On May 9, 1712, the Carolina Territory was divided and became North & South Carolina. 

Image: Map view of North & South Carolina from a travel journal c. 1712 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Ben Franklin’s political cartoon “Join, Or Die” was first published on May 9, 1754.

While Franklin’s depiction of a snake divided into parts representing the American colonies was widely circulated during the American Revolution, its debut occurred during the French and Indian War.  

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain 

Confederate spy Belle Boyd was born on May 9, 1844 in Martinsburg, Virginia (present day West Virginia.)

On one occasion she hid in a closet at a hotel to overhear and gather Union intelligence. 

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

When Bob Dalton posed for this studio portrait on May 9, 1889 he’d been a US Deputy Marshal and had organized a police force in Oklahoma’s Osage Nation. Within a year Bob, along with brothers Emmett and Grat began robbing trains and banks, culminating on the ill-fated 1892 raid on two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US

American abolitionist John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, CT.

Brown before his execution: “This is a beautiful country.”

Image via Library of Congress, no known restrictions 

Launch of the USS Robalo submarine at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin on May 9, 1943.

The USS Robalo was floated down the Mississippi, sailed out of the Gulf of Mexico and did three patrols in the Pacific during WWII. She was awarded two battle stars.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain 

On today’s date May 9, 1958 Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo premiered in San Francisco. 

Image: Publicity photo of Alfred Hitchcock & Kim Novak on the set of Vertigo in 1958 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The man who created the Wonder Woman character, William Moulton Marston, was born on May 9, 1893 in Saugus, Massachusetts.

He also invented an early version of the lie detector.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On May 9, 1864, Union General John Sedgwick was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Cresco, PA-Seguines Souvenir Store next to loading platform

Sign on the front of the building below the store’s name says:
Confectionery, Ice Cream, Soda Water 

There is also a small Post Office inside. 

May 9, 1917

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Publicity photo of Mike Wallace and Buff Cobb, who were husband and wife at the time, for one of TV’s first talk show programs, “Mike and Buff.”

Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes correspondent for nearly 4
decades, was born on May 9, 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts. 

Image c. 1951 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Richard E. Byrd with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1930. 

Four years earlier, Richard E. Byrd with fellow aviator Floyd Bennett, claimed that they flew over the North Pole (the first to do so) on May 9, 1926.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

During his visit to the United States, Albert Einstein received an honorary degree from Princeton University on May 9, 1921.

When he returned in 1933, he joined the newly established Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, becoming one of its most prestigious scholars. He later settled in Princeton permanently in 1935.

Image of Einstein in 1921 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.