Historical timeline for July 9

Earth completes its shortest recorded day due to a slight acceleration in rotation, with July 9 lasting approximately 1.3 to 1.6 milliseconds less than 24 hours.

A rally takes place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to call for fairer elections in the country.

South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan.

Italy win their fourth World Cup title, defeating France 5–3 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time.

One hundred and twenty-five people are killed when S7 Airlines Flight 778, an Airbus A310 passenger jet, veers off the runway while landing in wet conditions at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia.

The Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence is released by the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, casting doubt on the rationale for the Iraq War.

The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The organization's first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.

Days of student protests begin after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.

An explosion aboard a Brazilian airline TAM Fokker 100 launches engineer Fernando Caldeira de Moura Campos into a 2,400 meters free fall.

The Navaly church bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force killing 125 Tamil civilian refugees.

The Parliament of Canada passes the Nunavut Act leading to the 1999 creation of Nunavut, dividing the Northwest Territories into arctic (Inuit) and sub-arctic (Dene) lands based on a plebiscite.

The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalising homosexuality in New Zealand.

Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.

A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld outside their home in France in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

The Pinochet dictatorship in Chile organises the youth event of Acto de Chacarillas, a ritualised act reminiscent of Francoist Spain.

Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear explosion at orbital altitudes.

Greece becomes the first member state to join the European Economic Community by signing the Athens Agreement, which is later suspended in 1967 during the Greek junta.

A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay; five people were killed.

The 7.7 Mw Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the destructive tsunami that followed left fifty-three people dead. A damaging M7.2 aftershock occurred minutes after the mainshock.

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare.