March 9

March 9 in recent years

2024 (Saturday)

2023 (Thursday)

2022 (Wednesday)

2021 (Tuesday)

2020 (Monday)

2019 (Saturday)

2018 (Friday)

2017 (Thursday)

2016 (Wednesday)

2015 (Monday)

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

• 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.
• 1230 – Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus in the Battle of Klokotnitsa.
• 1276 – Augsburg becomes a Free imperial city.
• 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.
• 1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.
• 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 committed suicide.
• 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.
• 1831 – The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis Philippe to support his war in Algeria.
• 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 writers.
• 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: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.
• 1896 – Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Adwa.
• 1908 – Inter Milan was founded on Football Club Internazionale, following a schism from the Milan Cricket and Football Club.
• 1910 – The Westmoreland County coal strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins.
• 1916 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.
• 1925 – Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins.
• 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, represented by KNIL Commander in Chief Lieutenant General Hein Ter Poorten, unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese forces in Kalijati, Subang, West Java, and Japanese completed their Dutch East Indies campaign.
• 1944 – World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a five-day battle.
• 1944 – World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.
• 1945 – World War II: The first nocturnal incendiary attack on Tokyo inflicts damage comparable to that inflicted on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later.
• 1945 – World War II: A coup d'état by Japanese forces in French Indochina removes the French from power.
• 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 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands, Alaska triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami causing extensive damage to Hawaii and Oahu.
• 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 human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
• 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.
• 1976 – Forty-two people died in the 1976 Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.
• 1977 – The Hanafi Siege: In a thirty-nine-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.
• 1978 – President Soeharto inaugurated Jagorawi Toll Road, the first toll highway in Indonesia, connecting Jakarta, Bogor and Ciawi, West Java.
• 1991 – Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade.
• 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.
• 2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.
• 2012 – At least 130 rockets are fired into Israel from Gaza, and 12 Palestinians militants are killed as part of the latest escalation in violence in the region.

Births

• 1213 – Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1271)
• 1285 – Emperor Go-Nijō of Japan (d. 1318)
• 1454 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (d. 1512)
• 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (d. 1591)
• 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)
• 1833 – Frederick A. Schroeder, German-American businessman and politician, 18th Mayor of Brooklyn (d. 1899)
• 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)
• 1856 – Tom Roberts, English-Australian painter and educator (d. 1931)
• 1887 – Fritz Lenz, German geneticist and physician (d. 1976)
• 1887 – Phil Mead, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1958)
• 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 and politician, 3rd President of the Philippines (d. 1959)
• 1892 – Mátyás Rákosi, Hungarian soldier and politician (d. 1971)
• 1892 – Vita Sackville-West, English author, poet, and gardener (d. 1962)
• 1900 – Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta (d. 1948)
• 1902 – Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)
• 1904 – Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American soldier and engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (d. 2002)
• 1905 – Gerard Helders, Dutch jurist and politician, Dutch Minister of Colonial Affairs (d. 2013)
• 1910 – Samuel Barber, American pianist and composer (d. 1981)
• 1911 – Clara Rockmore, Lithuanian-American violinist (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 author and actor (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)
• 1922 – Bill Bainbridge, English former footballer
• 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)
• 1924 – Peter Scholl-Latour, German journalist, author, and academic (d. 2014)
• 1924 – Ben Schadler, American professional basketball player (d. 2015)
• 1924 – William Hamilton, American theologian (d. 2012)
• 1926 – Joe Franklin, American radio and television host (d. 2015)
• 1928 – Gerald Bull, Canadian-American engineer and academic (d. 1990)
• 1929 – Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese lawyer and politician, 3rd 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)
• 1930 – Taina Elg, Finnish-American actress and dancer
• 1931 – Thore Skogman, Swedish singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2007)
• 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
• 1932 – Jože Pučnik, Slovenian sociologist and politician (d. 2003)
• 1932 – Keely Smith, American singer and actress
• 1933 – Mel Lastman, Canadian businessman and politician, 62nd Mayor of Toronto
• 1933 – David Weatherall, English physician, geneticist, and academic
• 1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (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 and politician, 28th Premier of Quebec
• 1937 – Harry Neale, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1937 – Brian Redman, English race car driver
• 1940 – Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican-American actor (d. 1994)
• 1942 – John Cale, Welsh singer-songwriter, viola player, and producer
• 1942 – Mark Lindsay, American singer-songwriter, saxophonist, and producer
• 1943 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player and author (d. 2008)
• 1943 – Charles Gibson, American journalist
• 1945 – Robert Calvert, English singer-songwriter and playwright (d. 1988)
• 1945 – Robin Trower, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 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
• 1948 – Chris Thompson, English singer and guitarist
• 1949 – Trevor Burton, English singer and guitarist
• 1949 – Neil Hamilton, Welsh lawyer and politician
• 1950 – Doug Ault, American baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
• 1950 – Howard Shelley, English pianist and conductor
• 1950 – Danny Sullivan, American race car driver and sportscaster
• 1951 – Helen Zille, South African journalist and politician, 7th Premier of the Western Cape
• 1952 – Bill Beaumont, English rugby player and manager
• 1953 – Lucinha Lins, Brazilian actress and singer
• 1953 – Willem Boeschoten, Dutch rower
• 1954 – Carlos Ghosn, Brazilian-Lebanese-French business executive
• 1954 – Bobby Sands, PIRA volunteer; Irish republican; abstentionist MP (d. 1981)
• 1954 – Jock Taylor, Scottish motorcycle racer (d. 1982)
• 1955 – Teo Fabi, Italian race car driver
• 1955 – Ornella Muti, Italian actress
• 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, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
• 1957 – PZ Myers, American biologist, author, and academic
• 1957 – Mona Sahlin, Swedish politician, 6th Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
• 1958 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
• 1958 – Martin Fry, English singer-songwriter
• 1958 – Paul MacLean, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1959 – Giovanni di Lorenzo, Swedish-German journalist
• 1959 – Takaaki Kajita, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1959 – Lonny Price, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1961 – Mike Leach, American football player and coach
• 1961 – Rick Steiner, American wrestler
• 1961 – Darrell Walker, American basketball player and coach
• 1962 – Jan Furtok, Polish footballer and manager
• 1962 – Pete Wishart, Scottish singer and politician
• 1963 – Ivan Henjak, Australian rugby player and coach
• 1963 – Terry Mulholland, American baseball player
• 1963 – David Pogue, American journalist and author
• 1963 – Jean-Marc Vallée, Canadian director and screenwriter
• 1964 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
• 1964 – Phil Housley, American ice hockey player and coach
• 1964 – Valérie Lemercier, French actress, singer, director
• 1964 – Steve Wilkos, American police officer and talk show host
• 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
• 1966 – Michael Patrick MacDonald, Irish-American author and activist
• 1968 – Youri Djorkaeff, French footballer
• 1968 – Johnny Kelly, American drummer
• 1969 – Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, American basketball player
• 1969 – Kimberly Guilfoyle, American lawyer and journalist
• 1970 – Naveen Jindal, Indian businessman and politician
• 1970 – Martin Johnson, English rugby player and coach
• 1970 – Shannon Leto, American drummer
• 1970 – David Guido Pietroni, Italian director and producer
• 1973 – Aaron Boone, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1973 – Liam Griffin, English race car driver and businessman
• 1974 – Mark Harrity, Australian cricketer
• 1975 – Roy Makaay, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1975 – Juan Sebastián Verón, Argentinian footballer
• 1977 – Radek Dvořák, Czech ice hockey player
• 1978 – Lucas Neill, Australian footballer
• 1979 – Oscar Isaac, Guatemalan-American actor
• 1980 – Trent Croad, New Zealand-Australian footballer
• 1980 – Matthew Gray Gubler, American actor, model, and writer
• 1980 – Volker Bruch, German actor
• 1981 – Antonio Bryant, American football player
• 1981 – Clay Rapada, American baseball player
• 1982 – Matt Bowen, Australian rugby player
• 1982 – Mirjana Lučić-Baroni, Croatian tennis player
• 1983 – Clint Dempsey, American soccer player
• 1983 – Ioannis Masmanidis, German footballer
• 1983 – Maite Perroni, Mexican singer-songwriter and actress
• 1983 – Wayne Simien, American basketball 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 – Parthiv Patel, Indian cricketer
• 1986 – Colin Greening, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1987 – Bow Wow, American rapper and actor
• 1990 – Tatsuki Machida, Japanese figure skater
• 1990 – Aras Özbiliz, Turkish-Armenian footballer
• 1991 – Domo Genesis, American rapper
• 1993 – Larnell Cole, English footballer
• 1994 – Morgan Rielly, Canadian ice hockey player

Deaths

• 1202 – Sverre of Norway (b. 1145)
• 1440 – Frances of Rome, Italian nun and saint (b. 1384)
• 1566 – David Rizzio, Italian-Scottish courtier and politician (b. 1533)
• 1649 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1606)
• 1649 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier and politician, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard (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, designed the Piercefield House and St James' Church (b. 1739)
• 1810 – Ozias Humphry, English painter and academic (b. 1742)
• 1825 – Anna Laetitia Barbauld, English poet, author, and critic (b. 1743)
• 1851 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist (b. 1777)
• 1888 – William I, German Emperor (b. 1797)
• 1895 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian journalist and author (b. 1836)
• 1897 – Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, Afghan ideologist and activist (b. 1838)
• 1897 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian-American skier (b. 1825)
• 1905 – Nikolai Anderson, Estonian philologist and linguist (b. 1845)
• 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)
• 1947 – Jhaverchand Meghani, Indian poet and playwright (b. 1896)
• 1948 – Edgar de Wahl, Ukrainian-Estonian linguist and scholar (b. 1867)
• 1954 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (b. 1874)
• 1955 – 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 (b. 1902)
• 1974 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr., American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
• 1983 – Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
• 1983 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• 1985 – Harry Catterick, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
• 1988 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German lawyer and politician, 3rd 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 and politician, 6th 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 actor and comedian (b. 1896)
• 1997 – Jean-Dominique Bauby, French journalist and author (b. 1952)
• 1997 – Terry Nation, Welsh author and screenwriter (b. 1930)
• 1997 – Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)
• 1999 – Harry Somers, Canadian pianist and composer (b. 1925)
• 2000 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and educator (b. 1908)
• 2000 – Ivo Robić, Croatian singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
• 2003 – Stan Brakhage, American director and cinematographer (b. 1933)
• 2003 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauruan politician, 2nd President of Nauru (b. 1946)
• 2004 – Rust Epique, American guitarist and painter (b. 1968)
• 2004 – Albert Mol, Dutch actor and author (b. 1917)
• 2005 – Chris LeDoux, American singer-songwriter (b. 1948)
• 2005 – István Nyers, French-Hungarian footballer (b. 1924)
• 2006 – Tom Fox, American activist (b. 1951)
• 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)
• 2012 – Willye Dennis, American librarian and politician (b. 1926)
• 2012 – Joy Mukherjee, Indian actor and director (b. 1939)
• 2012 – Jose Tomas Sanchez, Filipino cardinal (b. 1920)
• 2012 – Agnes Torres, Mexican psychologist, researcher, and transgender activist (b. 1983)
• 2013 – Max Jakobson, Finnish journalist and diplomat (b. 1923)
• 2013 – Viren J. Shah, Indian businessman and politician, 21st Governor of West Bengal (b. 1926)
• 2013 – Merton Simpson, American painter and art collector (b. 1928)
• 2014 – Mohammed Fahim, Afghan field marshal and politician, Vice President of Afghanistan (b. 1924)
• 2014 – William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (b. 1925)
• 2015 – James Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, Northern Irish soldier and politician (b. 1920)
• 2015 – Camille Muffat, French swimmer (b. 1989)
• 2015 – Alexis Vastine, French boxer (b. 1986)
• 2016 – Jon English, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1949)
• 2016 – Robert Horton, American actor (b. 1924)
• 2016 – Clyde Lovellette, American basketball player and coach (b. 1929)

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 (Coptic Orthodox Church)
• Teachers' Day or Eid Al Moalim (Lebanon)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada