December 9

In literary history

• 1854Alfred Tennyson wrote 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' in a single sitting from a newspaper report, and published it six weeks after the battle. The charge it describes was a catastrophic blunder; the poem has outlasted every military correction.

Writers born on December 9

• John Milton (1608),
• George Grossmith (1847)

The Daily Canon for December 9

Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667).