http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Mar 9, 1959: Barbie makes her debut
On this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City.
Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future.
Barbie's appearance was modeled on a doll named Lilli, based on a German comic strip character. Originally marketed as a racy gag gift to adult men in tobacco shops, the Lilli doll later became extremely popular with children. Mattel bought the rights to Lilli and made its own version, which Handler named after her daughter, Barbara. With its sponsorship of the "Mickey Mouse Club" TV program in 1955, Mattel became the first toy company to broadcast commercials to children. They used this medium to promote their new toy, and by 1961, the enormous consumer demand for the doll led Mattel to release a boyfriend for Barbie. Handler named him Ken, after her son. Barbie's best friend, Midge, came out in 1963; her little sister, Skipper, debuted the following year.
Over the years, Barbie generated huge sales--and a lot of controversy. On the positive side, many women saw Barbie as providing an alternative to traditional 1950s gender roles. She has had a series of different jobs, from airline stewardess, doctor, pilot and astronaut to Olympic athlete and even U.S. presidential candidate. Others thought Barbie's never-ending supply of designer outfits, cars and "Dream Houses" encouraged kids to be materialistic. It was Barbie's appearance that caused the most controversy, however. Her tiny waist and enormous breasts--it was estimated that if she were a real woman, her measurements would be 36-18-38--led many to claim that Barbie provided little girls with an unrealistic and harmful example and fostered negative body image.
Despite the criticism, sales of Barbie-related merchandise continued to soar, topping 1 billion dollars annually by 1993. Since 1959, more than 800 million dolls in the Barbie family have been sold around the world and Barbie is now a bona fide global icon.
Mar 9, 1954: Republican senators criticize Joseph McCarthy
Senate Republicans level criticism at fellow Republican Joseph McCarthy and take action to limit his power. The criticism and actions were indications that McCarthy's glory days as the most famous investigator of communist activity in the United States were coming to an end.
A Republican senator from Wisconsin, McCarthy had risen to fame in early 1950 when he stated in a speech that there were over 200 known communists operating in the U.S. Department of State. Various other charges and accusations issued forth from McCarthy in the months and years that followed. Although he was notably unsuccessful in discovering communists at work in the United States, his wild charges and sensational Senate investigations grabbed headlines and his name became one of the most famous in America.
Republicans at first embraced McCarthy and his devastating attacks on the Democratic administration of President Harry S. Truman. However, when McCarthy kept up with his charges about communists in the government after the election of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, the party turned against him. Eisenhower himself was particularly disturbed by McCarthy's accusations about communists in the U.S. Army. On March 9, 1954, Republican Senator Ralph Flanders (Vermont) verbally blasted McCarthy, charging that he was a "one-man party" intent on "doing his best to shatter that party whose label he wears." Flanders sarcastically declared, "The junior Senator from Wisconsin interests us all, no doubt about that, but also he puzzles some of us. To what party does he belong? Is he a hidden satellite of the Democratic Party, to which he is furnishing so much material for quiet mirth?" In addition to Flanders' speech, Senate Republicans acted to limit McCarthy's ability to conduct hearings and to derail his investigation of the U.S. Army.
McCarthy's days as a political force were indeed numbered. During his televised hearings into the U.S. Army later in 1954, the American people got their first look at how McCarthy bullied witnesses and ignored procedure to suit his purposes. By late 1954, the Senate censured him, but he remained in office until his death in 1957. His legacy was immense: during his years in the spotlight, he destroyed careers, created a good deal of hysteria, and helped spread fear of political debate and dissent in the United States.
Mar 9, 1981: Japanese power plant leaks radioactive waste
A nuclear accident at a Japan Atomic Power Company plant in Tsuruga, Japan, exposes 59 workers to radiation on this day in 1981. As seems all too common with nuclear-power accidents, the officials in charge failed to timely inform the public and nearby residents, endangering them needlessly.
Tsuruga lies near Wakasa Bay on the west coast of Japan. Approximately 60,000 people lived in the area surrounding the atomic power plant. On March 9, a worker forgot to shut a critical valve, causing a radioactive sludge tank to overflow. Fifty-six workers were sent in to mop up the radioactive sludge before the leak could escape the disposal building, but the plan was not successful and 16 tons of waste spilled into Wakasa Bay.
Despite the obvious risk to people eating contaminated fish caught in the bay, Japan's Atomic Power Commission made no public mention of the accident or spill. The public was told nothing of the accident until more than a month later, when a newspaper caught wind of and reported the story. By then, seaweed in the area was found to have radioactive levels 10 times greater than normal. Cobalt-60 levels were 5,000 times higher than previous highs recorded in the area.
Finally, on April 21, the Atomic Power Commission publicly admitted the nuclear accident but denied that anyone had been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Two days later, the company running the plant declared that they had not announced the accident right away because of Japanese emotionalism toward anything nuclear. The public also learned for the first time that, in an earlier incident at the same plant in January 1981, 45 workers had been exposed to radiation.
All the fish caught in Wakasa Bay following the accident were recalled and reports indicate that fish in the area displayed far more mutations than normal for several years after the incident. In May 1981, the president and chairman of the Japan Atomic Power Company resigned.
Mar 9, 1932: China's last emperor is Japanese puppet
Henry Pu Yi, who reigned as the last emperor of China from 1908 to 1912, becomes regent of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, comprising the Rehe province of China and Manchuria.
Enthroned as the emperor Hsian-T'ung at the age of three, he was forced to abdicate four years later in Sun Yat-sen's republican revolution. He took the name of Henry and continued to live in Beijing's Forbidden City until 1924, when he was forced into exile. He settled in Japanese-occupied Tianjin, where he lived until his installment as the puppet leader of Manchukuo in 1932. In 1934, he became K'ang Te, emperor of Manchukuo. Despite guerrilla resistance against his puppet regime, he held the emperor's title until 1945, when he was captured by Soviet troops in the final days of World War II.
In 1946, Pu Yi testified before the Tokyo war crimes tribunal that he had been the unwilling tool of the Japanese and not, as they claimed, an instrument of Manchurian self-determination. Manchuria and the Rehe province were returned to China, and in 1950 Pu Yi was handed over to the Chinese communists, who imprisoned him at Shenyang until 1959, when Chinese leader Mao Zedong granted him amnesty. After his release, he worked in a mechanical repair shop in Peking. He died on October 17, 1967.
Mar 9, 1916: Pancho Villa raids U.S.
In the early morning of March 9, 1916, several hundred Mexican guerrillas under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa cross the U.S.-Mexican border and attack the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico. Seventeen Americans were killed in the raid, and the center of town was burned. It was unclear whether Villa personally participated in the attack, but President Woodrow Wilson ordered the U.S. Army into Mexico to capture the rebel leader dead or alive.
Before he invaded the United States, Pancho Villa was already known to Americans for his exploits during the Mexican Revolution. He led the famous Division del Norte, with its brilliant cavalry, Los Dorados, and won control of northern Mexico after a series of audacious attacks. In 1914, following the resignation of Mexican leader Victoriano Huerta, Pancho Villa and his former revolutionary ally Venustiano Carranza battled each other in a struggle for succession. By the end of 1915, Villa had been driven north into the mountains, and the U.S. government recognized General Carranza as the president of Mexico.
In January 1916, to protest President Woodrow Wilson's support for Carranza, Villa executed 16 U.S. citizens at Santa Isabel in northern Mexico. Then, in early March, he ordered the raid on Columbus. Cavalry from the nearby Camp Furlong U.S. Army outpost pursued the Mexicans, killing several dozen rebels on U.S. soil and in Mexico before turning back. On March 15, under orders from President Wilson, U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing launched a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture Villa and disperse his rebels. The expedition eventually involved some 10,000 U.S. troops and personnel. It was the first U.S. military operation to employ mechanized vehicles, including automobiles and airplanes.
For 11 months, Pershing failed to capture the elusive revolutionary, who was aided by his intimate knowledge of the terrain of northern Mexico and his popular support from the people there. Meanwhile, resentment over the U.S. intrusion into Mexican territory led to a diplomatic crisis with the government in Mexico City. On June 21, the crisis escalated into violence when Mexican government troops attacked a detachment of the 10th Cavalry at Carrizal, Mexico, leaving 12 Americans dead, 10 wounded, and 24 captured. The Mexicans suffered more than 30 dead. If not for the critical situation in Europe, war might have been declared. In January 1917, having failed in their mission to capture Villa, and under continued pressure from the Mexican government, the Americans were ordered home.
Villa continued his guerrilla activities in northern Mexico until Adolfo de la Huerta took power over the government and drafted a reformist constitution. Villa entered into an amicable agreement with Huerta and agreed to retire from politics. In 1920, the government pardoned Villa, but three years later he was assassinated at his ranch in Parral.
Mar 9, 1841: Supreme Court rules on Amistad mutiny
At the end of a historic case, the U.S. Supreme Court rules, with only one dissent, that the African slaves who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery, and thus are free under American law.
In 1807, the U.S. Congress joined with Great Britain in abolishing the African slave trade, although the trading of slaves within the U.S. was not prohibited. Despite the international ban on the importation of African slaves, Cuba continued to transport captive Africans to its sugar plantations until the 1860s, and Brazil to its coffee plantations until the 1850s.
On June 28, 1839, 53 slaves recently captured in Africa left Havana, Cuba, aboard the Amistad schooner for a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe, Cuba. Three days later, Sengbe Pieh, a Membe African known as Cinque, freed himself and the other slaves and planned a mutiny. Early in the morning of July 2, in the midst of a storm, the Africans rose up against their captors and, using sugar-cane knives found in the hold, killed the captain of the vessel and a crewmember. Two other crewmembers were either thrown overboard or escaped, and Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, the two Cubans who had purchased the slaves, were captured. Cinque ordered the Cubans to sail the Amistad east back to Africa. During the day, Ruiz and Montes complied, but at night they would turn the vessel in a northerly direction, toward U.S. waters. After almost nearly two difficult months at sea, during which time more than a dozen Africans perished, what became known as the "black schooner" was first spotted by American vessels.
On August 26, the USS Washington, a U.S. Navy brig, seized the Amistad off the coast of Long Island and escorted it to New London, Connecticut. Ruiz and Montes were freed, and the Africans were imprisoned pending an investigation of the Amistad revolt. The two Cubans demanded the return of their supposedly Cuban-born slaves, while the Spanish government called for the Africans' extradition to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder. In opposition to both groups, American abolitionists advocated the return of the illegally bought slaves to Africa.
The story of the Amistad mutiny garnered widespread attention, and U.S. abolitionists succeeded in winning a trial in a U.S. court. Before a federal district court in Connecticut, Cinque, who was taught English by his new American friends, testified on his own behalf. On January 13, 1840, Judge Andrew Judson ruled that the Africans were illegally enslaved, that they would not be returned to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder, and that they should be granted free passage back to Africa. The Spanish authorities and U.S. President Martin Van Buren appealed the decision, but another federal district court upheld Judson's findings. President Van Buren, in opposition to the abolitionist faction in Congress, appealed the decision again.
On February 22, 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing the Amistad case. U.S. Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829, joined the Africans' defense team. In Congress, Adams had been an eloquent opponent of slavery, and before the nation's highest court he presented a coherent argument for the release of Cinque and the 34 other survivors of the Amistad.
On March 9, 1841, the Supreme Court ruled that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and had thus exercised a natural right to fight for their freedom. In November, with the financial assistance of their abolitionist allies, the Amistad Africans departed America aboard the Gentleman on a voyage back to West Africa. Some of the Africans helped establish a Christian mission in Sierra Leone, but most, like Cinque, returned to their homelands in the African interior. One of the survivors, who was a child when taken aboard the Amistad as a slave, eventually returned to the United States. Originally named Margru, she studied at Ohio's integrated and coeducational Oberlin College in the late 1840s, before returning to Sierra Leone as evangelical missionary Sara Margru Kinson.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
141 BC - Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han,
assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China.
590 - Bahram Chobin is crowned as king Barham VI of Persia.
1230 - Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of
Epirus near the village of Klokotnitsa.
1276 - Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City.
1452 - Pope Nicolaas I crowns Frederik III RC-German emperor
1496 - Jews are expelled from Carintha Austria
1497 - Nicolaus Copernicus 1st recorded astronomical
observation
1500 - Pedro Cabral departs with 13 ships to India
1522 - -16] Marten Luther preaches his Invocavit
1551 - Emperor Karel appoints son Philip as heir to the
throne
1562 - Kissing in public banned in Naples (punishable by
death)
1566 - David Rizzio, the private secretary to Mary I of
Scotland, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1617 - Sweden & Russia sign Peace of Stolbowa
1640 - Pierre Corneilles "Horace," premieres in
Paris
1642 - English Queen Henriette Mary arrives in
Hellevoetsluis Neth
1697 - Czar Peter the Great begins tour of West-Europe
1701 - France, Cologne & Bavaria sign alliance
1721 - English Chancellor Exchequer John Aislabie confined
in London Tower
1741 - English fleet under admiral Ogle begins assault on
Cartagena
Mathematician and Astronomer Nicolaus
CopernicusMathematician and Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus 1745 - Bells for 1st
American carillon shipped from England to Boston
1765 - After a public campaign by the writer Voltaire,
judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas
had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son had
actually committed suicide.
1776 - Publication of the economics book The Wealth of
Nations by Adam Smith.
1798 - Dr George Balfour becomes 1st naval surgeon in the US
navy
1820 - -11) Philippines chases out foreigners; about 125 die
1822 - Charles Graham of NY patents artificial teeth
1834 - French Foreign Legion is founded.
1839 - Prussian government limits work week for children to
51 hours
1841 - US Supreme Court rules Negroes are free (Amistad
Incident)
1842 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Nabucco," premieres
in Milan
1844 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Hernani," premieres
in Venice
1849 - Carl Nikolais opera "Die lustigen Weiber von
Windsor," premieres
1856 - Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded in the Johnston
Mansion House on the University of Alabama
1858 - Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street
mailbox
1860 - 1st Japanese ambassador arrives in SF en route to
Washington
Composer Giuseppe VerdiComposer Giuseppe Verdi 1861 -
Confederate currency authorized-$50, $100, $500, $1,000
1862 - "Monitor" (Union) &
"Merrimack" (Rebel) battle in Hampton Roads
1864 - Ulysses S. Grant is appointed commander of Union Army
1868 - The opera "Hamlet" premieres in Paris
1882 - False teeth patented
1889 - Battle at Gallabat (Metema): Mahdi's beat Abyssinian
emperor John IV
1889 - Kansas passes 1st general antitrust law in US
1893 - Congo cannibals killed 1000s of Arabs
1895 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Victorias awarded cup, as
Queens University (Kingston Ont) loses to Montreal AAA, 5-1
1897 - Premiere of (parts of) Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony
(Berlin)
1897 - Cleveland Spiders sign Louis Sockalexis, full-blooded
Penobscot
1897 - Indian, fans start calling the team Indians (in 1915
becomes official)
1904 - Brandon's Lester Patrick becomes 1st hockey
defenseman to score a goal
1907 - 1st involuntary sterilization law enacted, Indiana
1907 - Lady Gregory's "Rising of the Moon,"
premieres in Dublin
US President Ulysses S. GrantUS President Ulysses S. Grant
1908 - Inter Milan is founded.
1914 - Henry Colijn appointed as director of Bataafsche
Petroleum Co
1914 - US Sen Albert Fall (Teapot Dome) demands
"Cubanisation of Mexico"
1916 - Mexican General Francisco "Pancho" Villa
invades US (18 killed)
1916 - Germany declares war against Portugal
1918 - Russian Bolshevik Party becomes the Communist Party
1918 - Ukrainian mobs massacre Jews of Seredino Buda
1918 - Wageningen Agricultural College Neth opens
1922 - Eugene O'Neill's "Hairy Ape," premieres in
NYC
1922 - KJR-AM in Seattle Washington begins radio
transmissions
1923 - Amsterdam taxi strike ended
1923 - Elmer Rice's "Adding Machine," premieres in
NYC
1923 - NHL Championship: Mont Canadiens outscore Ottawa
Senators, 3-2, in 2
1924 - South Slavia aproves Italy's annexation of Fiume
(Rijeka)
1925 - Pink's War, the first RAF operation conducted
independently of the Army or Navy, begins.
1926 - Bertha Landes elected 1st woman mayor of Seattle
1929 - Marcel Pagnol's "Marius," premieres in
Paris
1932 - Eamon De Valera becomes president of Ireland
1932 - Former Chinese emperor Henry Pu-Yi installed as head
of Manchuria
1933 - Bulgarian communists Dimitrov, Popov & Vassili
arrested in Berlin
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin
D. Roosevelt 1933 - Congress is called into special session by FDR, & began
its "100 days"
1935 - Adolf Hitler announces the creation of a new air
force.
1936 - Babe Ruth turns down Reds to make a comeback as a
player
1942 - Construction of the Alaska Highway began
1943 - Delft opposition group-Pahud de Mortanges overthrown
1943 - Greek Jews of Salonika are transported to Nazi
extermination camps
1945 - 334 US B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo with 120,000
fire bomb
1945 - Japanese proclaim "independence" of
Indo-China
1946 - Dutch troops land at Batavia/Semarang
1946 - Ted Williams is offered $500,000 to play in Mexican
Baseball League, he refuses
1947 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen
Merrill
1947 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Richard
Button
1948 - Provisionary Indonesian government installed in
Batavia
1949 - Brigadier Gen Edwin K Wright, USA, ends term as
deputy director of CIA
1949 - England beat South Africa by scoring 174 runs in 94
minutes
Baseball Player Ted WilliamsBaseball Player Ted Williams
1950 - Willie Sutton robs Manufacturers Bank of $64,000 in NYC
1952 - Heinz Neuhaus wins Europe Heavyweight Boxing title
1953 - Josef Stalin buried in Moscow
1954 - 1st local color TV coml WNBT-TV (WNBC-TV) NYC (Castro
Decorators)
1954 - Edward R Murrow criticizes Sen Joseph McCarthy (See
it Now)
1954 - WMUR TV channel 9 in Manchester, NH (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1956 - Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus arrested & exiled
to Seychelles
1956 - Weather forecasting phone line set up in London
England
1957 - 8.1 earthquake shakes Andreanof Islands, Alaska
1958 - George Yardley (Pistons) is 1st NBAer to score 2,000
points in season
1959 - "Juno" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC
for 16 performances
1959 - 1st known radar contact is made with Venus
1959 - Barbie, the popular girls' doll, debuted, over 800
million sold
1961 - 1st animal returned from space, dog named Blackie
aboard Sputnik 9
1961 - Mine cave-in in Japan, kills 72
US Senator Joseph McCarthyUS Senator Joseph McCarthy 1961 -
Sputnik 9 carries Chernushka (dog) into orbit
1961 - Supremes release "I Want A Guy" &
"Never Again"
1962 - Egyptian Pres Nasser declares Gaza belongs to
Palestinians
1962 - US advisors in South-Vietnam join the fight
1963 - Beatles began 1st British tour, supporting Tommy Roe
& Chris Montez
1964 - 1st Ford Mustang produced
1964 - Creighton's Paul Silas grabs Midwest record 27
rebounds against Okla
1964 - Supreme Court issues NY Times vs Sullivan decision,
public officials must prove malice to claim libel & recover damages
1966 - Andrew Brimmer becomes 1st black governor of Federal
Reserve Board
1967 - Svetlana Allilueva, Stalin's daughter, defected to
the West
1968 - 10th Grammy Awards: Up Up & Away, Sgt Pepper's
wins 4
1971 - J M Noreiga takes 9-95 WI v India at Port-of-Spain
1972 - Players on White Sox vote 31-0 in favor of a strike,
if necessary
1974 - Last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in
Philippines, surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended
1975 - "Lieutenant" opens at Lyceum Theater NYC
for 9 performances
1975 - Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
begins.
1976 - 1st female cadets accepted to West Point Military
Academy
1976 - Islander Glenn Resch's 10th shut-out opponent-Blues
4-0
1977 - Hanafi Moslems invade 3 buildings in Wash DC, siege
ended Mar 11th
1977 - Adm Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret), becomes 12th
director of CIA replacing acting director Knoche
1978 - Ice Dance Championship at Ottawa Canada won by
Linichuk & Karponosov
1978 - Ice Pairs Championship at Ottawa won by Rodnina &
Zaitsev (URS)
1978 - Ladies Figure Skating Champions in Ottawa won by
Anett Potzsch (GDR)
1978 - Men's Figure Skating Champions in Ottawa won by
Charles Tickner (USA)
1979 - Bowie Kuhn orders baseball to give equal access to
female reporters
1979 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1980 - Flemish/Walloon battles in Belgium, 40 injured
1980 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Sunstar '80 Golf Tournament
1981 - Dan Rather becomes primary anchorman of CBS-TV News
1983 - Caryl Churchill's "Fen," premieres in
London
1983 - Zimbabwe opposition leader Joshua Nkomo flees to
Botswana
1984 - Emile Gumbs' Anguilla National Alliance wins
elections
1984 - John Lennon single "Borrowed Time" released
posthumously
1984 - Phila 76'ers block 20 Seattle shots tying NBA
regulation game record
1984 - Tim Witherspoon beats Greg Page in 12 for heavyweight
boxing title
1984 - The Competitive Enterprise Institute in founded in Washington,
D.C.
1985 - Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Tokyo won by
Katarina Witt (GDR)
1985 - Laura Johnson (Falcon Crest) & Harry Hamlin (LA
Law) wed
1986 - 16th Easter Seal Telethon raises $30,100,000
1986 - Juli Inkster wins LPGA Women's Kemper Golf Open
1986 - NASA announces searchers found remains of Challenger
astronauts
1986 - Soviet probe Vega 2 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,030
km
1987 - Chrysler Corp offered to buy American Motors Corp for
$1 billion
US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President &
Actor Ronald Reagan 1988 - President Reagan presides at unveiling of Knute
Rockne stamp
1989 - Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy
1989 - Roger Kingdom runs world record 60m hurdles indoor
(7.36 sec)
1989 - Senate rejects President Bush's nomination of John
Tower as Defense Secretary
1989 - Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of
the World Court
1989 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1990 - Dr Antonia Novello sworn-in as 1st hispanic/female US
surgeon general
1991 - "Les Miserables," opens at Lyric Theatre,
Brisbane
1991 - 5th American Comedy Award: Dennis Wolfberg
1991 - Joe Dumaars (Detroit) begins NBA free throw streak of
62 games
1991 - US 70th manned space mission STS 39 (Discovery 12)
launches into orbit
1993 - 19th People's Choice Awards
1993 - 7th Soul Train Music Awards
1993 - Pittsburgh Penguins begin NHL record 17 game winning
streak
1993 - Rodney King in court says he thinks he heard cops
yell racial slurs
Victim of Police Violence Rodney KingVictim of Police
Violence Rodney King 1994 - IRA launch 1st of 3 mortar attacks on London's
Heathrow Airport
1995 - Baseball awards a franchise to Tampa Bay Devil Rays
1995 - Mexican peso worth 7.55 pesos to a dollar (record)
1995 - President Konstantine Karamanlis (88) of Greece,
resigns
1996 - Javed Miandad's last international in Pak's WC QF
loss to India
1996 - Jayasuriya hammers 82 off 44 balls (13x4 3x6) v
England in WC QF
1996 - STS 75 (Columbia 19), lands
1997 - Senior Golf Slam
1997 - Steve Elkington wins Doral-Ryder Golf Open
2006 - Liquid water is discovered on Enceladus, the sixth
largest moon of Saturn.
2007 - The US Justice Department releases an internal audit
that found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had acted illegally in its
use of the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about US
citizens.
2011 - Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after
39 flights.
2012 - Senior members of hacking group Lulz Sec are
arrested, including one member of the FBI, in the United States, United Kingdom
and Ireland
2013 - 19 people are killed in two suicide bombings in
Kabul, Afghanistan
2013 - Asteroid 2013 ET comes within 960,000 metres from the
Earth’s surface
2013 - Bernard Hopkins defeats Tavoris Cloud to win IBF
Light Heavyweight title
1454 - Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. Matthias Ringmann, a German mapmaker, named the American continent in his honor. 1617 - The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops. 1734 - The Russians took Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland. 1745 - The first carillon was shipped from England to Boston, MA. 1788 - Connecticut became the 5th state to join the United States. 1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. The event was witnessed by U.S. President George Washington. 1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais were married. They were divorced in 1809. 1799 - The U.S. Congress contracted with Simeon North, of Berlin, CT, for 500 horse pistols at the price of $6.50 each. 1812 - Swedish Pomerania was seized by Napoleon. 1820 - The U.S. Congress passed the Land Act that paved the way for westward expansion of North America. 1822 - Charles M. Graham received the first patent for artificial teeth. 1832 - Abraham Lincoln announced that he would run for a political office for the first time. He was unsuccessful in his run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature. 1839 - The French Academy of Science announced the Daguerreotype photo process. 1858 - Albert Potts was awarded a patent for the letter box. 1859 - The National Association of Baseball Players adopted the rule that limited the size of bats to no more than 2-1/2 inches in diameter. 1860 - The first Japanese ambassador to the U.S. was appointed. 1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia fought to a draw in a five-hour battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia. 1863 - General Ulysses Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces. 1897 - A patent was issued to William Spinks and William Hoskins for cue chalk. 1900 - In Germany, women petition Reichstag for the right to take university entrance exams. 1905 - In Egypt, U.S. archeologist Davies discovered the royal tombs of Tua and Yua. 1905 - In Manchuria, Japanese troops surrounded 200,000 Russian troops that were retreating from Mudken. 1905 - In Congo, Belgian Vice Gov. Costermans committed suicide following an investigation of colonial policy. 1906 - In the Philippines, fifteen Americans and 600 Moros were killed in the last two days of fighting. 1909 - The French National Assembly passed an income tax bill. 1910 - Union men urged for a national sympathy strike for miners in Pennsylvania. 1911 - The funding for five new battleships was added to the British military defense budget. 1916 - Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico. 17 people were killed by the 1,500 horsemen. 1929 - Eric Krenz became the first athlete to toss the discus over 160 feet. 1932 - Eamon De Valera was elected president of the Irish Free State and pledged to abolish all loyalty to the British Crown. 1933 - The U.S. Congress began its 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation. 1936 - The German press warned that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections would be arrested. 1945 - "Those Websters" debuted on CBS radio. 1945 - During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan. 1946 - The A.F.L. accused Juan Peron of using the army to establish a dictatorship over Argentine labor. 1949 - The first all-electric dining car was placed in service on the Illinois Central Railroad. 1954 - WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV), in New York, broadcast the first local color television commercials. The ad was Castro Decorators of New York City. (New York) 1956 - British authorities arrested and deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus. He was accused of supporting terrorists. 1957 - Egyptian leader Nasser barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal. 1959 - Mattel introduced Barbie at the annual Toy Fair in New York. 1964 - Production began on the first Ford Mustang. 1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam. 1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Josef Stalin's daughter defected to the United States. 1969 - "The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour" was canceled by CBS-TV. 1975 - Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline. 1975 - Iraq launched an offensive against the rebel Kurds. 1977 - About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, DC. They killed one person and took more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later. 1983 - The official Soviet news agency TASS says that U.S. President Reagan is full of "bellicose lunatic anti-communism." 1985 - "Gone With The Wind" went on sale in video stores across the U.S. for the first time. 1986 - U.S. Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts. 1987 - Chrysler Corporation offered to buy American Motors Corporation. 1989 - The U.S. Senate rejected John Tower as a choice for a cabinet member. It was the first rejection in 30 years. 1989 - In Maylasia, 30 Asian nations conferred on the issue of "boat people". 1989 - In the U.S., a strike forced Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy. 1989 - In the U.S., President George H.W. Bush urged for a mandatory death penalty in drug-related killings. 1990 - Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as the first female and Hispanic surgeon general. 1993 - Rodney King testified at the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of violating his civil rights. (California) 1995 - The Canadian Navy arrested a Spanish trawler for illegally fishing off of Newfoundland. 2000 - In Norway, the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned as a result of an environmental dispute.
1796 Napoleon Bonaparte married Josephine de Beauharnais, widow of a former French officer executed during the revolution. 1841 The Supreme Court ruled that the Amistad slaves were free. 1862 The first battle between two ironclad ships, the Monitor (Union) and Merrimack (Confederate) occurred, revolutionizing naval warfare. 1933 The special session of Congress known as the "100 days" opened, launching FDR's New Deal. 1964 U.S. Supreme Court issued N.Y. Times v. Sullivan ruling. 1990 Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as both the first Hispanic and woman to be U.S. surgeon general.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar09.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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