Here are the anniversaries for today
9 February 1883: Birth of Bob Benson, the man who tragically died while playing a wartime friendly for Arsenal in 1916. In all he played 52 league games for Arsenal between 1913 and 1915.
9 February 1889: Arsenal 3 Gravesend 3. Arsenal refused to play extra time because of the late starting of the game and were disqualified from Kent Senior Cup.
9 February 1895: Arsenal played their last game (against Rotherham Town) before the Manor Ground was shut for 6 weeks because of alleged unruly behaviour by spectators. An identical episode at Wolverhampton Wanderers the following season led to their ground being closed for only 2 weeks.
9 February 1901: Arsenal’s first ever victory in FA Cup Competition Proper: 2-0 against Blackburn.
9 February 1903: The final Woolwich Arsenal friendly against Millwall Athletic. These games between the local rivals had been a major source of income and local interest since 12,000 turned up to a game in 1892.
9 February 1918: Arsenal continued their up and down wartime campaign by losing to Fulham at home 0-3 in the London Combination with a crowd of 8000 at Highbury. The following Wednesday margarine rationing was introduced.
9 February 1933: Amidst hunger marches and social unrest the members of the Oxford Union voted “That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and country.”
9 February 1935: Even in the all-conquering 1930s there could be upsets. Birmingham were on a run of six defeats and three draws in the last ten and were 19th in the League. But on this day they beat Arsenal 3-0.
9 February 1946: Arsenal 1 Tottenham 1 in the wartime Football League South. Arsenal had won six straight games scoring 20 goals in the process before suddenly losing 0-3 at home to Birmingham the previous weekend. A return to form was hoped for with 38927 in the crowd, but it was not to be. Worse Tottenham beat Arsenal 2-0 the following weekend, and the run went on to four defeats and just this one draw, before Arsenal found their form again.
9 February 1957: Having taken over from Tom Whittaker in October, Jack Crayston suffered only his 4th defeat – Man U 6 Arsenal 2. In the previous game Arsenal beat Sheffield W 6-3.
9 February 1984 Paul Mariner signed by Don Howe for Arsenal from Ipswich, for whom he had played 260 league games, for £150,000. He played 60 league games for Arsenal and scored 14 goals, before moving on to Portsmouth.
9 February 1961. Tommy Docherty transferred to Chelsea (to become player coach) from Arsenal. He had played 83 league games for Arsenal but only played four times for Chelsea in the league.
9 February 2003: Bobby Robson outrageously accused Bergkamp (without the slightest piece of evidence) of deliberately getting Laurent Robert sent off in 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
9 February 2007: Arsenal signed a deal with Colorado Rapids owned by Stan Kroenke; Arsenal’s first venture into the USA and the first meeting with the man who eventually bought the club.
9 February 2009: Joe Haverty died aged 72. (Also reported as 7 Feb). He played 114 games for Arsenal and scored 25 goals, before moving on to Millwall, Celtic and Bristol Rovers and Shelbourne, and then the USA in December 1966. He returned to Ireland in 1969, with Shamrock Rovers before moving on to Drogheda.
9 February 2010: Kyle Bartley loaned to Sheffield Utd. He then went on to Rangers before permanently signing for Swansea in 2012.
9 February 2013: Arsenal beat Sunderland 1-0 away, to make it eight wins, two defeats and three draws in 13 games. In three of these games Arsenal had scored five or more goals.
9 February 2019: Arsenal beat Huddersfield away 2-1 during a topsy-turvey period in which Arsenal won four and lost four in all competitions. In the next match Arsenal lost to BATE in the Europa League.
The anniversaries are below…
Contact Arsenal History Society at Tony@schools.co.uk
You can read extended details of one of today’s stories on “Today of All Days”
- 100 Years in the First Division: the absolute complete story of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.
- Henry Norris at the Arsenal: There is a full index to the series here.
- Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever
- Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.
You can find the latest video each day on the home page of this site. You can also find videos for previous days by clicking the articles in the left column of this page under “Recent Posts” or by clicking on the mauve headline at the top of the screen on the right, which will take you to yesterday’s selected video – and so on back to the start of the series in August. There is more about who we are and other things we do, at the foot of the page. Below are the anniversaries for today in Arsenal’s history…
The Arsenal History Society is part of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association – a body which gives positive support to the club, and has regular meetings with directors and senior officials of the club to represent the views of its members to the club. You can read more about AISA on its website.
