* 1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole.

* 1909 – William M. Branham, American evangelist ( d. 1965 )

* 1909 – Hermann Lang, German race car driver ( d. 1987 )

* 1909 – Juliana of the Netherlands ( d. 2004 )

* 1909 – F. E. McWilliam, Irish sculptor ( d. 1992 )

* 1909 – Sylvère Maes, Belgian cyclist ( d. 1966 )

* 1909 – Lester Young, American saxophonist ( d. 1959 )

* 1909 – V. K. Gokak, Indian writer ( d. 1992 )

* 1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat ( d. 1944 )

Monty Noble led Australia to victory in both 1907 – 08 and 1909.

* 1909 – Walter Van Tilburg Clark, American novelist ( d. 1971 )

* 1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.

* 1909 – Bill Voce, England cricketer ( d. 1984 )

* 1871 – John Millington Synge, Irish writer ( d. 1909 )

* 1909 – Hugo Winterhalter, American composer and bandleader ( d. 1973 )

* 1909 – Paul Callaway, American organist and conductor ( d. 1995 )

* 1909 – Bruce Matthews, Canadian army officer and businessman ( d. 1991 )

* 1909 – First automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway takes place.

* 1909 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian mathematician ( d. 1992 )

* 1829 – Carlo Acton, Italian composer and pianist ( d. 1909 )

* 1909 – Michael Rennie, English actor ( d. 1971 )

* 1909 – The Turkish military reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

* 1909 – Syd Buller, English cricketer ( d. 1970 )

* 1909 – Leila Danette, American actress

* 1909 – The U. S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.

* 1909 – U Thant, Burmese diplomat and 3rd United Nations Secretary General ( d. 1974 )

* John Robert Brown ( judge ) ( 1909 – 1993 ), member of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, noted for his key decisions in favor of civil rights

* 1978 – Wesley Bolin, former Governor of the U. S. State of Arizona ( b. 1909 )

* Andrade, John M. U. S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909.

In 1909, Frederick F. Russell, a U. S. Army physician, developed an American typhoid vaccine and two years later his vaccination program became the first in which an entire army was immunized.

** U Thant, Burmese diplomat and Secretary-General of the United Nations ( b. 1909 )

* Lithuanian — Lipchitz, Jacques ( worked mainly in France and U. S. A .): Pierrot ( 1909 ), Detachable Figure ( Pierrot ) ( 1915 ), Pierrot with Clarinet ( 1919 ), Seated Pierrot ( 1922 ), Pierrot ( 1925 ), Pierrot with Clarinet ( 1926 ), Pierrot Escapes ( 1927 ).

* French — Debussy, Claude: Sonata for Cello and Piano ( 1915 ; Debussy had considered calling it " Pierrot angry at the moon "); Popy, Francis: Pierrot Sleeps ( n. d .; violin and piano ); Salzedo, Carlos ( worked mainly in U. S. A .): " Pierrot is Sad ", from Sketches for Harpist Beginners, two series ( 1942 ; harp ); Satie, Erik: " Pierrot's Dinner " ( 1909 ; piano ).

His patent for a " waste paper receptacle " to offer an improved method of disposing of waste paper was filed on February 2, 1909 and received the U. S. patent number 929, 960 on August 31, 1909.

On June 17, 1911, after he graduated from high school, del Valle received an appointment by George Radcliffe Colton, who served from 1909 to 1913 as the U. S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, to attend the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

The county also includes parts of Superior National Forest, established in 1909, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness within it on the U. S .- Canadian border, established in 1978.

* James J. P. McShane ( 1909 – 1968 ), Appointed U. S. Marshal for the District of Columbia by President John F. Kennedy then named Chief Marshal in 1962

The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

In the twilight of Roosevelt's administration, the president dispatched sixteen U. S. Navy battleships of the Atlantic Fleet on a worldwide voyage of circumnavigation from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909.

* Eugenie Anderson ( 1909 – 1997 ), U. S. Ambassador to Denmark and Bulgaria ; first woman appointed U. S. ambassador

* Isaac Ambrose Barber ( 1852 – 1909 ), U. S. Congressman from Maryland, serving from 1897 to 1899.

On April 19, 1909, an organized mob hanged four men set to be tried for the murder of a former U. S. marshal and member of the local freemason lodge.

The town changed its name on October 22, 1909 in honor of Oklahoma Senator Thomas Gore, who was serving as one of Oklahoma's U. S. senators immediately after statehood.