This Day in USA History
March 9

Copyright © 2006-2024 Ken Polsson
internet e-mail: ken@kpolsson.com
URL: http://kpolsson.com/thisday/usa/
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What happened in history on this day: March 9?

On March 9 in ...

  • 1798 - Dr George Balfour becomes first naval surgeon in the US navy.
  • 1822 - Charles M Graham of New York patents artificial teeth.
  • 1841 - US Supreme Court rules in case "United States v The Amistad" that the 53 Africans had been unlawfully kidnapped so were entitled to their freedom.
  • 1858 - Albert Potts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA patents the street mailbox.
  • 1860 - First Japanese ambassador arrives in San Francisco en route to Washington DC.
  • 1862 - Monitor (USA) and Merrimack (CSA) battle in Hampton Roads, ending in a draw.
  • 1865 - Hugh McCulloch begins term as Treasury Secretary.
  • 1907 - First involuntary sterilization law enacted in USA, in Indiana.
  • 1914 - US Senator Albert Fall (Teapot Dome) demands "Cubanisation of Mexico".
  • 1916 - General Francisco "Pancho" Villa leads Mexican band raid on Columbus, New Mexico, USA (17 killed).
  • 1933 - US Congress is called into special session by President Franklin Roosevelt, and begins its "100 days".
  • 1933 - US Congress passes the Emergency Banking Act, authorizing the President to confiscate gold held by American citizens, except those coins of numismatic value, to be paid $20 in paper per ounce.
  • 1933 - The US is in a state of declared national emergency.
  • 1942 - Construction of the Alaska Highway begins.
  • 1945 - 279 American B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan, destroying sixteen square miles of the city, killing 83,700, injuring 40,000, making over one million homeless.
  • 1949 - American Brigadier General Edwin K Wright ends term as deputy director of Central Intelligence Agency.
  • 1950 - Willie Sutton robs Manufacturers Bank of US$64,000 in New York City, New York.
  • 1954 - First local color TV commercial, on WNBT-TV (WNBC-TV) New York City, New York (Castro Decorators).
  • 1957 - 8.1 earthquake shakes Andreanof Islands, Alaska, USA.
  • 1959 - The first Barbie doll, Mattel's "Barbie Millicent Roberts", goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Eleven inches tall, Barbie is the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features.
  • 1962 - US advisors in South-Vietnam join the fight.
  • 1964 - First Ford Mustang automobile produced.
  • 1964 - US Supreme Court issues New York Times versus Sullivan decision, public officials must prove malice to claim libel and recover damages.
  • 1965 - The US Treasury Department begins sales of Special Mint sets, at US$4 per set. Collectors can buy in lots of 1, 2, 5, or 10.
  • 1967 - Svetlana Allilueva, Josef Stalin's daughter, defects to the West in New York City.
  • 1968 - 10th Grammy Awards: "Up Up and Away", Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band win.
  • 1976 - First female cadets accepted to West Point Military Academy.
  • 1977 - Admiral Stansfield Turner, US Navy (Retired), becomes 12th director of US Central Intelligence Agency replacing acting director Knoche.
  • 1977 - Hanafi Muslims invade three buildings in Washington DC, siege ends March 11th.
  • 1983 - Anne Burford resigns as head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency amid scandal.
  • 1984 - Buena Vista releases the Touchstone Pictures live-action feature film Splash to theaters in the US. This is the first film release from Touchstone Pictures.
  • 1986 - 16th Easter Seal Telethon raises US$30,100,000.
  • 1986 - United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily-damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger; the bodies of all seven astronauts are still inside.
  • 1989 - Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy.
  • 1989 - US Senate rejects Bush's nomination of John Tower as Defense Secretary.
  • 1989 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
  • 1990 - Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.
  • 1991 - 5th American Comedy Awards: Dennis Wolfberg wins.
  • 1991 - US 70th manned space mission STS 39 (Discovery 12) launches into orbit.
  • 1993 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.
  • 2000 - The FBI arrests art forgery suspect Ely Sakhai in New York City.
  • 2001 - At an auction in Salt Lake City, Utah, Superior Galleries sells a US 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coin to Dwight Manley for US$1.84 million.
  • 2009 - American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co announces it will acquire Schering-Plough for US$41.1 billion.
  • 2009 - US President Barack Obama signs an executive order restoring funding for stem cell research.
  • 2018 - President of the United States Donald Trump accepts an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a meeting in May to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea.
  • 2020 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges more than 2,000 points, the largest fall in its history.
  • 2023 - In California, USA, Silicon Valley Bank sees withdrawals of $42 billion in a single day.

Births on March 9

  • 1902 - Birth of William Aughe Ghere AKA Will Geer in Frankfort, Indiana, USA; actor (Grandpa Zebulon Tyler Walton - The Waltons) (dies 1978).
  • 1910 - Birth of Samuel Barber in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA; composer (School for Scandal).
  • 1914 - Birth of Fred Clark in Lincoln, California, USA; actor (Burns and Allen, Auntie Mame, Hazard).
  • 1918 - Birth of Marguerite Chapman in Chatham, New York, USA; actress (Spy Smasher, Flight to Mars).
  • 1918 - Birth of Frank Morrison Spillane AKA Mickey Spillane in Brooklyn, New York, USA; mystery writer (I the Jury).
  • 1920 - Birth of Carl Betz in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; actor (Alex Stone - Donna Reed Show).
  • 1922 - Birth of Herbert P Douglas Junior in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; long jumper (Olympics-bronze-1948).
  • 1930 - Birth of Thomas Schippers in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA; conductor (Amahl and Night Visitors).
  • 1933 - Birth of Lloyd Price in Kenner, Louisiana, USA; singer ("Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "Misty", "Just Because", "Come to Me").
  • 1934 - Birth of Joyce Van Patten in Queens, New York, USA; actress (Good Guys, Don Rickles Show).
  • 1935 - Birth of Joe Gallison in Houston, Texas, USA; actor (PT-109, Neil - Days of Our Lives).
  • 1935 - Birth of Keely Smith in Norfolk, Virginia, USA; singer (Mrs Louis Prima).
  • 1936 - Birth of Marty Ingels in Brooklyn, New York, USA; comedian (I'm Dickens He's Fenster).
  • 1936 - Birth of Mickey Gilley in Ferriday, Louisiana, USA; country singer ("Urban Cowboy").
  • 1938 - Birth of Charles Siebert in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA; actor (One Day at A Time, Trapper John).
  • 1940 - Birth of Raul Julia in San Juan, Puerto Rico; actor (Addams Family, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Eyes of Laura Mars).
  • 1941 - Birth of Jim Colbert in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA; PGA golfer (1969 Monsanto Open).
  • 1942 - Birth of Mark Lindsay in Eugene, Oregon, USA; rocker (Paul Revere and the Raiders).
  • 1943 - Birth of Trish Van Devere [Patricia Dressel] in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA; actress (Changeling, Movie Movie, Hearse).
  • 1948 - Birth of Jamie Lyn Bauer in Phoenix, Arizona, USA; actress (The Young and the Restless, Centerfold Girls).
  • 1948 - Birth of Jeffrey Osborne in Providence, Rhode Island, USA; rock vocalist ("On the Wings of Love").
  • 1948 - Birth of Jimmy Fadden in Long Beach, California, USA; singer (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).
  • 1952 - Birth of William Kirby Cullen in Santa Ana, California, USA; actor (How the West Was Won).
  • 1954 - Birth of Keven Wade in Chappaqua, New York, USA; screen writer (Working Girls).
  • 1955 - Birth of Fernando Bujones in Miami, Florida; ballet dancer.
  • 1959 - Birth of Lonny Price in New York City, New York, USA; actor (Muppets Take Manhattan).
  • 1960 - Birth of Linda Fiorentino in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; actress (Jade, Last Seduction, Moderns).
  • 1962 - Birth of Brian Green in Columbus, Indiana, USA; actor (Brian Bodine - All My Children, Sam Fowler - Another World).
  • 1963 - Birth of Kent Ferguson in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA; diver (Olympics-1992, 1996).
  • 1963 - Birth of Terry Mulholland in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, USA; pitcher (Philadelphia Phillies).
  • 1964 - Birth of Phil Housley in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; NHL defenseman (New Jersey Devils, Team USA Olympics-1998).
  • 1965 - Birth of Benito Santiago in Ponce, Puerto Rico; catcher (Philadelphia Phillies).
  • 1967 - Birth of Curt Schreiner in Albany, New York, USA; biathlete (Olympics-1994).
  • 1967 - Birth of Eric Flaim in Pembroke, Massachusetts, USA; short track skater (Olympics-1994).
  • 1970 - Birth of Melissa Rathburn-Nealy; US soldier (Iraqi POW).
  • 1971 - Birth of Bev Oden in Millington, Tennessee, USA; volleyball middle blocker (Olympics-1996).
  • 1971 - Birth of Emmanuel Lewis in Brooklyn, New York, USA; actor (Webster).
  • 1972 - Birth of Marcia M Griffith in Washington DC; Miss Maryland-America (1995).
  • 1972 - Birth of Sara Nicole Williams; Miss Washington-USA (1997).
  • 1984 - Birth of Julia Mancuso, US Olympic medalist.

Deaths on March 9

  • 1962 - Howard Engstrom of Boston, Massachussettes, USA, a designer of Univac computer, dies at age 59.
  • 1974 - Earl W Sutherland Junior, US pharmacologist (Nobel Prize 1971), dies at age 58.
  • 1974 - Death of Felix Schlag at age 82 in Owosso, Michigan, USA; American professional photographer and sculptor, designer of Jefferson 5-cent coin (1938-).
  • 1975 - Joseph Dunninger of New York City, New York, mentalist (Amazing Dunninger), dies at age 82.
  • 1977 - Death of Felix Oskar Schlag; sculptor (1938 US Jefferson nickel).
  • 1981 - Max Delbrück, German/US biologist (Nobel Prize 1969), dies at age 74 (born 1906).
  • 1989 - Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer, dies at age 42 (born 1946).
  • 1992 - James Brooks, US mural painter (Flight, La Guardia New York), dies at age 85.
  • 1994 - Charles Bukowski, American author/poet, dies of leukemia at age 73 (born 1920).
  • 2007 - Death of Brad Delp, American singer (Boston) (born 1951).
  • 2023 - Death of Robert Blake AKA Michael Gubitosi at age 89 of heart disease at home in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Mickey - Our Gang and Little Rascals film series, Little Beaver - Red Ryder TV show, In Cold Blood movie (1967), Baretta TV show, Emmy Award winner).

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