March 9th in History

Michael Dobson | March 9

On this day in history —

  • The Prophet Muhammad preaches his farewell sermon, known as خطبة الوداع, or Khuṭbatu l-Wadā (632)
  • Conspirators stab Davide Rizzo, private secretary to Mary Queen of Scots, to death in front of the pregnant monarch (1566)
  • The Supreme Court rules in favor of the rebel slaves in The Amistad lawsuit (1841)
  • The US Army conducts its first large-scale amphibious assault in Mexico, beginning the Siege of Veracruz (1847)
  • The USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimac meet at the Battle of Hampton Roads (1862)
  • Pancho Villa attacks New Mexico (1916)
  • The RAF conducts its first independent air action in Pink’s War in Waziristan (1925)
  • The Tokyo Raid, the most destructive and deadly bombing raid in history, kills over 100,000 people (1945)
  • Barbie®, the first adult-bodied mass-market doll, debuts at the American International Toy Fair (1959)
  • Sputnik 9 is launched (1961)
  • The Hanafi Siege takes places in Washington, DC (1977)
  • Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles (1997)
  • The space shuttle Discovery lands after its final flight into space (2011)

It’s the birthday of —

  • Lil’ Bow Wow, rapper (1987)
  • Emmanuel Lewis, Webster star (1971)
  • Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, basketball player (1969)
  • Brian Bosworth, linebacker (1965)
  • Juliette Binoche, actress (1964)
  • Linda Fiorentino, actress (1958)
  • Ornella Muti, actress (1955)
  • Bobby Fisher, chess grandmaster (1943)
  • Charles Gibson, GMA host (1943)
  • Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere and the Raiders singer (1942)
  • Ernesto Miranda, warning namesake (1941)
  • Raúl Juliá, actor (1940)
  • Mickey Gilley, country singer (1936)
  • Tom Sestak, lineman (1936)
  • Yuri Gagarin (Ю́рий Гага́рин), first human in outer space (1934)
  • André Courrèges, inventor of the miniskirt (1923)
  • Mickey Spillane, novelist (1918)
  • George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi (1918)
  • Johnnie Johnson, highest scoring Western Allied fighter ace of World War II (1915)
  • Paul Klipsch, audio inventor (1904)
  • Will Geer, Waltons grandfather (1902)
  • Vita Sackville-West, writer (1892)
  • Vyacheslav Molotov (Вячесла́в Мо́лотов), cocktail namesake (1890)
  • Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., saint (1568)
  • Amerigo Vespucci, continental namesake (1454)

Deaths —

  • David Broder, journalist (2011)
  • Willie Davis, center fielder (2010)
  • John Profumo, scandal namesake (2006)
  • Terry Nation, Doctor Who writer (1997)
  • George Burns, vaudevillian (1996)
  • Charles Bukowski, “laureate of American lowlife” (1994)
  • Bob Crosby, bandleader (1993)
  • C. Northcote Parkinson, law creator (1993)
  • Menachem Begin (1992)
  • Robert Mapplethorpe, photographer (1989)
  • Margot Frank, Anne’s sister and Holocaust victim (1945)
  • Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, masochist (1895)
  • Kaiser Wilhelm I, German emperor (1888)

Holidays —

  • Eid Al Moalim (Teacher’s Day), Lebanon
  • Feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Catholicism