March 9

March 9 is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 297 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

Pre-1600

• 141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han dynasty of China.
• 1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
• 1226 – Khwarazmian sultan Jalal ad-Din conquers the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
• 1230 – Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus in the Battle of Klokotnitsa.
• 1500 – The fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.

1601–1900

• 1701 – Safavid troops retreat from Basra, ending a three-year occupation.
• 1765 – After a 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 may have actually died by suicide.
• 1776 – The Wealth of Nations by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith is published.
• 1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
• 1811 – Paraguayan forces defeat Manuel Belgrano at the Battle of Tacuarí.
• 1815 – Francis Ronalds describes the first battery-operated clock in the Philosophical Magazine.
• 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
• 1842 – Giuseppe Verdi's third opera, Nabucco, receives its première performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera composers.
• 1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
• 1847 – Mexican–American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.
• 1862 – American Civil War: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (rebuilt from the engines and lower hull of the USS Merrimack) fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1901–present

• 1908 – Inter Milan was founded on Football Club Internazionale, following a schism from A.C. Milan.
• 1916 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.
• 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.
• 1942 – World War II: Dutch East Indies unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese forces in Kalijati, Subang, West Java, and the Japanese completed their Dutch East Indies campaign.
• 1944 – World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.
• 1945 – World War II: A coup d'état by Japanese forces in French Indochina removes the French from power.
• 1945 – World War II: Allied forces carry out firebombing over Tokyo, destroying most of the capital and killing over 100,000 civilians.
• 1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.
• 1954 – McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly.
• 1956 – Soviet forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
• 1957 – The 8.6 M_w  Andreanof Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami.
• 1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
• 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.
• 1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a dog and a human dummy, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
• 1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553 crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26 people.
• 1974 – The Mars 7 Flyby bus releases the descent module too early, missing Mars.
• 1976 – Forty-two people die in the Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.
• 1977 – The Hanafi Siege: In a 39-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings.
• 1978 – President Soeharto inaugurated Jagorawi Toll Road, the first toll highway in Indonesia, connecting Jakarta, Bogor and Ciawi, West Java.
• 1987 – Chrysler announces its acquisition of American Motors Corporation
• 1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day. As the comet made its closest approach to Earth on March 26, all 39 active members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed ritual mass suicide over a period of three days, in the belief that their spirits would be teleported into an alien spacecraft flying inside the comet's tail.
• 1997 – The Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles after attending the Soul Train Music Awards. He is gunned down leaving an after party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. His murder remains unsolved.
• 2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.

Births

Pre-1600

• 1451 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer, namesake of the Americas (d. 1512)
• 1564 – David Fabricius, German theologian, cartographer and astronomer (d. 1617)
• 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint, namesake of Gonzaga University (d. 1591)

1601–1900

• 1662 – Franz Anton von Sporck, German noble (d. 1738)
• 1697 – Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress (d. 1760)
• 1737 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1781)
• 1749 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French journalist and politician (d. 1791)
• 1753 – Jean-Baptiste Kléber, French general (d. 1800)
• 1758 – Franz Joseph Gall, German neuroanatomist and physiologist (d. 1828)
• 1763 – William Cobbett, English journalist and author (d. 1835)
• 1806 – Edwin Forrest, American actor and philanthropist (d. 1872)
• 1814 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and playwright (d. 1861)
• 1815 – David Davis, American jurist and politician (d. 1886)
• 1820 – Samuel Blatchford, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1893)
• 1824 – Amasa Leland Stanford, American businessman and politician, founded Stanford University (d. 1893)
• 1847 – Martin Pierre Marsick, Belgian violinist, composer, and educator (d. 1924)
• 1850 – Hamo Thornycroft, English sculptor and academic (d. 1925)
• 1856 – Eddie Foy, Sr., American actor and dancer (d. 1928)
• 1863 – Mary Harris Armor, American suffragist (d. 1950)
• 1887 – Fritz Lenz, German geneticist and physician (d. 1976)
• 1890 – Rupert Balfe, Australian footballer and lieutenant (d. 1915)
• 1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician and diplomat, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1986)
• 1891 – José P. Laurel, Filipino lawyer, politician and President of the Philippines (d. 1959)
• 1892 – Mátyás Rákosi, Hungarian politician (d. 1971)
• 1892 – Vita Sackville-West, English author, poet, and gardener (d. 1962)

1901–present

• 1902 – Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)
• 1904 – Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American soldier and engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (d. 2002)
• 1910 – Samuel Barber, American pianist and composer (d. 1981)
• 1911 – Clara Rockmore, American classical violin prodigy and theremin player, (d. 1998)
• 1915 – Johnnie Johnson, English air marshal and pilot (d. 2001)
• 1918 – George Lincoln Rockwell, American sailor and politician, founded the American Nazi Party (d. 1967)
• 1918 – Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (d. 2006)
• 1920 – Franjo Mihalić, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (d. 2015)
• 1921 – Carl Betz, American actor (d. 1978)
• 1922 – Ian Turbott, New Zealand-Australian former diplomat and university administrator (d. 2016)
• 1923 – James L. Buckley, American lawyer, judge, and politician
• 1923 – André Courrèges, French fashion designer (d. 2016)
• 1923 – Walter Kohn, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
• 1926 – Joe Franklin, American radio and television host (d. 2015)
• 1928 – Gerald Bull, Canadian-American engineer and academic (d. 1990)
• 1928 – Keely Smith, American singer and actress (d. 2017)
• 1929 – Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese lawyer, politician and President of Guyana (d. 2002)
• 1929 – Zillur Rahman, Bangladeshi politician, 19th President of Bangladesh (d. 2013)
• 1930 – Ornette Coleman, American saxophonist, violinist, trumpet player, and composer (d. 2015)
• 1931 – Jackie Healy-Rae, Irish politician (d. 2014)
• 1932 – Qayyum Chowdhury, Bangladeshi painter and academic (d. 2014)
• 1932 – Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican-American astrologer and actor (d. 2019)
• 1933 – Lloyd Price, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 2021)
• 1933 – David Weatherall, English physician, geneticist, and academic (d. 2018)
• 1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and cosmonaut, first human in space (d. 1968)
• 1934 – Joyce Van Patten, American actress
• 1935 – Andrew Viterbi, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Qualcomm Inc.
• 1936 – Mickey Gilley, American singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1936 – Marty Ingels, American actor and comedian (d. 2015)
• 1937 – Bernard Landry, Canadian lawyer, politician and Premier of Quebec (d. 2018)
• 1937 – Harry Neale, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1937 – Brian Redman, English race car driver
• 1940 – Raul Julia, Puerto Rican-American actor (d. 1994)
• 1941 – Jim Colbert, American golfer
• 1941 – Ernesto Miranda, American criminal (d. 1976)
• 1942 – John Cale, Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer
• 1942 – Ion Caramitru, Romanian actor and artistic director (d. 2021)
• 1942 – Mark Lindsay, American singer-songwriter, saxophonist, and producer
• 1943 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player and author (d. 2008)
• 1944 – Lee Irvine, South African cricketer
• 1945 – Robert Calvert, English singer-songwriter and playwright (d. 1988)
• 1945 – Robin Trower, English rock guitarist and vocalist
• 1945 – Dennis Rader (The BTK strangler) American serial killer.
• 1946 – Alexandra Bastedo, English actress (d. 2014)
• 1946 – Warren Skaaren, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1990)
• 1946 – Bernd Hölzenbein, German footballer and scout
• 1947 – Keri Hulme, New Zealand author and poet
• 1948 – Emma Bonino, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
• 1948 – Eric Fischl, American painter and sculptor
• 1948 – Jeffrey Osborne, American singer and drummer
• 1949 – Neil Hamilton, Welsh lawyer and politician
• 1950 – Doug Ault, American baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
• 1950 – Andy North, American golfer
• 1950 – Howard Shelley, English pianist and conductor
• 1951 – Helen Zille, South African journalist, politician and Premier of the Western Cape
• 1952 – Bill Beaumont, English rugby player and manager
• 1954 – Carlos Ghosn, Brazilian-Lebanese-French business executive
• 1954 – Bobby Sands, PIRA volunteer; Irish republican politician (d. 1981)
• 1954 – Jock Taylor, Scottish motorcycle racer (d. 1982)
• 1955 – Teo Fabi, Italian race car driver
• 1955 – Józef Pinior, Polish academic and politician
• 1956 – Mark Dantonio, American football player and coach
• 1956 – Shashi Tharoor, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs
• 1956 – David Willetts, English academic and politician
• 1958 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
• 1958 – Paul MacLean, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1959 – Takaaki Kajita, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1959 – Lonny Price, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1960 – Finn Carter, American actress
• 1961 – Rick Steiner, American wrestler
• 1961 – Darrell Walker, American basketball player and coach
• 1963 – Terry Mulholland, American baseball player
• 1963 – Jean-Marc Vallée, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2021)
• 1964 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
• 1964 – Phil Housley, American ice hockey player and coach
• 1965 – Brian Bosworth, American football player and actor
• 1965 – Benito Santiago, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
• 1966 – Brendan Canty, American drummer and songwriter
• 1966 – Tony Lockett, Australian footballer
• 1968 – Youri Djorkaeff, French footballer
• 1969 – Kimberly Guilfoyle, American lawyer and journalist
• 1970 – Naveen Jindal, Indian businessman and politician
• 1970 – Martin Johnson, English rugby player and coach
• 1971 – Emmanuel Lewis, American actor, played the title role in the TV sitcom Webster
• 1972 – Jodey Arrington, United States politician
• 1973 – Liam Griffin, English race car driver
• 1975 – Juan Sebastián Verón, Argentinian footballer
• 1977 – Radek Dvořák, Czech ice hockey player
• 1977 – Mark Tookey, Australian rugby league player
• 1979 – Oscar Isaac, Guatemalan-American actor
• 1980 – Matthew Gray Gubler, American actor.
• 1981 – Antonio Bryant, American football player
• 1981 – Clay Rapada, American baseball player
• 1982 – Ryan Bayley, Australian cyclist
• 1982 – Matt Bowen, Australian rugby league player
• 1982 – Mirjana Lučić-Baroni, Croatian tennis player
• 1983 – Wayne Simien, American basketball player
• 1983 – Clint Dempsey, American international soccer player
• 1984 – Abdoulay Konko, French footballer
• 1984 – Julia Mancuso, American skier
• 1985 – Brent Burns, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1985 – Jesse Litsch, American baseball player
• 1985 – Pastor Maldonado, Venezuelan race car driver
• 1985 – Parthiv Patel, Indian cricketer
• 1986 – Colin Greening, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1986 – Brittany Snow, American actress and producer
• 1987 – Shad Moss (Bow Wow), American rapper and actor
• 1989 – Kim Tae-yeon (Taeyeon), South Korean singer
• 1990 – Daley Blind, Dutch footballer
• 1990 – Matt Robinson, New Zealand rugby league player
• 1990 – Keenon Dequan Ray Jackson (YG), American rapper
• 1991 – Kim Joo-young (Jooyoung), South Korean singer-songwriter
• 1993 – Min Yoon-gi (Suga), South Korean rapper, songwriter, record producer
• 1994 – Morgan Rielly, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1997 – Jane Chika Oranika (Chika), American rapper
• 1998 – Najee Harris, American football running back
• 2000 – Khabane Lame (Khaby Lame), Senegalese-Italian social media personality

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 886 – Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, Muslim scholar and astrologer (b. 787)
• 1202 – Sverre of Norway, king of Norway and founder of the House of Sverre
• 1440 – Frances of Rome, Italian nun and saint (b. 1384)
• 1444 – Leonardo Bruni, Italian humanist (b. c.1370)
• 1463 – Catherine of Bologna, Italian nun and saint (d. 1463)
• 1566 – David Rizzio, Italian-Scottish courtier and politician (b. 1533).

1601–1900

• 1649 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier and politician, (b. 1606)
• 1649 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier and politician (b. 1590)
• 1661 – Cardinal Mazarin, Italian-French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1602)
• 1709 – Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, English courtier and politician (b. 1638)
• 1808 – Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (b. 1739)
• 1810 – Ozias Humphry, English painter and academic (b. 1742)
• 1825 – Anna Laetitia Barbauld, English poet, author, and critic (b. 1743)
• 1831 – Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger, German author and playwright (b. 1752)
• 1847 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (b. 1799)
• 1851 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist, discovered electromagnetism and the element aluminium (b. 1777)
• 1876 – Louise Colet, French poet (b. 1810)
• 1888 – William I, German Emperor (b. 1797)
• 1895 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian journalist and author (b. 1836)
• 1897 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian-American skier (b. 1825)

1901–present

• 1918 – Frank Wedekind, German author and playwright (b. 1864)
• 1925 – Willard Metcalf, American painter and academic (b. 1858)
• 1926 – Mikao Usui, Japanese spiritual leader, founded Reiki (b. 1865)
• 1937 – Paul Elmer More, American journalist and critic (b. 1864)
• 1943 – Otto Freundlich, German painter and sculptor (b. 1878)
• 1954 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (b. 1874)
• 1955 – Miroslava Stern (Miroslava), Czech-Mexican actress (b. 1925)
• 1964 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (b. 1870)
• 1969 – Abdul Munim Riad, Egyptian general (b. 1919)
• 1971 – Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Coptic Orthodox Pope (b. 1902)
• 1974 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr., American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
• 1974 – Harry Womack, American singer (b. 1945)
• 1983 – Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
• 1983 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• 1988 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German lawyer, politician and Chancellor of Germany (b. 1904)
• 1989 – Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer (b. 1946)
• 1991 – Jim Hardin, American baseball player (b. 1943)
• 1992 – Menachem Begin, Belarusian-Israeli soldier, politician and Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
• 1993 – C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian and author (b. 1909)
• 1994 – Charles Bukowski, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1920)
• 1994 – Eddie Creatchman, Canadian wrestler, referee, and manager (b. 1928)
• 1994 – Fernando Rey, Spanish actor (b. 1917)
• 1996 – George Burns, American comedian, actor, and writer (b. 1896)
• 1997 – Jean-Dominique Bauby, French journalist and author (b. 1952)
• 1997 – Terry Nation, Welsh author and screenwriter (b. 1930)
• 1997 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper, songwriter, and actor (b. 1972)
• 1999 – Harry Somers, Canadian pianist and composer (b. 1925)
• 1999 – George Singh, Belizean jurist and Chief Justice of Belize (b. 1937)
• 2000 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and educator (b. 1908)
• 2003 – Stan Brakhage, American director and cinematographer (b. 1933)
• 2003 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauruan politician, President of Nauru (b. 1946)
• 2004 – John Mayer, Indian composer (b. 1930)
• 2006 – Tom Fox, American activist (b. 1951)
• 2006 – Anna Moffo, American soprano (b. 1932)
• 2006 – John Profumo, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for War (b. 1915)
• 2007 – Brad Delp, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1951)
• 2007 – Glen Harmon, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
• 2010 – Willie Davis, American baseball player and manager (b. 1940)
• 2010 – Doris Haddock, American activist and politician (b. 1910)
• 2011 – David S. Broder, American journalist and academic (b. 1929)
• 2013 – Max Jakobson, Finnish journalist and diplomat
• 2013 – Merton Simpson, American painter and art collector (b. 1928)
• 2015 – James Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, Northern Irish soldier and politician (b. 1920)
• 2016 – Robert Horton, American actor (b. 1924)
• 2016 – Clyde Lovellette, American basketball player and coach (b. 1929)
• 2017 – Howard Hodgkin, British painter (b. 1932)
• 2018 – Jo Min-ki, Korean actor (b. 1965)
• 2020 – John Bathersby, Australian Catholic bishop (b. 1936)
• 2021 – James Levine, American conductor and pianist (b. 1943)
• 2021 – Roger Mudd, American journalist (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Catherine of Bologna
  • Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
  • Frances of Rome
  • Pacian
  • Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria (Coptic Orthodox Church)
  • Gregory of Nyssa (Episcopal Church (United States))
  • March 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Teachers' Day or Eid Al Moalim (Lebanon)