March 9




1454 - Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. Matthias Ringmann, a German mapmaker, named the American continent in his honor.

1617 - The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.

1734 - The Russians took Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.

1745 - The first carillon was shipped from England to Boston, MA.

1788 - Connecticut became the 5th state to join the United States.

1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. The event was witnessed by U.S. President George Washington.

1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais were married. They were divorced in 1809.

1799 - The U.S. Congress contracted with Simeon North, of Berlin, CT, for 500 horse pistols at the price of $6.50 each.

1812 - Swedish Pomerania was seized by Napoleon.

1820 - The U.S. Congress passed the Land Act that paved the way for westward expansion of North America.

1822 - Charles M. Graham received the first patent for artificial teeth.

1832 - Abraham Lincoln announced that he would run for a political office for the first time. He was unsuccessful in his run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.

1839 - The French Academy of Science announced the Daguerreotype photo process.

1858 - Albert Potts was awarded a patent for the letter box.

1859 - The National Association of Baseball Players adopted the rule that limited the size of bats to no more than 2-1/2 inches in diameter.

1860 - The first Japanese ambassador to the U.S. was appointed.

1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia fought to a draw in a five-hour battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

1863 - General Ulysses Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.

1900 - In Germany, women petition Reichstag for the right to take university entrance exams.

1905 - In Egypt, U.S. archeologist Davies discovered the royal tombs of Tua and Yua.

1905 - In Manchuria, Japanese troops surrounded 200,000 Russian troops that were retreating from Mudken.

1905 - In Congo, Belgian Vice Gov. Costermans committed suicide following an investigation of colonial policy.

1906 - In the Philippines, fifteen Americans and 600 Moros were killed in the last two days of fighting.

1909 - The French National Assembly passed an income tax bill.

1910 - Union men urged for a national sympathy strike for miners in Pennsylvania.

1911 - The funding for five new battleships was added to the British military defense budget.

1916 - Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico. 17 people were killed by the 1,500 horsemen.

1929 - Eric Krenz became the first athlete to toss the discus over 160 feet.

1932 - Eamon De Valera was elected president of the Irish Free State and pledged to abolish all loyalty to the British Crown.

1933 - The U.S. Congress began its 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.

1936 - The German press warned that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections would be arrested.

1945 - "Those Websters" debuted on CBS radio.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan.

1946 - The A.F.L. accused Juan Peron of using the army to establish a dictatorship over Argentine labor.

1949 - The first all-electric dining car was placed in service on the Illinois Central Railroad.

1954 - WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV), in New York, broadcast the first local color television commercials. The ad was Castro Decorators of New York City.

1956 - British authorities arrested and deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus. He was accused of supporting terrorists.

1957 - Egyptian leader Nasser barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.

1964 - The first Ford Mustang rolled off of the Ford assembly line.

1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam.

1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Josef Stalin's daughter defected to the United States.

1969 - "The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour" was canceled by CBS-TV.

1975 - Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline.

1975 - Iraq launched an offensive against the rebel Kurds.

1977 - About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, DC. They killed one person and took more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later.

1983 - The official Soviet news agency TASS says that U.S. President Reagan is full of "bellicose lunatic anti-communism."

1985 - "Gone With The Wind" went on sale in video stores across the U.S. for the first time.

1986 - U.S. Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.

1987 - Chrysler Corporation offered to buy American Motors Corporation.

1989 - The U.S. Senate rejected John Tower as a choice for a cabinet member. It was the first rejection in 30 years.

1989 - In Maylasia, 30 Asian nations conferred on the issue of "boat people".

1989 - In the U.S., a strike forced Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy.

1989 - In the U.S., President George H.W. Bush urged for a mandatory death penalty in drug-related killings.

1990 - Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as the first female and Hispanic surgeon general.

1993 - Rodney King testified at the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of violating his civil rights.

1995 - The Canadian Navy arrested a Spanish trawler for illegally fishing off of Newfoundland.

2000 - In Norway, the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned as a result of an environmental dispute.