TODAY IN HISTORY - DECEMBER 9TH

1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.

1835 – Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio, Texas.

1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal.

1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of a U.S. state.

1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is founded.

1883 – Joseph Pilates, German-American fitness expert, developed Pilates (d. 1967) is born.

1909 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American captain, actor, and producer (d. 2000) is born.

1911 – A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.

1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded for the first time. The winner is halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.

1942 – Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame member of the Chicago Bears football team, sportscaster, and actor is born

1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.

1957 – Donny Osmond, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor is born.

1958 – The John Birch Society is founded in the United States.

1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.

1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.

1965 – Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined the object.

1965 – A Charlie Brown Christmas, first in a series of Peanuts television specials, debuts on CBS.

1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.

2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

2012 – Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor, co-created the bar code (b. 1921) dies.