This day in history: 9 Feb

1825: Acting under the 12th Amendment to the US Constitution, the House of Representatives elected (on the first ballot) John Quincy Adams President of the United States.

1861: The Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama, appointed former US Secretary of War Jefferson Davis as Provisional President of the Confederate States of America. Alexander Stephens was selected as Vice President. Later that year, on 6 November, they were elected President and Vice President for a term of six years.

1916: SMS Hedwig von Wissman was sunk by HMS Mimi and Fifi.

1943: The Battle of Guadalcanal ended after the remaining Japanese forces were evacuated from the island.

1945: HM submarine Venturer (Lieut J S Launders DSO DSC*) torpedoed and sank U 864 (Korvkpt Ralf-Reimar Wolfram) off the coast of Norway - the only time in the history of naval warfare that one submarine sank another while both were submerged.

1964: The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1971: Apollo 14 (commander Alan Shepard, command module pilot Stuart Roosa and lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell), launched from Cape Canaveral on 31 January, returned to Earth following the third manned moon landing.

1975: Soyuz 17 (commander A A Gubarev and flight engineer G M Grechko), launched from Baikonur on 11 January, returned to Earth.

1986: Comet Halley reached perihelion, its closest approach to the sun.

1995: Astronauts Bernard A Harris Jr and Michael Foale exited the space shuttle Discovery (mission STS-63, launched 3 February) to become the first black astronaut and the first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.

2001: USS Greeneville (SSN 772) accidentally rammed and sank the Japanese fishery training vessel Ehime Maru.

Miklós Horthy (1868-1957), "Gabby" Hayes (1885–1969), Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin (1894–1977), Bill Haley (1925–1981), Adolf Galland (1912-1996) and HRH The Princess Margaret (1930–2002) died on this date.

And happy birthday to William Henry Harrison (1773–1841), Samuel Tilden (1814–1886), Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith MC AFC (1897-1935), William Darby (1911-1945), Ernest Tubb (1914–1984), Frank Frazetta (1928-TBD), Joe Pesci (1943-TBD), Travis Tritt (1963-TBD) and Irina Slutskaya (1979-TBD).