On This Day in History August 9 Historical Events 48 BC Caesar's Civil War: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus, forcing Pompey to flee to Egypt  1790 Robert Gray's Columbia Rediviva returns to Boston after 3-year journey, first American ship to circumnavigate the globe  1898 Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine  1942 Mahatma Gandhi and 50 others are arrested in Bombay after the passing of a "Quit India" motion and campaign by the All-India Congress  Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki 1945 US drops second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city  Front page of The Straits Times announcing Singapore Independence 1965 Singapore separates from the Federation of Malaysia and gains its independence  1974 Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States and Vice President Gerald Ford swears the oath of office to take his place as the 38th US President  More Historical Events  Famous Birthdays John Dryden 1631 - 1700 Amedeo Avogadro 1776 - 1856 Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 Deion Sanders 57th Birthday Also Tove Jansson and Brett Hull (60).  More Famous Birthdays  Famous Deaths Sharon Tate 1943 - 1969 Jerry Garcia 1942 - 1995 Also Hermann Hesse and Dmitri Shostakovich.  More Famous Deaths  ‘Dirty Rat’ Lets His Mother Die Before Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there was a plan to kidnap the President, which resulted on this day in the arrest of John Surratt, one of the plotters.  The Plot to Kidnap a President