By: HISTORY.com Editors

1942

Japanese bomb U.S. mainland

Published: November 16, 2009Last Updated: May 27, 2025

On September 9, 1942, a Japanese floatplane drops incendiary bombs on an Oregon state forest—the first air attack on the U.S. mainland in the war.

Launching from the Japanese sub I-25, Nobuo Fujita piloted his light aircraft over the state of Oregon and firebombed Mount Emily, alighting a state forest. The president immediately called for a news blackout for the sake of morale. No long-term damage was done, and Fujita eventually went home to train navy pilots for the rest of the war.

When Japan Launched Killer Balloons in World War II

Japan’s bizarre WWII plan to bomb the continental U.S. by high-altitude balloons claimed its first and only victims—an Oregon church group in 1945.

By: Christopher Klein

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on September 9th

1776

Congress renames the nation “United States of America”

On September 9, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declares the name of the new nation to be the “United States” of America. This replaced the term “United Colonies,” which had been in general use. In the Congressional declaration dated September 9, 1776, the delegates wrote, “That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, […]

1850

California becomes the 31st state in record time

Though it had only been a part of the United States for less than two years, California becomes the 31st state in the union (without ever even having been a territory) on September 9, 1850. Mexico had reluctantly ceded California and much of its northern territory to the United States in the 1848 Treaty of […]

1:40m read

1893

President Cleveland’s child is born in the White House

Frances Folsom Cleveland, the wife of President Grover Cleveland, gives birth to a daughter, Esther, in the White House. On June 2, 1886, in an intimate ceremony held in the Blue Room of the White House, President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom, the daughter of Cleveland’s late law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom. Fewer than […]

1:58m read

1919

The Boston police department goes on strike

The infamous Boston Police Strike of 1919 begins, causing an uproar around the nation and confirming the growing influence of unions on American life. As society changed in the 20th century, police were expected to act more professionally. Some of their previous practices were no longer countenanced. Explanations such as that later given by the […]

1:28m read

1939

Audiences are shown a surprise preview of “Gone with the Wind”

Audiences at the Fox Theater in Riverside, California, get a surprise showing of Gone with the Wind, which the theater manager shows as a second feature. Producer David O. Selznick sat in the back and observed the audience reaction to his highly anticipated—and highly controversial—film. The movie was released a few months later. In the […]

1:48m read

1956

Elvis Presley makes first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”

Elvis Presley appears for the first time on the popular "Ed Sullivan Show." With 60 million viewers tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s.

2:40m read

1967

Sergeant Duane D. Hackney receives Air Force Cross

Sergeant Duane D. Hackney is presented with the Air Force Cross for bravery in rescuing an Air Force pilot in Vietnam. He was the first living Air Force enlisted man to receive the award, the nation’s second highest award for bravery in action.

0:22m read

1969

Ho Chi Minh laid to rest in Hanoi

Funeral services, attended by 250,000 mourners, are held for Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. Among those in attendance were Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin, Chinese Vice-Premier Li Hsien-nien and Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Ho had established the Indochinese Communist Party in 1929. In September 1945, as the defeated Japanese prepared to leave […]

1:22m read

1971

Uprising at Attica prison begins

Prisoners seize control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York beginning on September 9, 1971. Later that day, state police retook most of the prison, but 1,281 convicts occupied an exercise field called D Yard, where they held 39 prison guards and employees hostage for four days. After negotiations stalled, state police and […]

4:40m read

1976

Mao Zedong dies

Mao Zedong, who led the Chinese people through a long revolution and then ruled the nation’s communist government from its establishment in 1949, dies. Along with V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin, Mao was one of the most significant communist figures of the Cold War. Mao was born in China in 1893. During the 1910s, he […]

2002

72-year-old Buzz Aldrin punches a moon landing conspiracy theorist in the face

On September 9, 2002, astronaut Buzz Aldrin—the second human to set foot on the moon—is walking outside a Beverly Hills hotel when a conspiracy theorist starts harassing him and accusing Aldrin of lying about the Apollo 11 moon landing. Incensed, Aldrin punches his heckler in the face. “You’re the one who said you walked on […]

1:58m read

2007

NFL nabs New England Patriots in “Spygate” scandal

On September 9, 2007, the NFL catches the New England Patriots illegally videotaping coaching signals of the New York Jets from an unauthorized location in a Week 1 game in East Rutherford, N.J.—a scandal the media soon dubs “Spygate.” Just before halftime of the Patriots’ 38-14 Patriots win, a 26-year-old New England video assistant named […]

1:22m read

World War II

159 videos

World War II

How Many Were Killed on D-Day?

Allied military leaders knew that casualties could be staggeringly high. Historians are still calculating the toll.

World War II

Saving Private Ryan: The Real-Life D-Day Back Story

An actual soldier named Fritz Niland was targeted to be saved by a U.S. War Department 'sole-survivor' directive designed to keep families from losing all of their sons.

World War II

World War II’s ‘Battle of Los Angeles’: When US Forces Thought California Was Under Attack

On February 25, 1942, an infamous false alarm saw American military units unleash a torrent of anti-aircraft fire in the skies over Los Angeles.

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