March 09 in U.S. History

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March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

There are 297 days remaining until the end of the year.


Days until coming elections:
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html


U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/

1009 First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania#Prehistoric

The coat of arms of Cabral's family

1500 The fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Alvares_Cabral
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas

1509 Martin Luther received his bachelor of Bible degree from the University of Erfurt. Prior to this he had been a visiting professor at the University of Wittenberg (1508) to lecture on Aristotle’s Ethics. He preferred the study of theology and pursued a degree in Bible.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

Luther as an Augustinian friar

1522 Martin Luther preaches his Invocavit. For eight days beginning on March 9, Invocavit Sunday, and concluding on the following Sunday, Luther preached eight sermons that would become known as the Invocavit Sermons. In these sermons Luther counseled careful reform that took into consideration the consciences of those who were not yet persuaded to embrace reform. Communion in one kind (the consecrated bread) was restored for a time, the consecrated cup given only to those of the laity who desired it.
www.amug.org/~jpaul/mar09.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther


1569 The Altenburger Religionsgespräch, a colloquy held at Altenburg, Saxony, concluded on this date after beginning on 20 October 1568.
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=A&word=ALTENBURGCOLLOQUY

Portrait of Peter I by Godfrey Kneller, 1698. This portrait was Peter's gift to the King of England.

1697 Czar Peter the Great begins tour of West-Europe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Great#Early_reign


1708 General Article III rescript (Saxony) of this date fixed the maximum length of the main sermon at one hour and of the secondary and weekday sermon at forty-five minutes.


1745 Bells for 1st American carillon shipped from England to Boston
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bells_in_Boston
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_North_Church#The_bells

1781 Spanish siege of Pensacola begins
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spanish-siege-of-pensacola-begins
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Pensacola


1820 James Monroe's daughter Maria marries in the White House
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_L._Gouverneur
www.whitehouseweddings.com/maria-monroe.html

1822 Charles M Graham of New York patents artificial teeth
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_teeth#History

Lincoln in his late 30s as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Photo taken by one of Lincoln's law students around 1846.

1832 Abraham Lincoln of New Salem, IL announced that he would run for political office. Returning from a trip to New Orleans, he became a storekeeper in New Salem, Illinois. His friendliness, honesty, and talent for storytelling soon made him a popular local figure. He decided to enter politics, and in March 1832, he announced his candidacy for the state legislature. At this point the Black Hawk War, an Indian war, began in northern Illinois. Lincoln volunteered and served for three months, first as the elected captain of his own company, then as a private under other commanders. But he engaged in no actual fighting. Back home by July, he had only a few weeks for his political campaign. Election day brought defeat. He finished eighth among 13 candidates.
www.amug.org/~jpaul/mar09.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln#Early_career_and_militia_service


1841 Supreme Court rules on Amistad mutiny case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/supreme-court-rules-on-iamistadi-mutiny
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amistad_(1841)


1842 The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_San_Francisco#Gold_discovery

1843 Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Murray_McCheyne


1847 Mexican-American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Veracruz

1856 National Fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_Alpha_Epsilon

1858 Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox. In 1858, the first U.S. patent for a street mailbox was patented by Albert Potts of Philadelphia. It comprised a simple metal box designed to attach to a lamppost. By August, these boxes were found along the streets of Boston, MA, and New York City, NY. His patent described the "object of this improvement is to afford greater facilities to the inhabitants of large cities for the depositing of letters, and to enable the carriers to collect, or the citizens to deposit therein, at any period of time." The boxes had a central hole for the shaft of a lamp post, lids covering the drop hole to exclude weather, a sight hole so a carrier could see if any letters had been deposited, and a small door secured with a lock for the carrier to empty the box.
www.amug.org/~jpaul/mar09.html
postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2014/11/the-most-interesting-mailboxes-the-post-office-never-used.html

1860 1st Japanese ambassador arrives in San Francisco en route to Washington DC
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Ambassador_to_the_United_States

1861 Confederate currency authorized-$50, $100, $500, $1,000
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_Currency

Chromolithograph depicting the Battle of Hampton Roads

1862 "Monitor" (Union) & "Merrimack" (Rebel) battle in Hampton Roads
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/uss-imonitori-battles-css-ivirginiai
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads

Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant

1864 Ulysses S Grant is appointed commander of Union Army. Lincoln rejected Grant's plan to invade Alabama and Georgia. He also complained about Grant's willingness to keep the president informed of his actions. Lincoln commented that "General Grant is a copious worker, and fighter, but a very meagre writer, or telegrapher." Despite his doubts about Grant, in March, 1864, he was named lieutenant general and the commander of the Union Army.
www.amug.org/~jpaul/mar09.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S_Grant


1889 Kansas passes 1st general antitrust law in US
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitrust_law_in_the_United_States

1897 Indian fans start calling the team Indians (in 1915 becomes official)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Indians


1907 1st involuntary sterilization law enacted, Indiana

1910 The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmoreland_County_Coal_Strike_of_1910%E2%80%931911

1914 US Senator Albert Fall (infamous for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal) demands "Cubanisation of Mexico"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fall

1916 General Fransisco "Pancho" Villa leads Mexican band raid on Columbus NM (17 killed)
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pancho-villa-raids-us
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa

Portrait of O'Neill by Alice Boughton

1922 Eugene O'Neill's "Hairy Ape" premieres in New York NY
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hairy_Ape


1922 KJR-AM in Seattle WA begins radio transmissions
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KJR-AM

1923 Elmer Rice's "Adding Machine" premieres in New York NY (Elmer Leopold Reizenstein)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Rice

1926 Bertha Landes elected 1st woman mayor of Seattle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Landes

1930 Pioneer linguist Frank Laubach , "The Apostle to the Illiterates," wrote in a letter: 'It seems to me...that the very Bible cannot be read as a substitute for meeting God soul to soul and face to face.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Laubach


1931 The World Radio Missionary Fellowship (WRMF), also known as HCJB Global, was incorporated in Lima, Ohio, by co_founders Clarence W. Jones and Reuben Larson. Today, this interdenominational mission agency broadcasts the Gospel in 15 languages to South America and throughout Europe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Radio_Missionary_Fellowship,_Inc.

1933 Congress is called into special session by FDR, & began its "100 days"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal


1933 Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to the Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Banking_Act

1936 Babe Ruth turns down Reds to make a comeback as a player
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth




1942 Construction of the Alaska Highway began
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway

United States Army soldiers hunt Japanese infiltrators on Bougainville in March 1944.

1944 World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_Island


1945 334 US B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo with 120,000 fire bomb. On this day, U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history.

Early on March 9, Air Force crews met on the Mariana Islands of Tinian and Saipan for a military briefing. They were planning a low-level bombing attack on Tokyo that would begin that evening, but with a twist: Their planes would be stripped of all guns except for the tail turret. The decrease in weight would increase the speed of each Superfortress bomber-and would also increase its bomb load capacity by 65 percent, making each plane able to carry more than seven tons. Speed would be crucial, and the crews were warned that if they were shot down, all haste was to be made for the water, which would increase their chances of being picked up by American rescue crews. Should they land within Japanese territory, they could only expect the very worst treatment by civilians, as the mission that night was going to entail the deaths of tens of thousands of those very same civilians. "You're going to deliver the biggest firecracker the Japanese have ever seen," said U.S. Gen. Curtis LeMay.

The cluster bombing of the downtown Tokyo suburb of Shitamachi had been approved only a few hours earlier. Shitamachi was composed of roughly 750,000 people living in cramped quarters in wooden-frame buildings. Setting ablaze this "paper city" was a kind of experiment in the effects of firebombing; it would also destroy the light industries, called "shadow factories," that produced prefabricated war materials destined for Japanese aircraft factories.

The denizens of Shitamachi never had a chance of defending themselves. Their fire brigades were hopelessly undermanned, poorly trained, and poorly equipped. At 5:34 p.m., Superfortress B-29 bombers took off from Saipan and Tinian, reaching their target at 12:15 a.m. on March 10. Three hundred and thirty-four bombers, flying at a mere 500 feet, dropped their loads, creating a giant bonfire fanned by 30-knot winds that helped raze Shitamachi and spread the flames throughout Tokyo. Masses of panicked and terrified Japanese civilians scrambled to escape the inferno, most unsuccessfully. The human carnage was so great that the blood-red mists and stench of burning flesh that wafted up sickened the bomber pilots, forcing them to grab oxygen masks to keep from vomiting.

The raid lasted slightly longer than three hours. "In the black Sumida River, countless bodies were floating, clothed bodies, naked bodies, all black as charcoal. It was unreal," recorded one doctor at the scene. Only 243 American airmen were lost-considered acceptable losses.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-tokyo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo


1945 World War II: A coup d'état by Japanese forces in French Indochina removes the French from power.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina

1946 Ted Williams is offered $500,000 to play in Mexican League, he refuses
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams


1947 US Ladies Figure Skating Championship won by Gretchen Merrill
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretchen_Merrill

1947 US Men's Figure Skating Championship won by Richard Button
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Button

1949 The first all-electric dining car was placed in service. Passengers enjoyed all-electric cooking between Chicago and St. Louis. A wide variety of dishes was served in Illinois Central Railroad's dining cars from chicken, steak, and seafood that was prepared fresh on board and offered the "Yankee" way or was available with a touch of Creole flavor. Dessert was superb on these trains. The IC was noted for a variety of fresh-baked pies.
www.amug.org/~jpaul/mar09.html

1949 Brigadier General Edwin K Wright, USA, ends term as deputy director of CIA
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Director_of_the_Central_Intelligence_Agency

1950 Willie Sutton robs Manufacturers Bank of $64,000 in New York NY
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Sutton

1953 Josef Stalin buried in Moscow
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Stalin


1954 1st local color TV commercial WNBT-TV (WNBC-TV) New York NY (Castro Decorators)

Murrow in April 1956

1954 Edward R Murrow criticizes Senator Joseph McCarthy (See it Now)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_It_Now

Joseph McCarthy

1954 McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_It_Now


1954 Republican senators criticize Senator 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.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/republican-senators-criticize-joseph-mccarthy

1954 Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy. On this day in 1954, President Eisenhower writes a letter to his friend, Paul Helms, in which he privately criticizes Senator Joseph McCarthy s approach to rooting out communists in the federal government. Two days earlier, former presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson had declared that the president s silence on McCarthy s actions was tantamount to approval. Eisenhower, who viewed political mud-slinging as beneath the office of the president, declined to comment publicly on Stevenson s remark or McCarthy s tactics.

Eisenhower was not the only respected American to criticize McCarthy on March 9. Earlier in the day, in a congressional session, Senator Ralph Flanders had publicly censured McCarthy for his vicious persecution of innocent Americans whom he suspected of communist sympathies. That evening, journalist Edward R. Murrow warned in a newscast that McCarthy was "treading a fine line between investigation and persecution" in pursuing suspected communist infiltration of the federal government.

Although Eisenhower had yet to criticize McCarthy in public, according to an aide s memoirs, he did not hesitate to criticize McCarthy in private. On March 9, he referred to McCarthy as "a pimple on the path of progress" in a telephone call to Republican National Committee Chairman Leonard Hall. Later that evening, Eisenhower let off more steam about McCarthy in his letter to Helms. Ike worried that the country s obsession with the bombastic McCarthy, whether pro or con, drew attention away from equally important matters facing the nation. He complained to his friend that public policy and ideals "have a tough time competing for headlines with demagogues [like McCarthy]?It is a sad commentary on our government when such a manifestly useless and spurious thing can divert our attention from all the constructive work in which we could and should be engaged." Ike also defended himself from Stevenson s criticism in the letter, writing, "(I have not) acquiesced in, or by any means approve, the methods that McCarthy uses in his investigatory process. I despise them?"

Two days later, Helms wrote back in support of the president s decision not to lambaste McCarthy in public. He agreed with Eisenhower s opinion that the president should avoid public confrontations that might damage the "proper prestige" of the presidency. Many Americans at the time and since disagreed with Helms, believing that the president should have spoken out against McCarthy s tactics.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-criticizes-mccarthy


1954 WMUR TV channel 9 in Manchester NH (ABC) begins broadcasting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMUR_TV


1956 Soviet forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.

1957 A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_Andreanof_Islands_Earthquake



1957 HITS ARCHIVE: Young Love - Tab Hunter (his #1 version)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9GThJ2BgOA
1957 Teenage heartthrob Tab Hunter’s song "Young Love" was number one in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_Hunter


1958 George Yardley (Pistons) is 1st NBAer to score 2,000 points in season
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Yardley




1959 "Venus" by Frankie Avalon topped the charts
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Avalon


1959 Barbie doll "born," (Mattel). 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.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/3/9
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie

Global radar view of the surface from Magellan radar imaging between 1990 and 1994

1959 1st known radar contact is made with Venus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus

1960 Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belding_Hibbard_Scribner

1961 1st animal returned from space, dog named Blackie aboard Sputnik 9. Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9 was launched on March 9, 1961 and carried the black dog Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_9
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs#Chernushka




1961 Supremes release "I Want A Guy" & "Never Again"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremes


1962 US advisors in South-Vietnam join the fight
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#Diem_era.2C_1955.E2.80.931963



Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons - Walk Like A Man
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B95r6k1MouI
1963 "Walk Like a Man" by the Four Seasons topped the charts. "Walk Like a Man" was recorded under extraordinary circumstances - they recorded it in a burning building! According to guitarist Vinne Bell, their producer, Bob Crewe, locked the door to the studio (a standard practice on recording day), then after a while - and a couple of bad takes - the musicians smelled smoke and there was a pounding on the studio door. Crewe refused to unlock it, even though plaster was falling from the ceiling, because he wanted one more take to perfect the song. The musicians were afraid of electrocution as water leaked into the studio. The session ended when firemen axed open the studio door and knocked Crewe to the floor in the process.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_Like_a_Man_(The_Four_Seasons_song)


1964 1st Ford Mustang produced. In 1961, Ford Division Vice President and General Manager Lee Iacocca had a vision: a sporty car that would seat four people, be no more than 180 in. long, weigh less than 2500 lb, and sell for under $2500. On March 9, 1964, vision became reality as the first Mustang rolled off the assembly line. By the end of the day on April 17--the Mustang's official on-sale date--Ford had sold over 22,000 units, and the ponycar revolution was on. It remains one of America's most popular nameplates and makes a superb "first classic" and weekend playtoy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang

1964 Creighton's Paul Silas grabs Midwest record 27 rebounds against Oklahoma
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Silas

1964 Supreme Court issues New York Times vs Sullivan decision, public officials must prove malice to claim libel & recover damages
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan


1965 Marines continue to land at Da Nang. The 3,500 Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade under Brig. Gen. Frederick J. Karch continue to land at Da Nang. The Marines had begun disembarking from the USS Henrico, Union, and Vancouver</> on March 8 and were the first U.S. combat troops in South Vietnam. Among the arrivals on this day were the first U.S. armor in Vietnam--a tank of the 3rd Marine Tank Battalion. More tanks, including those with flame-throwing capability, followed in a few days. There was scattered firing from Viet Cong soldiers hidden ashore as the Marines landed, but no Marines were hit. The Marines were at once assigned to protect the U.S. base at Da Nang, both from the immediate perimeter and from the high ground along a ridge to the west.

Many others eventually joined this initial contingent of Marines. During the course of the war, the Marine Corps deployed one corps-level headquarters, two Marine divisions, two additional Marine regimental landing teams and a reinforced Marine aircraft wing, plus a number of battalion-size Marine special landing forces afloat with the 7th Fleet. Present at the beginning of U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps was also there at the end. In 1975, Marine Corps elements took part in the final evacuation of South Vietnam as the country fell to the North Vietnamese
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marines-continue-to-land-at-da-nang


1965 Three white Unitarian ministers, including the Rev. James J. Reeb, were attacked with clubs on the streets of Selma, Alabama, while participating in a civil rights demonstration. Reeb later died in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital.


1966 Andrew Brimmer becomes 1st black Governor of Federal Reserve Board

1967 Svetlana Allilueva, Stalin's daughter, defected to the West

1967 Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a Douglas DC-9-15, crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_553




1968 10th Grammy Awards: Up Up & Away, Sergeant Pepper win
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Grammy_Awards




1968 "Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat topped the charts.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27amour_est_bleu


1970 Marines hand over control of I Corps region. The U.S. Marines turn over control of the five northernmost provinces in South Vietnam to the U.S. Army. The Marines had been responsible for this area since they first arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. The change in responsibility for this area was part of President Richard Nixon's initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels as the South Vietnamese accepted more responsibility for the fighting. After the departure of the 3rd Marine Division from Vietnam in late 1969, the 1st Marine Division was the only marine division left operating in South Vietnam.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marines-hand-over-control-of-i-corps-region

1972 Players on White Sox vote 31-0 in favor of a strike, if necessary. Players on the White Sox vote 31-0 in favor of a strike, if necessary, during negotiations between players and owners. The dispute centers around health and pension benefits for players. This is the first of a series of landmark team votes. In two weeks the Sox will release vet pitcher Joel Horlen, the Sox player rep, and he will sign with Oakland.

H. Onoda, c. 1944

1974 Last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in Philippines, surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended. On March 9, 1974, Hiroo Onoda went to an agreed upon place and found a note that had been left by Suzuki, who he had met two weeks earlier. Along with the note, Suzuki had enclosed two photos that they had taken together the first time that they met along with copies of two army orders. The next day, Onoda decided to take a chance and made a two-day journey to meet up with Suzuki. His long hike paid off handsomely. Suzuki had brought along Onoda's one-time superior commander, Major Taniguchi, who delivered the oral orders for Onoda to surrender his sword.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda




1974 "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks topped the charts

1975 "Lieutenant" opens at Lyceum Theater NYC for 9 performances

1976 1st female cadets accepted to West Point Military Academy

1977 Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret), becomes 12th director of CIA replacing acting director Knoche.

1977 The Hanafi Muslim Siege: In a thirty-nine hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Hanafi_Muslim_Siege

1978 World Men's Figure Skating Championship in Ottawa won by Charles Tickner (USA)

1979 Bowie Kuhn orders baseball to give equal access to female reporters

1981 Dan Rather becomes primary anchorman of CBS-TV News

1984 Ralph A. Bohlmann, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, met with Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) at the Vatican in Rome.
lutheranhistory.org/presidents/pres_bohlmann.htm


1985 "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon topped the charts


1985 First Adopt-a-Highway sign goes up. On March 9, 1985, the first-ever Adopt-a-Highway sign is erected on Texas’s Highway 69. The highway was adopted by the Tyler Civitan Club, which committed to picking up trash along a designated two-mile stretch of the road.

The Adopt-a-Highway program really began the year before, when James Evans, an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, noticed litter blowing out of the back of a pickup truck he was following in Tyler, Texas. Concerned about the increasing cost to the government of keeping roadways clean, Evans soon began asking community groups to volunteer to pick up trash along designated sections of local highways. Evans got no takers for his idea; however, Billy Black, the public information officer for the Tyler District of the Texas Department of Transportation, took up the cause and organized the first official Adopt-a-Highway program, which included training and equipment for volunteers. After the Tyler Civitan Club’s sign went up on March 9, other groups volunteered to beautify their own stretches of highway. The program eventually spread to the rest of the U.S. and to such countries as Canada, Japan and New Zealand.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-adopt-a-highway-sign-goes-up


1986 16th Easter Seal Telethon raises $30,100,000
www.easterseals.org/events/telethon

Space Shuttle Challenger's smoke plume after its in-flight breakup, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of all seven crew members.

1986 NASA announces searchers found remains of Challenger astronauts

STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster#Recovery_of_debris


1987 Chrysler Corp offered to buy American Motors Corp for $1 billion

1988 President Reagan presides at unveiling of Knute Rockne stamp. In 1988, the United States Postal Service honored Rockne with a postage stamp. President Ronald Reagan, who played George Gipp in the movie "Knute Rockne, All American" gave an address at the Athletic & Convocation Center at the University of Notre Dame on March 9, 1988, and officially unveiled the Rockne stamp.

1989 Senate rejects Bush's nomination of John Tower as Defense Secretary

1989 Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of the World Court

1989 A strike forces financially-troubled Eastern Air Lines into bankruptcy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines

1990 Dr Antonia Novello sworn-in as 1st hispanic/female US surgeon general
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Novello

1991 5th American Comedy Awards: Dennis Wolfberg

1991 Joe Dumaars (Detroit MI) begins NBA free throw streak of 62 games

1991 US 70th manned space mission STS 39 (Discovery 12) launches into orbit



1993 Rodney King testifies against the four LAPD officers accused of violating his civil rights when they beat him during his 1991 arrest, in court says he thinks he heard cops yell racial slurs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King

1993 19th People's Choice Awards

1993 7th Soul Train Music Awards

1993 Pittsburgh Penguins begin NHL record 17 game winning streak

1995 Baseball awards a franchise to Tampa Bay Devil Rays
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Bay_Devil_Rays

2011 Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.



Births

1454 Amerigo Vespucci born, explorer, navigator and cartographer. The continent of America is popularly believed to have derived its name from the feminized Latin version of his first name. This could be Vespucciland.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci

1806 Edwin Forrest, born, American blackface actor and philanthropist (d. 1872)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Forrest

1815 David Davis, born, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, had served as Abraham Lincoln's campaign committe (d. 1886)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Davis_(Supreme_Court_justice)

1820 Samuel Blatchford, born, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, friend of Daniel Webster (d. 1893)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Blatchford

1824 Leland Stanford tycoon, (Governor/Senator)/ founded Stanford University
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Stanford

1833 Frederick A. Schroeder, industrialist and mayor of Brooklyn, fought against Brooklyn machine (d. 1899)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_A._Schroeder

1839 Phoebe Palmer Knapp, American Methodist hymnwriter and evangelist. She published more than 500 hymn tunes during her lifetime; her most famous melody comprises the tune to Fanny Crosby's hymn, "Blessed Assurance." Her parents were Walter C. Palmer and Phoebe Worrall Palmer, the famous evangelist and author. (d. 1908)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Knapp
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/k/n/a/knapp_pp.htm


1839 Felix Huston Robertson , Brigadier General (Confederate Army), only native-born Texan to serve as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, died in 1928
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Huston_Robertson

1856 Eddie Foy, American singer, dancer and vaudevillian (d. 1928)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Foy

1865 Margaret Murray Washington wife of Booker T (NACW 1896..1918)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murray_Washington

1900 Howard Aiken, American computing pioneer, the original conceptual designer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I computer (d. 1973)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Aiken

1902 Edward Durell Stone US, architect (US Embassy, New Delhi, Radio City Music Hall, Museum of Modern Art, Kennedy Center, Standard Oil Building, 2 Columbus Circle)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Durell_Stone

1902 Will Greer Frankfort IN, actor (Grandpa Walton-The Waltons)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Geer

1904 Paul Klipsch, American engineer and high fidelity audio pioneer, known for developing the high-efficiency folded horn loudspeaker, who revolutionized the way the world listens to recorded music. (d. 2002)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klipsch

1909 Derk Bodde, American sinologist He authored pioneering work in the history of the Chinese legal system. (d. 2003)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derk_Bodde




1910 Samuel Barber, American composer. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music. (d. 1981)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Barber

1914 Fred Clark Lincoln CA, actor (Burns & Allen as neighbor Harry Morton, Auntie Mame, Hazard)

1917 Dante B Fascell born (Representative-Democrat-FL, 1955- ) (d 1998)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Fascell

1918 George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party (d. 1967)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lincoln_Rockwell

1918 Mickey [Frank Morrison] Spillane Brooklyn NY, mystery writer (I the Jury) (d. 2006)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Spillane

1922 Herbert P Douglas Jr Pittsburgh PA, long jumper (Olympics-bronze-1948)

1923 James Buckley (Senator-Republican-NY)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Buckley

1927 Jack Jensen, baseball player, an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for three American League teams from 1950 to 1961, most notably the Boston Red Sox. He was named the AL's Most Valuable Player in 1958 after hitting 35 home runs and leading the league with 122 runs batted in; he also led the league in RBI two other years, and in triples and stolen bases once each.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Jensen




1930 Ornette Coleman, American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s. Coleman's timbre is easily recognized: his keening, crying sound draws heavily on blues music. His album Sound Grammar received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornette_Coleman



Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro Ouverture - Thomas Schippers Orchestra - Carlo Grandi conductor
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr0d8xtQUYc
1930 Thomas Schippers, Kalamazoo MI, conductor (Amahl & Night Visitors)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Schippers




1932 Keely Smith, Norfolk, Virginia), born as Dorothy Jacqueline Keely (of Cherokee and Irish descent) is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among other, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keely_Smith




1933 Lloyd Price, Kenner LA, singer (Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Misty, Just Because, Come to Me)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Price


1934 Del Close, considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater. An actor, improviser, writer, and teacher, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows. He was a co-author of the book Truth in Comedy along with partner Charna Halpern, which outlines techniques now common to longform improvisational theater and describes the overall structure of “Harold” which remains a common frame for longer improvisational scenes.[1] His favorite framework for comedic storytelling was the structures of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Close

1934 Yuri Gagarin, Russia, cosmonaut, 1st man into space (aboard Vostok 1)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin


1934 Joyce Van Patten, American actress
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Van_Patten

1935 Andrew Viterbi, Italan-American, electrical engineer and businessman. In 1967 he invented the Viterbi algorithm, which he used for decoding convolutionally encoded data. It is still used widely in cellular phones for error correcting codes, as well as for speech recognition, DNA analysis, and many other applications of Hidden Markov models.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Viterbi




1936 Marty Ingels Brooklyn NY, comedian (I'm Dickens He's Fenster)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Ingels




1936 Mickey Gilley Ferriday LA, country singer (Urban Cowboy), Among his biggest hits are "Room Full of Roses," "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time," and the remake of the Soul hit "Stand by Me". He is also the cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl McVoy, Jim Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Gilley


1938 Charles Siebert, Kenosha WI, actor (One Day at A Time, Trapper John)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Siebert

1940 Raul Julia, San Juan Puerto Rico, actor (Addams Family, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Eyes of Laura Mars)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Juli%C3%A1

1941 Jim Colbert, Elizabeth NJ, PGA golfer (1969 Monsanto Open)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Colbert

1941 Ernesto Miranda, American litigant, a laborer whose conviction on kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery charges based on his confession under police interrogation resulted in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case (Miranda v. Arizona), which ruled that criminal suspects must be informed of their right against self-incrimination and their right to consult with an attorney prior to questioning by police. This warning is known as a Miranda warning.(d. 1976)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Miranda

1942 Bert Campaneris, shortstop, played for four American League teams, primarily the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics. One of the mainstays of the Athletics' championship teams of 1971 to 1975, he holds the A's franchise records for career games played (1795), hits (1882) and at bats (7180). After leading the AL in stolen bases six times from 1965 to 1972, he retired with the seventh most steals in history (649); he also held the Athletics' career record from 1972 to 1990. He led the league in putouts three times, and ended his career among the major league leaders in games (5th, 2097) and double plays (7th, 1186) at his position. He hold the record for most errors since 1940, with 388. His cousin José Cardenal was a major league outfielder for 18 seasons.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Campaneris


1942 John Cale, Welsh/US bassist/violinist/singer (Velvet Underground)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cale




1942 Mark Lindsay, Eugene OR, rocker (Paul Revere & the Raiders)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lindsay

1943 Charles Gibson, American television journalist
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gibson

1943 Bobby Fischer , US, world chess champion (1972-75)
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bobby-fischer-born
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

1943 Trish Van Devere [Patricia Dressel], Englewood Cliffs NJ, actress (Changeling, Movie Movie, Hearse)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trish_Van_Devere

1945 Dennis Rader, Kansas BTK serial killer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader




1948 Jimmy Fadden, Long Beach CA, singer (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitty_Gritty_Dirt_Band



upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/DannySullivan.jpg
1950 Danny Sullivan , Indy-car racer (over 10 wins)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Sullivan




1951 Michael Kinsley, American journalist and editor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kinsley

1952 William Kirby Cullen , Santa Ana CA, actor (How the West Was Won)
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kirby_Cullen




1955 Fernando Bujones, Miami FL, ballet dancer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Bujones




1957 Faith Daniels , news anchor (CBS-TV)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Daniels

1959 Kato [Brian] Kaelin, actor (Beach Fever)/OJ houseguest/witness
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kato_Kaelin




1959 Lonny Price, New York NY, actor (Muppets Take Manhattan)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonny_Price

1960 Linda Fiorentino, Philadelphia PA, actress (Jade, Last Seduction, Moderns)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Fiorentino

1960 Mike Leach, Minneapolis MN, tennis star
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Leach_(tennis)


1962 Brian Green, Columbus IN, actor (Brian Bodine-All My Children, Sam Fowler-Another World)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Austin_Green

1963 Kent Ferguson, Cedar Rapids IA, diver (Olympics-92, 96)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Ferguson

1963 Terry Mulholland born, Uniontown PA, pitcher (Philadelphia Phillies)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Mulholland

1964 Phil Housley born, St Paul MN, NHL defenseman (New Jersey Devils, Team USA Olympics-98)

1965 Benito Santiago born, Ponce PR, catcher (Philadelphia Phillies)

1965 Brian Bosworth born, NFL quarterback (Seattle)

1965 Juliette Binoche born, Paris France, actress (English Patient, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Damage)

1966 Louis Oliver born, NFL safety (Miami Dolphins)

1967 Curt Schreiner born, Albany NY, biathlete (Olympics-1994)

1967 Eric Flaim born, Pembroke MA, short track skater (Olympics-1994)

1969 Mahmoud Abdul Rauf , NBA guard (Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets)

1970 Melissa Rathburn-Nealy, US soldier (Iraqi POW)

1971 Bev Oden , Millington TN, volleyball middle blocker (Olympics-96)

1971 Emmanuel Lewis, Brooklyn NY, actor (Webster)



Deaths


1809 Christopher Emanuel Schultze, son-in-law of H. M. Muhlenberg and a Lutheran pastor in Philadelphia, (b. 25 January 1740, Saxony).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=m&word=MUHLENBERG.HENRYMELCHIOR.ANDFAMILY


1847 Mary Anning (b 21 May 1799) English fossil collector, dealer, and amateur paleontologist who became known around the world for important finds she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Her findings contributed to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning

1922 Williston Walker, American church historian (b. 1 July 1860).

1931 Emanuel Cronenwett, pastor, hymnist, hymn translator and poet, died at Butler, Pennsylvania (b. 22 February 1841).

1931 Ida B Wells-Barnett famous black, in Chicago at 78, an African American journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented the extent of lynching in the United States, and was also active in the women's rights movement and the women's suffrage movement.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells

1939 Frederick Berg, the first resident missionary and pastor of the African American Lutheran church in Little Rock, Arkansas, died (b. 20 March 1856).

1946 Oscar John Johnson, Lutheran college president, (b. 8 October 1870, Cleburne, Kansas).

1948 Civilla D. Martin (b. 21 August 1866), American hymn writer

1952 Edwin Albert Benjamin Schlueter, president of the Lutheran Synodical Conference, died (b. 28 August 1880, Watertown, Wisconsin).

1962 Dr Howard Engstrom Boston MA, a designer of Univac computer, 59
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_Research_Associates

1981 Max Delbrück German/US biologist (Nobel 1969), 74

1982 Alan Badel actor (Shogun), heart attack at 58

1982 Rex Marshall TV announcer (Circuit Rider, Herman Hickman Show)

1983 Faye Emerson actress (I've Got a Secret), cancer at 65

1985 Edward Andrews actor (Broadside, Harry-Supertrain), 70

1986 Ned Calmer TV host (In the First Person), 78

1989 Robert Mapplethorpe US photographer, 42

1992 James Brooks US mural painter (Flight, La Guardia NY), 85

1992 Menachim Begin Israeli prime minister (1977-1983, Nobel 1979), 79

1993 Bob Crosby swing-era bandleader (Bobcats), cancer, 79

1994 Lawrence E Spivak journalist (Meet the Press), 93
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_E._Spivak

1996 Comedian George Burns, 100. On this day in 1996, the legendary cigar-chomping performer George Burns dies at his home in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.

Born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City, Burns was one of 12 children. As a young child, he sang for pennies on street corners and in saloons, and at age 13, he started a dance academy with a friend. In 1922, Burns was performing the latest in a string of song-and-dance acts in Newark, New Jersey, when he teamed up with a fellow performer, Gracie Allen. Though Allen began as the straight one in their partnership, her natural comedic ability prompted Burns to rewrite their material to give her most of the punch lines. From then on, Burns played the straight man to Allen’s ditz, with hilarious results.

By the time Burns and Allen married in 1926 (his brief first marriage, to the dancer Hannah Siegel, ended in divorce), they had already become known on the vaudeville circuit. The 1920s were a golden era for vaudeville performers, and Burns and Allen were only two of a number of greats--their peers included Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Bert Lahr and Jack Benny (Burns’ close friend)--who successfully made the transition to other forms of entertainment. After making their radio debut in 1929, the pair landed a regular show, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, which aired from 1932 to 1950 on the NBC network. In the late 1930s, the program’s audience numbered more than 40 million people and NBC paid Burns and Allen $10,000 per week, an enormous sum for the time. The couple also played themselves on the big screen in a number of films, including International House (1933), Many Happy Returns (1934), A Damsel in Distress (1937) and College Swing (1938).

In 1950, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show made a seamless transition to television, airing on CBS and becoming one of the top-ranked programs for the duration of the decade. The Burns-Allen team remained in the public eye until Allen’s retirement in 1959. She died of a heart attack in 1964, at the age of 58. Though Allen was a Roman Catholic, Burns buried her with Episcopal rites, explaining that as a Jewish man he couldn’t be buried in Catholic-consecrated ground, and he wanted to be buried beside her.

After Burns underwent major heart surgery in 1975 at the age of 79, his career got a second wind. That year, he played a retired vaudevillian in the film adaptation of Neil Simon’s play The Sunshine Boys, co-starring Walter Matthau and Richard Benjamin. Burns won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role. After that, there was no shortage of movie parts for the octogenarian actor, who played God in Oh God! (1977) and its sequels, Oh God! Book II (1980) and Oh God! You Devil (1984), in which Burns was featured as both God and the Devil. He also starred in Just You and Me, Kid (1979), Going in Style (1979) and Eighteen Again (1988).

In 1988, Burns won an award for lifetime achievement from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He wrote two best-selling autobiographical works, including Gracie: A Love Story (1988) and All My Best Friends (1989), along with eight other books that earned him his well-deserved reputation as an invaluable first-hand observer of the history of 20th century entertainment.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/comedian-george-burns-dies-at-age-100

1997 Christopher Wallace, Notorius B I G , rapper, shot dead at 24 in Los Angeles. If all publicity is good publicity, then New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment and Los Angeles-based Death Row Records got better publicity than they ever could have purchased as a result of the feud that broke out between the two companies in the mid-1990s. As the artists associated with the two hip-hop record labels traded taunts and insults on their records and onstage, the hip-hop press covered every twist and turn, and soon the mainstream media were breathlessly declaring a so-called "bi-coastal rap war." The rivalry was incredibly good for business. It propelled Sean "Puffy" Combs's Bad Boy Entertainment and Marion "Suge" Knight's Death Row Records into the spotlight, selling millions upon millions of both labels' records in the process. But the "East Coast vs. West Coast" beef also took the lives of two of hip-hop's biggest stars: Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. "The Notorious B.I.G." After dominating the hip-hop industry during years of record growth in the mid-1990s, that feud finally came to an end with the shooting death of Wallace on a crowded Los Angeles street on March 9, 1997.

Christopher Wallace was a Brooklyn-based rapper whose 1994 album, Ready to Die, was largely responsible for making Bad Boy Records a success. On the night he was killed, Wallace was riding in the passenger seat of a GMC Suburban when a Toyota Land Cruiser pulled up alongside him at corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. The driver of the Land Cruiser opened fire on Wallace, fatally wounding him.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggie_Smalls


2005 Pauline Small (b November 30, 1924) the first woman to be elected to office in the Crow Tribe of Indians. In 1966 she was elected to Vice-Secretary of the Crow Tribal Council, holding office de facto to 1972, and served in various positions within the Crow Tribal Offices, many to do with supporting education.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Small

2011 David S. Broder, American journalist (b. 1929)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_S._Broder


Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:

Catherine of Bologna

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

Frances of Rome

Gregory of Nyssa

Pacian

Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria


March 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)


Saints

Martyr Urpasianus the Senator, at Nicomedia, by being burned alive (c. 305)

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (320):
Cyrion (or Quirio), Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Xanthias, Helianus, Sisinius, Angus, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Dometian, Gaius, Leontius, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, Aglaius, and Meliton.

Saint Caesarius of Nazianzus (Caesarios the Doctor), brother of St. Gregory the Theologian (369)

Saint Philoromus the Confessor, of Galatia (4th century)

Saint Tarasius the Wonderworker, of Lycaonia.


Pre-Schism Western saints

Saint Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona (390)

Saint Constantine of Cornwall and Govan (576) (see also: March 11)

Saint Bosa of York, Bishop of York (705)

Venerable Vitalis of Castronovo, Sicily (994)

Saint Anthony, a monk at Luxeuil in France, became a hermit in Froidemont in Franche-Comté (10th century)


Post-Schism Orthodox saints

Saint Jonah, archbishop of Novgorod (1470)

New Martyrs (two priests and forty students) of Momisici (Montenegro) (1688)

Venerable Elder Cleopas of Ostrov-Vvedensky Monastery (1778)

Saint Theodosius Levitsky, priest of Balta (Odessa) (1845)

Saint Dimitra (Ihorova), nun and foundress of the Vvedensk (Vovedenska) Convent in Kiev (1878)


New martyrs and confessors

New Hieromartyr Mitrophan Buchnoff, Archpriest, of Voronezh (1931)

New Hieromartyr Joasaph (Shakhov), Abbot, of Popovka (Moscow) (1938)


New Hieromartyrs:

Michael Maslov, Alexis Smirnov, Demetrius Glivenko, Sergius Lebedev, Sergius Zvetkov, Priests; and
Nicholas Goryunov, Protodeacon (1938)

Virgin-martyrs Natalia Yulianova and Alexandra Samoylovoy (1938)


Other commemorations

"Albazin" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos ("The Word Was Made Flesh") (1666)

Repose of Schema-Archimandrite Theophilus (Rossokha) of Kiev (1996)





www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih0309.htm

www.amug.org/~jpaul/mar09.html

www.hymntime.com/tch/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_9

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_9_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)

[akaCG]

"1964 1st Ford Mustang produced"

[Evon]

Mar 9, 2010 1:06:18 GMT -5 akaCG said:

"1964 1st Ford Mustang produced"

The Mustang came out about the time I might have bought a car. The problem for me was that EVERYBODY was driving a Mustang--and therefore I wouldn't. Plus at that time, I lived in Minneapolis and public transportation worked just fine for me. I took a taxi when the temp was below zero or it was raining heavily and rented a car for the occasional trips to out-of-town weddings and such.

All in all, it was a lot cheaper than owning a car.

[Evon]

1781 Spanish siege of Pensacola begins

After successfully capturing British positions in Louisiana and Mississippi, Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, commander of the Spanish forces in North America, turns his attention to the British-occupied city of Pensacola, Florida, on this day in 1781. General Galvez and a Spanish naval force of more than 40 ships and 3,500 men landed at Santa Rosa Island and begin a two-month siege of British occupying forces that becomes known as the Battle of Pensacola.
Galvez s flotilla survived a hurricane in harbor before initiating two months of constant artillery and cannon bombardment of the British forts. By April 23, reinforcements had arrived, increasing Galvez s total force to 7,800 and, on the morning of May 8, 1781, the 18-year British occupation of Pensacola, Florida, ended with a British surrender. The British lost 105 men; the Spanish lost 78. An additional 198 Spaniards were wounded. Spain took 1,113 prisoners and sent 300 Britons to Georgia on the promise that they would not reenter the British military.

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spanish-siege-of-pensacola-begins
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Pensacola

[Evon]

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.

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/supreme-court-rules-on-iamistadi-mutiny
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amistad_(1841)

[Evon]

1862 "Monitor" (Union) & "Merrimack" (Rebel) battle in Hampton Roads

One of the most famous naval battles in history occurs as the ironclads Monitor and Virginia fight to a draw off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The ships pounded each other all morning but the armor plates easily shed the cannon shots, signaling a new era of steam-powered iron ships.
The C.S.S. Virginia was originally the U.S.S. Merrimack, a forty-gun frigate launched in 1855. The Confederates captured it and covered it in heavy armor plating above the waterline. Outfitted with powerful guns, the Virginia was a formidable vessel when the Confederates launched her in February 1862. On March 8, the Virginia sunk two Union ships and ran one aground off Hampton Roads.

The next day, the U.S.S. Monitor steamed into the bay. Designed by Swedish engineer John Ericsson, the vessel had an unusually low profile, rising from the water only 18 inches. The flat iron deck had a 20-foot cylindrical turret rising from the middle of the ship; the turret housed two 11-inch Dahlgren guns. The shift had a draft of less than 11 feet so it could operate in the shallow harbors and rivers of the South. It was commissioned on February 25, 1862, and arrived at Chesapeake Bay just in time to engage the Virginia.

At 9:00 am, the duel began and continued for four hours. The ships circled one another, jockeying for position as they fired their guns. The cannon balls simply deflected off the iron ships. In the early afternoon, the Virginia pulled back to Norfolk. Neither ship was seriously damaged, but the Monitor effectively ended the short reign of terror that the Confederate ironclad had brought to the Union navy.

Both ships met ignominious ends. When the Yankees invaded the James Peninsula two months after the battle at Hampton Roads, the retreating Confederates scuttled their ironclad. The Monitor went down in bad weather off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at the end of the year. Though they had short lives, the ships ushered in a new era in naval warfare.

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/uss-imonitori-battles-css-ivirginiai
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads

[Evon]

1916 General Fransisco "Pancho" Villa leads Mexican band raid on Columbus NM (17 killed)

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.

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pancho-villa-raids-us
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa

[Evon]

1943 Bobby Fischer born, US, world chess champion (1972-75)

On this day in 1943, Bobby Fischer is born in Chicago, Illinois. Fischer went on to become the only American ever to win the chess world championship. He also became well-known for his strange behavior, which paranoia and anti-Semitic and anti-American rants, in spite of his Jewish background and American upbringing.

Raised in Brooklyn, New York, by his mother, Fischer was introduced to chess at the age of six. By the time he was a teenager, he was known as the wunderkind of American chess and in 1956, he won the U.S. chess championship at the age of 14, making him the youngest champion in American history. At 15, he became the youngest international grandmaster in chess history when he placed in the top six of the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal tournament.

In Fischer’s day, FIDE, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or World Chess Federation, hosted Candidates tournaments to determine the challengers for the World Chess Championship. After the 1962 Candidates, Fischer accused the Russian players of collusion and then withdrew from the next World Championship series. For the next several years, Fischer sabotaged himself in competition with his anti-social behavior. In 1972, the U.S. Chess Federation intervened, forcing other top qualifiers for that year’s Candidates to resign so that Fischer could play for the World Championship. Once there, Fischer completely outclassed his opponents. After a winning streak of 20 matches, he defeated former World Champion Tigran Petrosian to face Boris Spassky for the World Championship.
The match, however, almost didn’t take place. Fischer made enormous demands of the tournament’s Icelandic hosts. He insisted on receiving the lions’ share of the gate proceeds and a larger prize than Spassky if he won, all while accusing the hosts of being puppets of the Soviet chess team, whom he branded communists. When the championship finally began, Fischer played uncharacteristically poorly and dropped the first two games to Spassky, only rebounding after convincing his opponent to play the remaining matches in a back room, away from the cameras. Fischer’s eventual win made him an instant celebrity, marking a watershed moment for chess in America, where he was portrayed as a typical American boy making good over the impersonal, communist Soviet juggernaut.

When the time came to defend his championship three years later, Fischer forfeited the match after FIDE refused to meet yet another string of his riduclous demands. Though he was clearly the dominant player in the world, and had attained the highest chess or Elo rating (determining a player’s skill) in history, he was forced to retire from international competition in 1975. Fischer’s behavior became increasingly erratic and bizarre in subsequent years: In 1984, he wrote to the publishers of Encyclopedia Judaica and asked that his name be removed from their digest. After September 11, 2001, Fischer went on the radio and announced that the World Trade Center attacks were merely comeuppance for George Bush’s regime.

Fischer’s last public match, again against Spassky, was held in Yugoslavia in 1992 in spite of a United Nations embargo against sporting events in that country. Fischer defeated Spassky for a more than $2 million prize. He then became a wanted man on his native soil for tax evasion, and in 2000 he publicly denounced his American citizenship.

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bobby-fischer-born
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

[sectionhand]

The above entry regarding U.S. Grant is incorrect in both spirit and fact . Lincoln had implicit trust in Grant and the quote regarding their communications is taken out of context . Don't trust Wikipedia . Instead , read credible Historians : Alan Nevins , Lloyd Lewis , Bruce Catton , Gary Gallagher and James Mc Phearson .

[akaCG]

Mar 9, 2010 13:36:23 GMT -5 @sectionhand said:

...
Lincoln had implicit trust in Grant and the quote regarding their communications is taken out of context . Don't trust Wikipedia .
...

Correct on both counts. Wikipedia is fairly often wrong/misleading.

And Lincoln did trust Grant. The article linked below supports this:
www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=133&subjectID=2

[Evon]

Mar 9, 2010 13:36:23 GMT -5 @sectionhand said:

The above entry regarding U.S. Grant is incorrect in both spirit and fact . Lincoln had implicit trust in Grant and the quote regarding their communications is taken out of context . Don't trust Wikipedia . Instead , read credible Historians : Alan Nevins , Lloyd Lewis , Bruce Catton , Gary Gallagher and James Mc Phearson .

Sectionhand, good to hear from you.

Are you saying that Lincoln did not reject Grant's plan to invade?

The money quote I remember Lincoln saying about Grant is, "I like this man, he fights."

Lincoln might have had some doubts about Grant in some areas. Or the statment might be the attempt of the writer to add some tension to the story.

Another good book is Lincoln's Generals by T. Harry Williams.

With regard with this feature on history, I'm using the lists and Wiki. Anyone who wants to chip in additional or contradictory information is welcome to.

These are springboards for discussion.

The items from the History Channel are claimed to be fact checked.

The birthdays, deaths and events from the scopyes list are often wrong or can't be documented. I try to exclude them unless they sound very interesting and there might be someone who would know more about the facts. A lot of inclusions on the list look like the result of aggressive agenting or publicity people.

Obviously this is not an original source. And I certainly don't have time to read up on the originals.

Please do comment again.

[Evon]

1697 Czar Peter the Great begins tour of West-Europe

This is in because it affects me. When my sister and I were in Wredenhagen, the birthplace of our great-great- great grandfather, I saw a board in the city square celebrating the city's 7th Centennial. On it, it told how Peter II (actually Peter I by Russian records--no way were they going to refer to him as "great" when the only "great" is Friederich der Grosse) visited in 1697 and took great interest in the products and methods of the cities artisans.

[sectionhand]

Lincoln most certainly did not reject Grant's plan " to invade " . There was no such thing , in Lincoln's thinking , about "invasion" . The South was U.S. territory . Grant told Lincoln very plainly that his strategy was "to choke and chew" . That was language which Lincoln understood .... and liked . As Grant was on his way to Washington to accept command of all the U.S. Armies , he and Sherman met in a Cincinnati , Ohio hotel and determined their strategy over a map spread out on the floor .

Many risks were taken , not the least of which was Sherman's determination to cut his supply lines and march from Atlanta to the sea . Grant was a bit trepidatious about it but trusted Sherman . Grant's Overland Campaign was long , arduous and bloody ; causing Lincoln great concern but he finally understood that Grant's object was the destruction of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia . He sent Grant a telegraph message and told him that although he had had doubts now he could see what Grant was trying to do .

Placing Grant in command of all armed forces ( and that included the Navy ) was the true turning point of the war . With that decision the end was a foregone conclusion .

An interesting aside to this discussion is that in April 1865 , when the war was essentially concluded , the United States had the most powerful military on earth ( both army and navy ) . It would be eighty years ( April 1945 ) before that could be said again .

[Evon]

Mar 10, 2010 6:14:57 GMT -5 @sectionhand said:

An interesting aside to this discussion is that in April 1865 , when the war was essentially concluded , the United States had the most powerful military on earth ( both army and navy ) . It would be eighty years ( April 1945 ) before that could be said again .

A sad but true fact of war. One must have been in a war to have an experienced, powerful army.