On This Day: Saturday July 9, 2005 This is the 190th day of the year, with 175 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: open-heart surgery On July 9, 1893, Chicago surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successfully open-heart surgery. The first successful open-heart operation using a heart-lung machine was performed by the American surgeon John H. Gibbon, Jr., in 1953. the heart-lung machine allows circulation and oxygenation of the blood to be maintained outside the patient's body and gives the surgeon has access to a dry and motionless heart. Holidays Feast day of St Veronica de Julianis, St Nicholas Pieck and his Companions, St Everild, and the Martyrs of Gorcum. Argentina: Independence Day. Morocco: Youth Day. Events 118 - Hadrian, Rome's new emperor, made his entry into the city. 1816 - Argentina declared independence from Spain. 1877 - The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club began its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon. 1878 - The corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe of Washington, MO. 1893 - The first successful open-heart surgery was performed, in Chicago. 1900 - The Commonwealth of Australia was established by an act of British Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government. 1944 - During World War II, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses fell. 1947 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the US Army, making her the first woman to hold permanent military rank in US history. 1979 - In Nicaragua, General Somoza was overthrown by the Sandinista rebels. Births 1802 - Thomas Davenport, American inventor of successful electric motor. 1819 - Elias Howe, inventor of sewing machine. 1929 - Hassan II, ruler of Morocco (1961-1999). 1937 - David Hockney, English painter.