358.33 in .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}2025).
January 23
Tottenham Outrage
Historical event
Two men committed an armed robbery in Tottenham, London, and led police on a two-hour chase, partially by tram, that ended in the perpetrators' suicides.

February 5
Leo Baekeland
Historical event
Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite (production device pictured), the world's first synthetic plastic.
February 12
SS Penguin
Historical event
The ferry SS Penguin struck a rock in Wellington Harbour and sank, killing 75 people in New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century.
February 22
United States Navy
Historical event
The sixteen United States Navy battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by Connecticut (pictured), completed a circumnavigation of the globe.

April 14
31 March incident
Historical event
Following a reactionary military revolt against the Committee of Union and Progress, a mob began a massacre of Armenian Christians in the Adana Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.

May 13
1909 Giro d'Italia
Historical event
The inaugural edition of the Giro d'Italia, a long-distance multiple-stage bicycle race, began in Milan; the Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the eventual winner.

August 7
Alice Huyler Ramsey
Historical event
Fifty-nine days after leaving New York City with three passengers, Alice Huyler Ramsey arrived in San Francisco to become the first woman to drive an automobile across the contiguous United States.
August 15
Goudi coup
Historical event
A military coup against the government of Dimitrios Rallis began in the neighbourhood of Goudi in Athens, Greece.
August 20
Pluto
Historical event
Pluto (pictured) was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
August 28
1909 Monterrey hurricane
Historical event
The 1909 Monterrey hurricane dissipated; one of the deadliest Atlantic tropical cyclones on record, it killed an estimated 4,000 people throughout Mexico.

December 4
1st Grey Cup
Historical event
The first Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, was held in Toronto.
December 4
Montreal Canadiens
Historical event
The Montreal Canadiens, the oldest professional ice hockey club in the world, were founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.
December 31
Manhattan Bridge
Historical event
The Manhattan Bridge, connecting Lower Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn and considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges, opened to traffic.

This site records 15 entries for 1909, including Aeneas Mackintosh on January 4. They are listed below by date.

117 years ago, counting from 2026. Anyone born in 1909 turns 117 this year.

1909 falls in the 20th century, in the 1900s.

Greatest Generation (1901–1927). Grew up in the Depression and fought in the Second World War.

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