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 Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Amistad case that the Africans who seized control of the ship had been taken into slavery illegally.
• 1847 - 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 U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress.
• 1945 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - American B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, 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 - Approximately 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.
• 1987 - Rock band U2 release the classic album The Joshua Tree.
• 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 American 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.
• 2004 - John Allen Mohammed is sentenced to death for his part in the Beltway sniper attacks of October 2002. Lee Boyd Malvo is sentenced to life in prison.
• 2004 - Attack on an Istanbul restaurant
• 2005 - The final broadcast by Dan Rather on CBS Evening News (announced)
• 1213 - Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy
• 1454 - Amerigo Vespucci, explorer and cartographer (d. 1512)
• 1697 - Friederike Caroline Neuber, actress (d. 1760)
• 1749 - Honore Mirabeau, politician (d. 1791)
• 1763 - William Cobbett, journalist and author (d. 1835)
• 1856 - Eddie Foy, singer, dancer, vaudeville performer (d. 1928)
• 1892 - Vita Sackville-West, writer, gardener (d. 1962)
• 1900 - Howard Aiken, computing pioneer (d. 1973)
• 1902 - Will Geer, actor (d. 1978)
• 1910 - Samuel Barber, American composer (d. 1981)
• 1918 - Mickey Spillane, mystery writer
• 1918 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 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 (d. 1968)
• 1936 - Tom Sestak, American football player (d. 1987)
• 1937 - Mickey Gilly, country music performer
• 1940 - John Cale, composer, musician
• 1940 - Raúl Juliá, actor (d. 1994)
• 1943 - Bobby Fischer, chess player
• 1943 - Charles Gibson, television journalist
• 1948 - Jeffrey Osborne, singer
• 1950 - Doug Ault, Major League Baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1950 _ Danny Sullivan, automobile racer
• 1951 - Michael Kinsley, journalist, editor, founder of Slate magazine
• 1960 - Linda Fiorentino, actress
• 1964 - Juliette Binoche, actress
• 1965 - Benito Santiago, baseball player
• 1972 - Kerr Smith, American soap opera actor
• 1973 - Aaron Boone, Major League Baseball All-Star
• 1981 - Antonio Bryant, American football wide receiver
• 1987 - Bow Wow, rap musician, actor

Deaths

• 1808 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, architect (b. 1739)
• 1954 - Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, astronomer, (b. 1912)
• 1964 - German general (b. 1870)
• 1981 - Max Delbrück, biologist, (b. 1906)
• 1989 - Robert Mapplethorpe, artist, (b. 1946)
• 1992 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, (b. 1913)
• 1993 - C. Northcote Parkinson, historian and writer (b. 1909)
• 1994 - Charles Bukowski, poet, writer, (b.1920)
• 1996 - George Burns, actor, singer, (b. 1896)
• 1997 - The Notorious B.I.G., rap musician, (b. 1972 as Christopher Wallace)
• 2000 - Ivo Robić, singer and songwriter - Croatia, Mister Morgen, (b 1923)
• 2003 - Stan Brakhage, filmmaker, (b. 1933)
• 2003 - Bernard Dowiyogo, former president of Nauru, (b. 1946)
• 2004 - Albert Mol, actor (b.1917)
• 2004 - Robert Pastorelli, actor (b. 1954)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Feast day of St Frances of Rome.
• Belize - Baron Bliss Day

March 8 - March 10 - February 9 - April 9 -- Listing of all days