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Today in History, May 9th

On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved Enovid-10, the first commercial birth-control pill. Plus the first national Mother's Day and Nixon hearings.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 2 min read Sources checked

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

May 9 is best known for 1960, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Enovid-10, the world’s first commercially produced birth-control pill. The date also saw President Woodrow Wilson proclaim the first national Mother’s Day in 1914 and the House Judiciary Committee open impeachment hearings against Richard Nixon in 1974.

The big story: The FDA approves the pill (1960)

The pill had an unusual origin story: an activist commissioned it, an heiress paid for it, and two scientists did the lab work. Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first U.S. birth-control clinic in 1916, wanted a simple contraceptive women could take on their own. Katherine McCormick put up the money. Biochemist Gregory Pincus of the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology and Harvard gynecologist John Rock started working on it in the early 1950s, and clinical trials began in 1954. Their pill combined synthetic versions of the hormones progesterone and estrogen to stop ovulation. On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved Enovid-10, made by G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, as the first commercially produced birth-control pill anywhere. It became known simply as “the pill,” and it gave American women far more control over when, and whether, to have children.

More events on May 9

Year	What happened
1671	Thomas “Colonel” Blood was caught trying to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1887	Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show opened in London.
1914	President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first national Mother’s Day holiday.
1915	British and French forces launched their first combined attempt to break through German lines on the Western Front.
1926	Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett claimed to have flown over the North Pole.
1950	L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics, the self-help book that later gave rise to Scientology.
1964	Louis Armstrong’s “Hello, Dolly!” knocked the Beatles out of the No. 1 spot on the U.S. pop charts.
1969	New York Times reporter William Beecher broke the news of secret U.S. B-52 bombing in Cambodia.
1974	The House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon over Watergate.
1978	The body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found in Rome after he had been kidnapped.
2020	Little Richard, whose 1950s hits helped shape rock and roll, died in Tennessee at 87.

Born on May 9

1800: John Brown, American abolitionist who led the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, born in Torrington, Connecticut.
1860: J.M. Barrie, Scottish playwright best known for Peter Pan, born in Kirriemuir.
1949: Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter, born in the Bronx, New York.