March 9


March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (69th in Leap
years). There are 297 days remaining.

Events

   * 1841 - The United States Supreme Court rules in the Amistad case that
     the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery
     illegally.
   * 1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces under General
     Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Vera Cruz.
   * 1862 - American Civil War: The first battle between two ironclad
     warships - In a five-hour battle near Hampton Roads, Virginia the USS
     Monitor fights the CSS Virginia to a draw.
   * 1916 - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against
     Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17.
   * 1924 - Italy annexes Fiume
   * 1933 - Great Depression: The United States Congress begins its first
     100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
   * 1945 - World War II: American B-29 bombers attack Japan with incendiary
     bombs.
   * 1954 - Mccarthyism: CBS broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on
     Senator Joseph McCarthy," produced by Edward R. Murrow.
   * 1959 - The Barbie doll debuts
   * 1964 - The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor
     Company.
   * 1967 - Josef Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the
     United States.
   * 1975 - Construction of the Alaskan oil pipeline begins.
   * 1977 - Appoximetely a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims take over three
     buildings in Washington, DC, killing one person and taking more than
     130 hostages. The hostage situation ends two days later.
   * 1986 - United States Navy divers find the largely intact but
     heavily-damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The
     bodies of all seven astronauts were still inside.
   * 1989 - A strike forces financially-troubled Eastern Airlines into
     bankruptcy.
   * 1990 - Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United
     States, becoming the first female and Hispanic to serve in that
     position.
   * 1990 - Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will
     rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord, effectively
     killing the Accord.
   * 1991 - Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milosevic in
     Belgrade. Two people are killed and tanks are in the streets.
   * 1993 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles,
     California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights
     when they beat him during an arrest.

Births

   * 1451 - Amerigo Vespucci, voyager and cartographer (+ 1512)
   * 1697 - Friederike Caroline Neuber, actress (+ 1760)
   * 1749 - Honore Mirabeau, politician (+ 1791)
   * 1856 - Edie Foy, singer, dancer, vaudeville performer (+ 1928)
   * 1900 - Howard Aiken, computing pioneer
   * 1902 - Will Geer, actor (+ 1978)
   * 1910 - Samuel Barber, American composer (+ 1981)
   * 1918 - Mickey Spillane, mystery writer
   * 1918 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (+ 1967)
   * 1923 - Walter Kohn, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
     (1998)
   * 1924 - Peter Scholl-Latour, journalist
   * 1934 - Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut, first human in space (+ 1968)
   * 1937 - Mickey Gilly, country music performer
   * 1940 - John Cale, composer, musician
   * 1940 - Raul Julia, actor (+ 1994)
   * 1943 - Bobby Fischer, chess player
   * 1948 - Jeffrey Osborne, singer
   * 1950 - Danny Sullivan, automobile racer
   * 1964 - Juliette Binoche, actress
   * 1987 - Lil' Bow Wow, rap musician

Deaths

   * 1144 - Pope Celestine II
   * 1981 - Max DelbrŸck, German biologist
   * 1989 - Robert Mapplethorpe, artist
   * 1992 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel
   * 1996 - George Burns, actor, singer
   * 1997 - The Notorious B.I.G., rap musician
   * 2003 - Stan Brakhage, filmmaker

Holidays and observances

   * Catholicism - Feast day of St Frances of Rome.