Daily List

Today in History, February 9th

On February 9, 1950, Joseph McCarthy claimed a list of communists in the State Department. Plus John Quincy Adams and the Ehime Maru.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published February 9, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

February 9 is best known for Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1950 speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he claimed to hold a list of communists in the State Department and launched the Red Scare era that bears his name. The date also saw the House of Representatives choose John Quincy Adams as president in 1825 and the birth of William Henry Harrison in 1773.

The big story: McCarthy’s “List” Speech in Wheeling (1950)

Joseph McCarthy was a little-known first-term senator from Wisconsin when he spoke to a women’s Republican club in Wheeling on February 9, 1950. He told the crowd that traitors at home were costing America the Cold War. Then he held up a sheet of paper and said it named 205 people in the State Department who were known Communist Party members. Nobody saw the names. In the weeks that followed, his number shifted to 57, then 81, then 10, and he never proved that a single communist worked at the department. It hardly mattered at first. The speech made him famous almost overnight and fed a wave of suspicion that cost many people their jobs and reputations. His fall came in 1954, when televised hearings on his charges against the U.S. Army showed his bullying style to millions of viewers. The Senate censured him later that year, and he died in 1957.

More events on February 9

Year	What happened
1757	The Treaty of Alinagar put the area of present-day Kolkata under British control, a step toward the British takeover of Bengal.
1825	With no candidate holding an electoral majority after the 1824 election, the U.S. House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams as president.
1918	Ukraine signed a separate peace with the Central Powers, the first peace treaty of World War I.
1942	Year-round daylight saving time, called “war time,” took effect across the U.S. to save fuel during World War II.
1942	The French luxury liner Normandie caught fire while being converted for U.S. military use.
1984	Soviet leader Yuri Andropov died about 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev.
1992	Magic Johnson, who had retired months earlier after announcing he was HIV-positive, returned for the NBA All-Star Game, scored 25 points and was named MVP.
1995	Astronaut Bernard Harris became the first Black man to walk in space.
1996	A team led by Peter Armbruster created element 112, later named copernicium.
2001	The U.S. submarine Greeneville surfaced beneath the Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru off Hawaii, sinking it. Nine of the 35 people aboard died.
2002	Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in London.

Born on February 9

1773: William Henry Harrison, ninth U.S. president, who died a month after taking office.
1940: J.M. Coetzee, South African novelist and winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.
1942: Carole King, singer-songwriter behind the landmark album Tapestry.