| 9 May 1573 | France, Poland-Lithuania [political events] | The Polish Sejm (parliament) elects Henry, Duke of Anjou, as king of Poland. He is obliged by the Sejm to sign the ‘Henrician Articles’; he promises to convoke the Sejm every other year, to take regular counsel with senators, and to seek their permission for marriage or war. He must also agree the religious tolerance granted by the Compact of Warsaw of 28 January. Henry was forced to accept these articles (named after him) because parliament was concerned about having a foreigner on the throne. |
| 9 May 1593 | Korea, China, Ming Empire, Japan [wars] | The Chinese-Japanese war in Choson (Korea) having reached stalemate in bitter fighting outside the Choson capital Seoul, Shen Weijing, the Chinese emissary, and Konishi Yukinaga, the Japanese commander, agree a ceasefire; the Japanese are to evacuate Seoul but retain a bridgehead at Pusan. |
| 9 May 1688 | Brandenburg, Holy Roman Empire, Germany, Prussia [administration] | Frederick III succeeds as Elector of Brandenburg on the death of Frederick William, the Great Elector. He becomes King Frederick I of Prussia in 1701. |
| 9 May 1805 | Germany [births and deaths] | Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, German dramatist and poet, dies in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar (45). |
| 9 May–18 June 1915 | France [World War I (1914–18)] | At the Second Battle of Artois in France, the French armies under General Henri Pétain push forward in northeastern France, but gain little ground in spite of diversionary British attacks. |
| 9 May 1919 | Belgium [suffrage] | Universal suffrage is granted in Belgium. |
| 9 May 1936 | Italy, Ethiopia [wars] | Italy formally annexes Ethiopia (Abyssinia), having occupied the capital, Addis Ababa, on 5 May. |
| 9 May 1949 | England [everyday life] | The first self-service launderette in Britain opens in London, England, with Bendix Home Appliances Ltd supplying the fully automatic washing machines. |
| 9 May 1950 | France, West Germany [diplomacy] | The Schuman Plan is announced in France for the creation of a single authority to control the production of steel and coal in France and West Germany, with membership then opened to other countries. |
| 9 May 1955 | West Germany [international organizations] | West Germany is admitted as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). |
| 9 May 1986 | Nepal [births and deaths] | Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa who, with Edmund Hillary, was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, dies in Darjeeling, India (72). |
| 9 May 1994 | Armenia, Azerbaijan [political events] | A ceasefire is established in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan), with the support of an international peace-keeping force. |
