On this day in history - May 9

What Happened On This Day – May 9

• 2012 The brand-new Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crashes

  The regional jet was the first airliner produced in Russia since the end of the USSR in 1991. The doomed flight was a demonstration tour carrying potential customers. All 45 people on board perished in the crash, which was caused by pilot error.

• 1997 Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war

  Peterson, a Vietnam veteran, devoted himself to promoting reconciliation between the two countries. About 2.5 million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, were killed during the war.

• 1979 Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed

  An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.

• 1969 Carlos Lamarca begins his fight against Brazil's military dictatorship

  Lamarca was a member of the communist organization Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR) and is well known for his urban guerilla actions. Brazilian forces killed him in 1971.

• 1960 The first birth control pill is approved

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would add birth control as a new indication for the drug “Enovid”.