Today in History - March 9
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1451 Mar 9,
Amerigo Vespucci (d.1512), Italian navigator, was born in Florence.
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15384b.htm)
1496 Mar 9, Jews were expelled
from Carinthia, Austria.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1497 Mar 9, Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543), Polish astronomer, made the 1st recorded astronomical
observation.
(WUD, 1994 p.322)(MC, 3/9/02)
1500 Mar 9, Pedro Cabral
(~1460-1520), Portuguese navigator, departed to India. He left Lisbon
with 13 ships headed for India and was blown off course.
(WUD, 1994 p.206)(SFC, 4/20/00,
p.A14)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03128a.htm)
1522 Mar 9-16, Marten Luther
preached his Invocavit.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1551 Mar 9, Emperor Charles V
appointed his son Philip as heir to the throne. Don Philip was
recognized as the sole heir of Charles V.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 3/9/02)
1562 Mar 9, Kissing in public was
banned in Naples and made punishable by death.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1564 Mar 9, David Fabricius,
astronomer (discovered variable star), was born in Essen, Germany.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1566 Mar 9, David Riccio, Italian
singer, secretary, lover of Mary Stuart, was murdered.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1568 Mar 9, Aloysius "Luigi" van
Gonzaga, Italian prince, Jesuit, saint, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1617 Mar 9, The Treaty of Stolbovo
ended the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1620 Mar 9, Aegidius Albertinus
(59), German writer (Lucifer's Kingdom), died.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1640 Mar 9, Pierre Corneille’s
"Horace," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1661 Mar 9, Cardinal Jules Mazarin
(58), the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis the 14th
in full control.
(AP, 3/9/01)
1697 Mar 9, Czar Peter the Great
began tour of West Europe. [see Mar 21]
(MC, 3/9/02)
1701 Mar 9, In Birzai
Augustus II and Russia’s Czar Peter I signed a treaty.
(LHC,3/9/03)
1734 Mar 9, The Russians took
Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1745 Mar 9, Bells for 1st American
carillon were shipped from England to Boston.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1753 Mar 9, Jean-Baptiste Kleber,
French general, architect, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1796 Mar 9, Napoleon Bonaparte
(26) married Josephine Tascher de Beauharnais (32) in Paris. The couple
divorced in 1809.
(AP, 3/9/98)(HN, 3/9/98)
1798 Mar 9, Dr. George Balfour
became 1st naval surgeon in the US Navy.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1812 Mar 9, Swedish Pomerania was
seized by Napoleon.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1820 Mar 9, Congress passed the
Land Act, paving the way for westward expansion.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1820 Mar 9-11, Philippines chased
out foreigners and about 125 died.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1822 Mar 9, The first patent for
false teeth was requested by C. Graham of NY. [see 1882]
(HN, 3/9/98)(MC, 3/9/02)
1824 Mar 9, Leland Stanford
(d.1863), railroad builder and founder of Stanford University, was born
in what was then Watervliet, New York (later the town of Colonie).
(HN,
3/9/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Stanford)
1839 Mar 9, Felix Huston Robertson
(d.1928), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1839 Mar 9, Modest Petrovich
Moussorgsky (Mussorgsky), Russian composer, was born (d.1881). His work
included “Boris Godunov” and “Songs and Dances of Death.” His work
"Khovanshchina" was finished and orchestrated by Shostakovich. [see Mar
21]
(WUD, 1994, p.936)(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A25)(MC, 3/9/02)
1839 Mar 9, Prussian government
limited the work week for children to 51 hours.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1841 Mar 9, The rebel slaves who
seized a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, two years earlier were freed
by the US Supreme Court despite Spanish demands for extradition. John
Quincy Adams (74), former US president, defended “the Mendi people,” a
group of Africans who rebelled and killed the crew aboard the slave
ship Amistad, while en route to Cuba. They faced mutiny charges upon
landing in New York but Adams won their acquittal before the Supreme
Court. In thanks they bestowed to him an 1838 English Bible. In 1996
the Bible was stolen from the Adams National Historic Site in Quincy,
Mass.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A7)(HN, 3/9/99)
1842 Mar 9, Giuseppe Verdi's 3rd
opera "Nabucco," premiered in Milan. It became his 1st big hit.
(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A20)(MC, 3/9/02)
1844 Mar 9, Giuseppe Verdi's opera
"Ernani," premiered in Venice.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1847 Mar 9, US forces under
General Winfield Scott invaded Mexico (Mexican-American War) 3 miles
south of Vera Cruz. Encountering almost no resistance from the Mexicans
massed in the fortified city of Vera Cruz, by nightfall the last of
Scott's 10,000 men came ashore without the loss of a single life. It
was the largest amphibious landing in U.S. history until WW II. [see
Mar 7]
(MC, 3/9/02)
1848 Mar 9, Martin Pierre Joseph
Marsick, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1850 Mar 9, Alexandre Luigini,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1858 Mar 9, The mailbox was
patented.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1860 Mar 9, The first Japanese
ambassador to the United States, Niimi Buzennokami, and his staff
arrived in San Francisco.
(AP, 3/9/05)
1861 Mar 9, First hostile act of
the Civil War occurred when Star of the West fires on Sumter, S.C.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1862 Mar 9, The ironclads, CSS
Virginia, (formerly Merrimac) of the South, battled the USS Monitor,
designed by John Ericsson, in their first battle for five hours to a
draw at Hampton Roads, Va. The story is told by James Tertius deKay in
his 1998 book “Monitor: The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad
and the Man Whose Invention Changed the Course of History.”
(SFEC, 1/18/98, Par p.16)(AP, 3/9/98)(HN, 3/9/98)
1863 Mar 9, U.S. Grant was
appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1864 Mar 9, President Abraham
Lincoln officially commissioned Ulysses S. Grant the first lieutenant
general in the U.S. Army since George Washington. After leading Union
victories in the West in 1862-63, Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of
the Union forces with the revived rank of lieutenant general.
(HNQ, 3/13/99)
1868 Mar 9, Ambrois Thomas' opera
"Hamlet" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1873 Mar 9, Royal Canadian Mounted
Police founded.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1882 Mar 9, False teeth were
patented. [see 1822]
(MC, 3/9/02)
1890 Mar 9, Vyacheslav Molotov,
former Soviet Prime Minister and signer of a non-aggression pact with
Nazi Germany, was born.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1892 Mar 9, David Garnett,
novelist, editor (Lady into Fox), was born in England.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1892 Mar 9, Frank Puglia, actor
(Black Orchid, Jungle Book), was born in Sicily, Italy.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1892 Mar 9, Joseph Weinheber,
Austrian poet, writer (Adel und Untergang), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1892 Mar 9, Vita Sackville-West
(d.1962), English poet and writer, was born. “Summer makes a silence
after spring.”
(AP, 6/21/97)(HN, 3/9/01)
1893 Mar 9, Edgar Scauflaire,
Belgian muralist, decorator, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1893 Mar 9, Hans Munch, composer,
was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1893 Mar 9, Congo cannibals killed
1000s of Arabs.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1895 Mar 9, Leopold von
Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer (Masochism), died.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1897 Mar 9, Premiere of (parts of)
Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony in Berlin.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1900 Mar 9, Aimone, duke of
Spoleta-Aosta, Italian king of Croatia (1941-43), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1902 Mar 9, Edward Durell Stone,
US, architect (US Embassy, New Delhi), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1902 Mar 9, Will Greer, actor
(Grandpa Walton-The Waltons), was born in Frankfort, Ind.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1902 Mar 9, Composer Gustav Mahler
married Alma Schindler in Vienna.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1905 Mar 9, Peter Quennell,
biographer, was born.
(HN, 3/9/01)
1905 Mar 9, Rex Warner, English
poet, writer (Wild Goose Chase), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1905 Mar 9, Archeologists
unearthed the royal tombs of Yua and Tua in Egypt.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1907 Mar 9, Henry Leland Clarke,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1907 Mar 9, Indiana enacted the
nation’s 1st involuntary sterilization law based on eugenics. It was
intended "to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots,
imbeciles, and rapists." More than 30 states ended up passing
compulsory sterilization laws that were eventually overturned or
repealed. In 2004 Christine Rosen authored "Preaching Eugenics."
(NH, 7/02, p.12)(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.D10)(AP, 3/9/07)
1910 Mar 9, Samuel Barber,
American composer, was born. His work includes “Medea’s Meditation and
Dance of Vengeance.”
(WUD, 1994, p.119)(SFC, 10/5/96, p.E1)(HN, 3/9/98)
1911 Mar 9, The funding for five
new battleships was added to the British military defense budget.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1914 Mar 9, US Sen Albert Fall
(Teapot Dome) demanded the "Cubanisation of Mexico."
(MC, 3/9/02)
1915 Mar 9, The Germans took
Grodno on the Eastern Front.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1916 Mar 9, Pancho Villa led 1,500
horsemen in a night raid on Columbus, New Mexico. 18 US soldiers and
citizens were killed as the town was looted and burned. President
Woodrow Wilson responded by ordering General John J. "Black Jack"
Pershing to "pursue and disperse" the bandits. Wilson called out
158,664 National Guard members to deal with the situation.
(HN, 3/9/99)(SFC, 5/17/06, p.A11)(AP, 3/9/07)
1916 Mar 9, Germany declared war
on Portugal.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1918 Mar 9, Frank Morrison
Spillane (d.2006), mystery writer [Mickey Spillane], was born in
Brooklyn. His Mike Hammer crime novels later sold over 200 million
copies. His books included “Kiss Me Deadly” and “The Erection Set.”
(HN, 3/9/01)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.D5)(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)
1918 Mar 9, Russian Bolshevik
Party became the Communist Party.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1922 Mar 9, Eugene O'Neill's
"Hairy Ape," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1925 Mar 9, Egyptian Ministry of
Public Works announced the discovery of the 5,000-year-old tomb of King
Sneferu.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1929 Mar 9, Marcel Pagnol's
"Marius," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1930 Mar 9, Ornette Coleman, jazz
saxophonist, was born. [see Mar 19]
(HN, 3/9/01)
1932 Mar 9, Eamon De Valera was
elected Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland and pledged to abolished
all loyalty to the British Crown.
(HN, 3/9/98)(http://www.clarelibrary.ie/)
1932 Mar 9, Former Chinese emperor
Henry Pu-Yi was installed as head of Manchuria.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1933 Mar 9, The Emergency Banking
Relief Act of 1933 was signed into law by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt. The Act's primary function was to prohibit the hoarding of
gold coins, and did so by authorizing the United States Treasury to
request all people and companies of the US to send in their gold
reserves.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act)
1933 Mar 9, Congress, called into
special session by President Roosevelt, began its 100 days of enacting
New Deal legislation.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1934 Mar 9, Uri Gregarin (Yuri
Gagarin), first man to orbit the Earth, was born.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1935 Mar 9, Hermann Goering
announced the existence of the German Luftwaffe (air force).
(http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_781532807/Wehrmacht.html)
1936 Mar 9, The German press
warned that all Jews who voted in the upcoming elections would be
arrested.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1938 Mar 9, In Vienna, Kurt
Schuschnigg defied the Nazis calling for a decree on independence.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1939 Mar 9, Czech President Emil
Hacha ousted pro-German Joseph Tiso as the Premier of Slovakia in order
to preserve Czech unity.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1940 Mar 9, Britain freed captured
Italian coal ships on the eve of German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop's
visit to Rome.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1942 Mar 9, Construction of the
Alaska Highway began.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1943 Mar 9, Bobby Fischer
(d.2008), first American world chess champion (1972-1975), was born. He
later authored “Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess.”
(HN, 3/9/99)(SFC, 9/7/01, p.D5)(SFC, 1/19/08, p.A2)
1943 Mar 9, Greek Jews of Salonika
were transported to Nazi extermination camps.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1945 Mar 9, During World War II,
334 U.S. B29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo,
Japan, causing widespread devastation.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/9/98)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.52)
1947 Mar 9, Keri Hulme, New
Zealand novelist (The Bone People), was born.
(HN, 3/9/01)
1950 Mar 9, Space Patrol debuted
as a local, 15-minute show that aired live five days a week in Los
Angeles and ran to 1955. Norman Jolley (d.2002), evil Agent X, acted in
the series and wrote scripts. Ed Kemmer (1921-2004) played Commander
Buzz Corry. Joanne Jordan played the evil Queen Mirtha. In 2005
Jean-Noel Bassior authored “Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the
name of Early Television.”
(SFC, 8/23/02, p.A27)(SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)(SFC,
10/17/08, p.B8)(SFC, 9/25/09, p.D10)
1950 Mar 9, Willie Sutton robbed
the NYC Manufacturers Bank of $64,000.
(www.astorialic.org/topics/timeline/1950.shtml)
1950 Mar 9, Timothy John Evans
(b.1924), a Welshman, was hanged in the United Kingdom for the murder
of his infant daughter at 10 Rillington Place in London. In 1961
Ludovic Kennedy, Scotland-born writer, authored “10 Rillington Place,”
the story of Timothy Evans, who was hanged for a murder he did not
commit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Evans)
1953 Mar 9, U.S. vs. Reynolds was
a landmark ruling that formally established the government's "state
secrets" privilege, a privilege that has enabled federal agencies to
conceal conduct, withhold documents and block troublesome civil
litigation, including suits by whistle-blowers and possible victims of
discrimination. It provided a fundamental basis for much of the Bush
administration's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including
the USA Patriot Act and the handling of terrorist suspects. [See Oct 6,
1948]
(LAT, 4/18/04)
1953 Mar 9, Josef Stalin was
buried in Moscow.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1954 Mar 9, CBS newsman Edward R.
Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's
anti-Communism campaign on "See It Now." [see Mar 6]
(AP, 3/9/98)
1956 Mar 9, British authorities
arrested and deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the
Seychelles. He was accused of supporting terrorists.
(EWH, 1968, p.1250)(HN, 3/9/98)
1957 Mar 9, An 8.1 earthquake
shook the Andreanof Islands, Alaska.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1957 Mar 9, Egyptian leader Nasser
barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1959 Mar 9, The Barbie doll was
unveiled at the American Toy Fair in New York City. The Barbie Doll No.
1 was introduced by Mattel Toy Company for $3. Ruth Handler (d.2002),
co-founder of Mattel, had spotted the German Bild-Lilli doll in 1956
and asked toy designer Jack Ryan (d.1991) to create a version for
American girls. The first dolls were produced by Mattel Toy Co. in
Hawthorne, Ca. In 1994 one sold for $4000 as a collector’s item.
(WSJ, 12/9/94, p.R-8)(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A2)(SFC,
5/31/05, p.E1)(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A15)
1959 Mar 9, The 1st known radar
contact was made with Venus.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1960 Mar 9, In Seattle, Wa., Clyde
Shields (39), was implanted with the 1st kidney dialysis shunt
developed by Dr. Belding H. Scribner (d.2003) and engineer Wayne
Quinton. The process was 1st developed in the 1940s by Dr. Willem J.
Kolff, but had been restricted to operating rooms. Shields lived for 11
more years.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A17)
1960 Mar 9, San Francisco Mayor
George Christopher visited Moscow and accepted lavish gifts from
Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
(SSFC, 3/7/10, DB p.46)
1961 Mar 9, Supremes released "I
Want A Guy" & "Never Again."
(MC, 3/9/02)
1961 Mar
9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog
named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the
spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Mar 9, A mine cave-in in
Japan killed 72.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1962 Mar 9, US "advisors" in
South-Vietnam joined the fight.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1962 Mar 9, Egyptian Pres. Nasser
declared Gaza belongs to Palestinians.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1964 Mar 9, The US Supreme Court,
in its New York Times v. Sullivan decision, ruled that public officials
who charged libel could not recover damages for defamatory statements
related to their official duties unless they proved actual malice on
the part of the news organization.
(AP, 3/9/04)
1964 Mar 9, A group of 5 Lakota
(Sioux) Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island in a peaceful
protest. They declared that it should be a Native American cultural
center and university.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(G, Summer ‘97, p.4)
1964 Mar 9, The first Ford Mustang
rolled off the Ford assembly line.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1968 Mar 9, General William
Westmoreland asked for 206,000 more troops in Vietnam.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1974 Mar 9, Officer Hiroo Onoda,
the last Japanese soldier operating in the Philippines, surrendered, 29
years after World War II ended.
(www.einsteinsfrig.com/onoda/index.html)
1974 Mar 9, Earl W. Sutherland Jr.
(b.1915), US pharmacologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in
Medicine (1971), died.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1971/sutherland-cv.html)
1975 Mar 9, Iraq launched an
offensive against the rebellious Kurds.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1976 Mar 9, A ski cable car,
running from Cavalese to the Alpe Cermis in the Italian Alps, crashed
to the ground due to a mechanical failure and killed 42 skiers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable-car_disaster_%281976%29)
1977 Mar 9, Pres. Carter proposed
an end to travel restrictions to Cuba, Vietnam, N. Korea and Cambodia
effective as of March 18.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=7139)
1977 Mar 9, Admiral Stansfield
Turner took office as head of the CIA under Pres. Carter.
(www.espionageinfo.com/Cou-De/DCI-Director-of-the-Central-Intelligence-Agency.html)
1977 Mar 9, About a dozen armed
Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one
person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days
later.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1977 Mar 9, Activist Elisabeth
Kaesemann (30), a German sociologist, was abducted in Argentina. Her
bullet-riddled body was later found dumped on the outskirts of Buenos
Aires.
(www.hrw.org/reports/2001/argentina/argen1201-08.htm)
1978 Mar 9, In Italy the trial of
the Red Brigade terrorists opened.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1981 Mar 9, Dan Rather made his
debut as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”
(AP, 3/9/01)
1982 Mar 9, Charles J. Haughey was
chosen as Premier of Ireland. Haughey later admitted that he received
secret payments from businessmen during a period of national recession.
(HN, 3/9/98)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA4)
1983 Mar 9, Margaret Heckler was
sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services, the same day Anne
M. Burford resigned as head of the embattled Environmental Protection
Agency.
(AP, 3/9/08)
1986 Mar 9, Navy divers found the
crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains
of the astronauts.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1986 Mar 9, Ned Calmer (b.1907),
TV host (In the First Person), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Calmer)
1987 Mar 9, Chrysler Corp.
announced it had agreed to buy the financially ailing American Motors
Corp.
(AP, 3/9/07)
1988 Mar 9, The day after the
Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, Republican George Bush spent the
day in Houston, savoring his 16-state sweep, while Democrats Michael
Dukakis, Jesse Jackson and Al Gore enjoyed more modest successes.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1988 Mar 9, Kurt Georg Kiesinger
(b.1904), West German chancellor (1966-69), died.
(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Kurt_Georg_Kiesinger)
1989 Mar 9, Wendy Wasserstein's
"Heidi Chronicles," first produced by the Seattle Repertory Theater,
opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theater.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4538)
1989 Mar 9, The Senate rejected
President Bush's nomination of John Tower to be defense secretary by a
vote of 53-47.
(AP, 3/9/99)
1989 Mar 9, Eastern Airlines filed
for bankruptcy.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1989 Mar 9, Soviet Union
officially submitted to jurisdiction of the World Court.
(http://tinyurl.com/fc24t)
1989 Mar 9, Robert Mapplethorpe
(42), US photographer, died. In 2010 Patti Smith (63), his former
girlfriend, authored “Just Kids,” a memoir of their 2-decade
relationship.
(www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation.html)(SSFC,
1/17/10, p.F1)
1990 Mar 9, Dr. Antonia Novello
(b.1944) was sworn in as the US surgeon general, becoming the first
woman and the first Hispanic to hold the job. Dr. Novello became
Commissioner of Health for the State of New York in 1999.
(AP,
3/9/98)(www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/history/bionovello.htm)
1991 Mar 9, Secretary of State
James A. Baker the Third, on a fact-finding mission to seven countries,
visited Kuwait following its liberation from Iraq.
(AP, 3/9/01)
1991 Mar 9, In Serbia Milosevic
ordered a crackdown on protests and 2 men were killed in the Belgrade
Square of the Republic.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A15)
1992 Mar 9, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin
dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
(AP, 3/9/02)
1992 Mar 9, Menachem Begin, former
Israeli Prime Minister (1977-80, 81-83, Nobel 1979) died in Tel Aviv at
age 78. In 1987 Amos Perlmutter (d.2001 at 69) authored “The Life and
Times of Menachim Begin.”
(AP, 3/9/98)(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.A27)
1993 Mar 9, Janet Reno sailed
through her confirmation hearing en route to becoming the nation's
first female attorney general.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1993 Mar 9, Rodney King testified
at the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of
violating his civil rights, saying he'd been "attacked" by the
defendants.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1993 Mar 9, Bob Crosby (b.1913),
swing-era bandleader (Bobcats), died of cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Crosby)
1994 Mar 9, The U.N. Human Rights
Commission condemned anti-Semitism, putting the world body on record
for the first time as opposing discrimination against Jews.
(AP, 3/9/99)
1994 Mar 9, Fernando Rey (b.1917),
Spanish actor (French Connection), died of cancer.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0721073/)
1995 Mar 9, President Clinton
eased travel restrictions on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and invited
him to the White House for St. Patrick's Day.
(AP, 3/9/00)
1995 Mar 9, House Republicans
unveiled their long-promised tax cut for families, businesses and
investors.
(AP, 3/9/00)
1995 Mar 9, Los Angeles police
detective Mark Fuhrman took the stand at the O.J. Simpson murder trial,
denying ever meeting a woman who had accused him of making racist
remarks.
(AP, 3/9/00)
1995 Mar 9, President Konstantine
Karamanlis (1907-1998) of Greece, resigned.
(www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/NewPol/Politics2.htm)
1995 Mar 9, Ian Ballantine
(b.1916), US publisher, died of a heart attack. He founded and
published the paperback line of Ballantine Books from 1952 to 1974 with
his wife, Betty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Ballantine)
1996 Mar 9, The space shuttle
"Columbia" landed safely a day late at the Kennedy Space Center, ending
a 16-day mission.
(AP, 3/9/01)
1996 Mar 9, Comedian George Burns
died in Beverly Hills, Calif., just weeks after turning 100.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1997 Mar 9, In Los Angeles black
Gangsta rapper Christopher G. Wallace (24), The Notorious B.I.G. or aka
Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. He had been
accused of being involved in a 1994 robbery in which Tupac Shakur was
shot and robbed of $40,000. In 1999 Amir Muhammad, aka Harry Billups,
was named as the suspected gunman. Muhammad was suspected to have been
hired by former LAPD officer David A. Mack. In 2005 a judge declared a
mistrial when large numbers of LAPD documents were found that hadn’t
been turned over to the court.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A8)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A11)(SFC,
7/7/05, p.A3)(AP, 3/9/07)
1997 Mar 9, In Albania Pres. Sali
Berisha proposed a new government of reconciliation to represent all
political parties and offered to set new elections.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 9, French journalist
Jean-Dominique Bauby died in Paris. He had been completely paralyzed in
Dec 1995 and had recently finished dictating the book: “Le Scaphandre
et le Papillon” (The Diving Suit and the Butterfly) by blinking his
left eyelid, the only moveable part of his body. The book was published
2 days before he died. The film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,”
based on the book, was directed by Julian Schnabel and opened in the US
in 2007.
(SFC, 3/11/97, p.A20)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.100)
1997 Mar 9, In the Sudan the
national Democratic Alliance (NDA) began an offensive in the southern
state of Equatoria.
(SFC, 4/3/97, p.A10)
1998 Mar 9, In a case pitting
former high school sweethearts against each other, Brian Peterson
pleaded guilty in Wilmington, Del., to manslaughter in the death of his
newborn son in a Newark, N.J., motel and agreed to testify against the
mother, Amy Grossberg. A month later, Grossberg also pleaded guilty to
manslaughter; she ended up serving nearly two years of a 2 1/2-year
sentence; Peterson served 1 1/2 years of a two-year sentence.
(AP, 3/9/08)
1998 Mar 9, It was reported that
the government owned the fastest computer, an Intel ASCI Red unit at
the Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque. It was designed to perform 1.5
trillion operations per second. It was planned to develop computers
capable of 30 trillion calculations per second by 2001, and 100
trillion per second by 2004.
(SFC, 3/9/98, p.A7)
1998 Mar 9, A vast storm caused
deadly flooding in the US South and heavy snows in the Midwest. In
Elba, Alabama, the Pea River broke its levee and put the town under 5
feet of water. The death toll rose to 8 after 3 days of storms.
(SFC, 3/10/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 9, In Israel soldiers at
a checkpoint killed 3 Palestinian laborers in a van near Hebron. Two
soldiers involved were arrested.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 9, In Paraguay a military
tribunal sentenced Lino Oviedo to 10 years in jail for leading an
attempted coup in 1996 and for insulting Pres. Wasmosy in 1997.
(SFC, 3/10/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 9, An arms embargo was
imposed on Yugoslavia by the US, Britain and other powers.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1999 Mar 9, Pres. Clinton visited
Honduras and paid tribute to US military efforts in rebuilding roads,
bridges, schools and clinics following Hurricane Mitch.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 9, Amtrak unveiled a new
high speed train for travel between Boston and New York in 3 hours. A
New York to Washington run was expected to take 2 ½ hours. The
new Acela service was planned to begin in Nov or Dec.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A4)(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.B1)
1999 Mar 9, RJR Nabisco Holdings
Corp., the food-and-tobacco conglomerate, announced that it would
split its tobacco business from its food operations.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 9, A late winter storm
dumped snow from the upper Midwest to the East Coast and caused 3
deaths. 4 motorists died the next day.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A6)
1999 Mar 9, The Antigua Labor
Party won the elections and Prime Minister Lester Bird extended his
rule for another 5 years.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 9, Ecuador declared a
60-day state of emergency prompted by the economic crises.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 9, French police arrested
Javier Arizcuren-Ruiz, aka Kantauri, leader of the military wing of the
Basque ETA along with 5 other ETA members.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 9, Serb tanks attacked
ethnic Albanian villages near Macedonia.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 9, A Sierra Leone rebel
leader made a radio appeal to his followers for a cease-fire and peace
talks.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 9, In South Africa a
gunman killed Patata Nqwaru, vice chairman of the local United
Democratic Movement in Cape Town.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A13)
1999 Mar 9, The UN announced a
program for India to set up schools in the eastern Punjab to get
children out of the carpet weaving industry. The US planned to
contribute $2 million to the $2.9 million program.
(SFC, 3/10/99, p.A13)
2000 Mar 9, Bill Bradley ended his
presidential bid, conceding the Democratic nomination to Vice President
Al Gore.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/9/01)
2000 Mar 9, John McCain suspended
his presidential campaign, conceding the Republican nomination to
George W. Bush.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/9/01)
2000 Mar 9, The US NASDAQ market
reached a record 5,000, ten weeks after passing 4,000.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 9, In Bosnia US Sec. of
state Madeleine Albright won a pledge from Croatian and Bosnian Serb
leaders to allow thousands of refugees to go home.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A13)
2000 Mar 9, In Ecuador Pres. Noboa
signed a bill that made the US dollar the official currency.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2000 Mar 9, In Indonesia 2 days of
fighting left at least 30 people dead as Christian and Muslim gangs
clashed on Halmahera Island.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A9)
2000 Mar 9, In Norway Prime
Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik announced that his minority government
would resign following a failed vote of confidence in an environmental
dispute. He opposed new power plants to burn gas supplies.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2000 Mar 9, In Moscow A Yak-40
aircraft crashed on takeoff from Sheremetyevo Airport and all 9 people
aboard were killed. Among the dead were journalist Artyom Borovik and
oil executive Ziya Bazhayev.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A11)(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D5)
2000 Mar 9, In Tuvalu a fire swept
through a locked dormitory and killed 18 teenage girls and their
supervisor.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D6)
2001 Mar 9, Federal regulators
warned power companies that they may have to refund $69 million to
California ratepayers for charging unreasonable prices.
(SFC, 3/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 9, The DJIA fell 213.63
to 10,644, while the Nasdaq fell almost 116 to close at 2052. Intel and
Cisco announced thousands of job cuts.
(SFC, 3/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 9, A judge in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., sentenced 14-year-old Lionel Tate to life in prison
for the 1999 killing of Tiffany Eunick, a 6-year old girl. Tate, who
had been convicted of first-degree murder, said he was imitating
pro-wrestling moves. Tate's first-degree murder conviction and sentence
were later overturned; he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and
received a new sentence of probation, but is now accused of violating
that probation.
(AP, 3/9/02)(AP, 3/9/06)
2001 Mar 9, Attorney James St.
Clair (b.1920), who represented President Nixon at the height of the
Watergate scandal, died in Westwood, Mass., at age 80.
(AP, 3/9/02)(NW, 12/31/01, p.110)
2001 Mar 9, In Afghanistan the
smaller giant Buddha at Bamiyan was destroyed.
(SFC, 3/12/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 9, Ethnic Albanian rebels
launched attacks on Macedonian and Yugoslav forces on the Kosovo
border. 2 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/10/01, p.A8)
2001 Mar 9, In Ukraine tens of
thousands of demonstrators rioted in Kiev to force Pres. Kuchma from
office.
(SFC, 3/10/01, p.A8)
2002 Mar 9, The Director’s Guild
of America voted top honors to director Ron Howard for the film “A
Beautiful Mind” starring Russel Crowe. Crowe portrayed John Nash, a
Nobel laureate who struggled with mental illness.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A2)
2002 Mar 9, Melissa Gilbert was
elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, defeating challenger
Valerie Harper.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2002 Mar 9, Jamil Abdullah
al-Amin, aka H. Rap Brown (58), was convicted by an Atlanta jury for
the murder of a sheriff’s deputy on Mar 16, 2000. Brown was sentenced
to life in prison without parole on Mar 13.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A4)(AP, 3/9/07)
2002 Mar 9, A Marine Corps
helicopter from Beaufort, SC, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean during a
rescue operation from a downed civilian helicopter. 2 people were
killed.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 9, The space shuttle
Columbia's astronauts released the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit
after five days of repairs.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2002 Mar 9, In Chicago scaffolding
under high winds tore loose from the John Hancock Center and fatally
crushed 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 9, In Burma the military
reported the arrests of 4 relatives of former dictator Ne Win and the
dismissal of some military officers for planning a coup.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A15)
2002 Mar 9, In Cairo Arab foreign
ministers met and voiced support for a Middle East peace proposal by
Saudi Arabia.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A16)
2002 Mar 9, A pair of Palestinian
gunmen tossed grenades and opened fire at a seafront hotel in Netanya
and 3 people were killed including a baby. A Palestinian suicide bomber
blew himself up in a Jerusalem café and killed 11 others.
Israeli forces destroyed Arafat’s office building in Gaza and left 6
Palestinians dead including a 15-year-old girl.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A1,16)
2002 Mar 9, In Pueblo, Mexico,
police arrested Benjamin Arellano Felix, head of the Tijuana drug
cartel.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A14)
2003 Mar 9, Bill Clinton
and Bob Dole made their debut as 2-minute TV commentators on 60
Minutes. Their 1st topic was "tax cuts in times of war."
(WSJ, 3/7/03, p.A1)(NW, 3/17/03, p.45)
2003 Mar 9, Renee
Zellwegger, lead actress in "Chicago," won the top Screen Actors Guild
Award along with Daniel Day-Lewis, for his role in "Gangs of New York."
(SFC, 3/10/03, p.A2)
2003 Mar 9, In Chechnya 2
Russian armored personnel carriers opened fire in Staraya Sunzha,
killing 2 policemen.
(AP, 3/12/03)
2003 Mar 9, In southern
India a van driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a bus,
killing 17 people and injuring 13 others.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2003 Mar 9, Nauru's Pres.
Bernard Dowiyogo (57), known as a pragmatic leader of the
environmentally devastated South Pacific island, died in Washington DC.
He signed an executive order as he lay dying, at the behest of US
officials, ending the Nauru offshore banking system and its
economic-citizenship program.
(AP, 3/10/03)(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A4)
2003 Mar 9, In Rawalpindi,
Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of people protested a possible US war
with Iraq.
(SFC, 3/10/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 9, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, the leader of Turkey's ruling party, won a by-election. He was
soon confirmed as PM replacing Abdullah Gul.
(AP, 3/9/03)(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 9, In Venezuela
Pres. Hugo Chavez claimed an international campaign involving the US
was trying to discredit his government and he warned other countries
not to be fooled by the so-called smear tactics.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2004 Mar 9, John Allen Muhammad
(43) was sentenced to death in Manassas, Va., for his 2002 murder
rampage in the Washington DC area.
(SFC, 3/10/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 9, Britain ended a 3-year
review and agreed to allow farmers to grow one variety genetically
modified "GM" corn.
(WSJ, 3/10/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 9, In Chad 2 days of
fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a remote
village on the country's western border with Niger, killing 43
"terrorists" of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida.
(AP, 3/12/04)
2004 Mar 9, China reported that it
would scrap the 8% tax on farmers' crops over the next 5 years. The
vestige of feudalism was established 4,000 years ago during the Bronze
Age.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2004 Mar 9, Colombian troops
killed at least 12 leftist guerrillas and captured 40 others in
separate offensives across the country.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 9, In Haiti Gerard
Latortue (69), a lawyer and economist, was named as interim prime
minister.
(SFC, 3/10/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 9, In Iraq 2 US civilians
and their Iraqi interpreter were killed. 4 Iraqis were arrested and
appeared to be active Iraqi police officers working with a Saddam
Hussein loyalist.
(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.A1)(SFC, 3/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 9, Israeli forces backed
by tanks and combat helicopters raided the West Bank town of Jenin,
prompting a gun battle that killed a Palestinian woman in her home.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2004 Mar 9, Groundbreaking
ceremonies were set for a research center on the Israeli-Jordan border.
The Bridging the Rift foundation, launched in 1999, planned a $30
million environmental research center created with the assistance of
California's Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 2/28/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 9, A shootout between
unidentified gunmen and government troops in Nigeria's oil city of
Warri killed five people, including one soldier. Separately an
overturned candle ignited a fire that raged through a shantytown in
Lagos.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 9, Pakistan tested its
longest-range missile yet, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and
hitting targets deep inside neighboring India.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2005 Mar 9, Dan Rather (73) made
his final news broadcast with CBS Evening News.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A2)
2005 Mar 9, The acting boss of the
NYC Gambino family and at least 30 other mob figures were arrested
following an undercover FBI operation.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 9, In Las Vegas 2 retired
NYC police detectives, Louis Eppolito (56) and Stephen Caracappa (63),
were arrested on federal charges of taking part in 8 murders on behalf
of the Mafia. In 2009 both men were sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 3/11/05, p.A3)(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A5)
2005 Mar 9, Michael Jackson's
young accuser took the witness stand, saying he once considered the pop
star being tried for allegedly molesting him "the coolest guy in the
world." Jackson was later acquitted.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2005 Mar 9, Information broker
LexisNexis reported that thieves hacked into records and stole personal
data on some 310,000 US individuals.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.A4)
2005 Mar 9, Chris LeDoux (56),
rodeo star and country singer, died in Wyoming from complications of
liver cancer.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.B7)
2005 Mar 9, Senior officials said
China will use taxes from its fast-growing eastern cities to help pay
for rural social programs as it tries to close a widening divide
between rich and poor.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, Colombia extradited to
the United States a top member of the South American country's main
rebel group, a woman known by the nom de guerre of Sonia and accused of
running the insurgents' drug trafficking business.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, In Costa Rica police
stormed a bank in a hail of gunfire following a thwarted robbery that
turned into a 30-hour hostage standoff in the tourist town of Santa
Elena de Monteverde. Officials said nine people were killed, including
five bank customers.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 9, Egypt’s parliament
agreed to amend the Constitution to allow for 1st time multi-candidate
balloting.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 9, Indonesia and East
Timor agreed to set up a commission to deal with atrocities surrounding
East Timor's 1999 vote for independence, despite criticism led by the
UN.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, Iraqi officials said
that 41 bodies, some bullet-riddled, others beheaded, have been found
at two separate sites. They believe some of the corpses are Iraqi
soldiers kidnapped and killed by insurgents. 4 people were killed in
Baghdad when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed truck into a
hotel used by US contractors.
(AP, 3/9/05)(WSJ, 3/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 9, President Bush's envoy
to Northern Ireland called for the IRA to disband after the outlawed
group made an unprecedented public offer to kill four men, including
two of its own expelled members, linked to a Belfast slaying. The
family of slain Northern Ireland man Robert McCartney have said they
had rejected the IRA's offer of vigilante justice because only in court
will "the truth come out."
(AP, 3/9/05)(AFP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, An Israeli inquiry
into the establishment of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts
found widespread complicity of successive Israeli governments and
recommended that prosecutors consider investigations some of those
involved.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, In southern Mexico a
federal government helicopter searching for gunmen protecting drug
plantations crashed into a mountain, killing all nine soldiers and two
pilots onboard.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 9, In the southern
Philippines at least 27 children died from food poisoning after eating
a deep-fried caramelized cassava snack at school. Evidence later
revealed that a pesticide in the snack was the cause of death.
(AP, 3/9/05)(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 9, In South Africa
investigators began digging up the first of hundreds of unmarked graves
in a bid to close a chapter in South Africa's horrific history.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, An earthquake shook
parts of northern South Africa, trapping 16 miners underground.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, Spanish serial killer
Alfredo Galan, nicknamed the "playing card assassin" because he left a
card at the scene of each murder, received jail sentences totaling 142
years.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 9, Jan Egeland, UN
humanitarian chief, said far more people have died in Sudan's ravaged
Darfur region than the 70,000 reported since last year, and many of
those deaths were from preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea.
Egeland said some 180,000 people died in Darfur over the past 18 months
from hunger and disease.
(AP, 3/9/05)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.41)
2005 Mar 9, Syrian soldiers
flashed victory signs and waved automatic rifles as they drove east
through Lebanon's mountains in the first phase of a pullback.
Government lawmakers advised the president to bring back his
pro-Damascus prime minister who was forced by opposition protests to
resign.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2006 Mar 9, Pres. Bush signed a
weakened patriot Act into law, a day before parts of it were due to
expire.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A5)
2006 Mar 9, Dubai Ports World
bowed to pressure from the US Congress and announced that it will sell
off its US operations to a US owner.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 9, The US Commerce Dept.
reported that the US trade gap for January widened to a record
$68.51 billion.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 9, Claude Allen, who
stepped down last month as Bush's top domestic policy adviser, was
arrested in Maryland on charges he swindled two stores out of more than
$5,000.
(Reuters, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, Exxon Mobil Corp. said
it would appeal the ruling by a US judge to allow villagers to sue the
oil giant for alleged abuses by Indonesian troops at facilities it
operated in Aceh province.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, California authorities
ordered Michael Jackson to shut down his Neverland Valley Ranch and
fined the pop star $169,000 for failing to pay his employees or
maintain proper insurance.
(Reuters, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Microsoft Corp. took
the wraps off its mysterious Project Origami, unveiling a computer
that's about the size of a large paperback book but runs a full version
of the Windows XP operating system.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Google announced that
it has bought Upstartle LLC, whose Writely.com service allows users to
create, edit and share documents online.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A16)
2006 Mar 9, Scientists from Sandia
National Laboratories in New Mexico reported that they produced
superheated gas exceeding temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin, or
3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit.
(www.livescience.com/technology/060308_sandia_z.html)
2006 Mar 9, Scientists reported
that images from the Cassini spacecraft showed plumes of water shooting
from fissures near a heated region of Enceladus, a 300-mile wide moon
of Saturn.
(SFC, 3/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Mar 9, In Afghanistan’s
Helmand province a roadside bomb killed two Afghan soldiers when it hit
their convoy.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Argentina Raul
Castells opened a soup kitchen in the posh Puerto Madero section of
Buenos Aires near an outlet to the River Plate, with volunteers serving
fried bread cakes and hot herbal tea to about 600 people.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, An Argentine air force
plane providing aid for Bolivian flood victims crashed outside of La
Paz, killing all six people on board.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Bahamas Court of
Appeals ruled that Atain Takitota (41), a Japanese amnesiac who was
kept in a Bahamas prison and an immigration center for eight years
without being charged, was held unlawfully. He was awarded $500,000
"for the loss of eight years and two months" of his life.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, John Profumo (91), a
former British Cabinet minister, died. His 1963 liaison with a
prostitute nearly brought down a government after revelations that the
call girl was also involved with a Soviet spy. Profumo was Britain's
secretary of state for war when he was involved with Christine Keeler
at the same time she was seeing a Soviet naval attache and intelligence
agent.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, More than 300 police
backed by British and Irish troops mounted dawn raids on the home turf
of Thomas "Slab" Murphy, reputedly the Irish Republican Army's veteran
chief of staff and its most lucrative smuggler.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, A flood at a mine in
southwestern China killed 7 miners and injured 3 others. In central
China a coal mine explosion and fire killed 3 miners and left six
others missing.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Colombian navy
seized a 60-foot long submarine that likely was used to haul tons of
cocaine out to sea for shipment to the United States.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, The French parliament,
despite protests by students and unions, enacted a much-contested law
to reduce youth unemployment by using contract jobs.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, In France Christophe
Fauviau (46), a father who drugged his children's tennis opponents
leading to one player's death, was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, About 8,000 Georgians
took to the streets for the capital's biggest anti-government
demonstration since President Mikhail Saakashvili was swept to power
after leading the Rose Revolution protests more than two years ago.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, A German laboratory
said the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in a weasel-like mammal
called a stone marten.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In southern Germany a
delivery van struck a funeral procession after the driver had a fatal
heart attack. The crash killed two mourners.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Iran's supreme leader
Ali Khamenei and its president said that Tehran would not abandon its
nuclear program and rejected its referral to the U.N. Security Council
as unjust.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Iraq hanged 13
insurgents, marking the first time militants have been executed in the
country since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly three
years ago.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The body of Tom Fox
(54), an American man taken hostage with three other Christian peace
activists in Nov 26, 2005, was found near a railroad line in Baghdad
with gunshots to his head and chest.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 9, A dust storm enveloped
Baghdad as explosions killed 11 people and wounded 19, all civilians.
The US military confirmed that a mass abduction from a security firm
was the work of kidnappers masquerading as Interior Ministry commandos.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Bank of Japan
abandoned the super-easy monetary policy it has kept for five years,
saying it will gradually raise interest rates and start to cut the
excess cash in the banking system amid signs of economic recovery.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In southwestern Nepal
communist rebels attacked a security checkpoint with bombs, killing at
least three government security forces and wounding five.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, A fuel oil spill from
a chemical plant in southeastern Norway threatened hundreds of birds in
a salt water nature preserve, while snow and ice hampered a cleanup
operation. Nearly 200 barrels leaked during the transfer of fuel oil
from a ship on March 4, but because of ice in the harbor area the oil
was not visible and was not discovered before the ice broke up on March
8.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov said new customs rules imposed by Ukraine to
tighten its border with Moldova's breakaway region violate a 1997
agreement and are an attempt to pressure the separatist
Russian-speaking enclave.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Turkey a bomb set
off by suspected Kurdish guerrillas killed three people and injured 18
in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Turkey a bus
carrying about 40 people drove off a road and plunged into a river
before dawn, killing at least 16 passengers and injuring 11.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2007 Mar 9, President Bush
heralded a new ethanol agreement with Brazil as a way to boost
alternative fuels production across the Americas. One roadblock in the
Bush-Silva ethanol talks is a 54-cent tariff the United States has
imposed on every gallon of ethanol imported from Brazil. Bush said it's
not up for discussion.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller acknowledged the
FBI improperly used the Patriot Act to secretly pry out personal
information about Americans; they apologized and vowed to prevent
further illegal intrusions.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2007 Mar 9, The US began a series
of secret hearings to determine whether 14 alleged terrorist leaders at
its prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be declared "enemy
combatants" who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military
tribunals.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, A US appeals court
overturned a District of Columbia handgun ban.
(WSJ, 3/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 9, Xinhua Finance Media
shares made their debut on the NYSE raising $300 million. Fredy Bush
(49), a US-born entrepreneur, served as CEO of Xinhua Finance Ltd., the
Shanghai-based parent of the US listed company.
(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 9, A report by the Police
Executive Research Forum said slayings since 2004 have jumped over 10%
among dozens of large US cities.
(SFC, 3/9/07, p.A6)
2007 Mar 9, Brad Delp (55), lead
singer of the rock band Boston, died at his home in New Hampshire. The
group’s self-titled debut album in 1976 was one of the fastest selling
I rock history.
(SSFC, 3/11/07, p.B6)
2007 Mar 9, In Afghanistan a
remote-controlled roadside bomb ripped through the vehicle of Mullah
Naqeeb, an influential pro-government tribal elder, injuring him and
nine others. 6 people died after being wounded in the bombing of the
armored vehicle. The Afghan elder played a key role in dealing with the
Taliban. Police detained five men in connection with the killing of a
German aid worker in northern Afghanistan. The five were detained in
the province of Sari Pul, where Dieter Ruebling, 65, worked for aid
group German Agro Action. Two gunmen killed Ruebling and robbed his
three Afghan colleagues after stopping their two vehicles near the
village of Mirza Wolang in Sayyad district.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, Nearly 20,000 fans
gathered at a stadium in Buenos Aires, not to watch soccer but to hear
Hugo Chavez bash George W. Bush.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, Finance Minister Jin
Renqing said China is creating an investment company to make more
profitable use of its $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves, in a
move that could change the flow of billions of dollars in global
markets.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, Greek Cypriots
demolished a wall along the boundary that for decades has split
Europe's last divided capital, a dramatic gesture that officials hope
will kick-start reconciliation on the Mediterranean island. Plastic and
metal screens replaced the wall.
(AP, 3/9/07)(SFC, 3/10/07, p.A3)
2007 Mar 9, Ethiopia's foreign
minister said 5 European tourists who went missing last week in
northeastern Ethiopia are being held by kidnappers in a remote tribal
region.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, EU leaders agreed on a
bold set of measures to fight global warming, pledging that a fifth of
the bloc's energy will come from green power sources such as wind
turbines and solar panels by 2020 and that 10% of European cars will
run on biofuels.
(AP, 3/9/07)(Econ, 3/17/07, p.59)
2007 Mar 9, US forces killed a
suspected militant and captured 16 others in raids across Iraq.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, In Japan Aeon
supermarket chain said it will take a 15% stake in troubled Daiei for
46.2 billion yen, or $393.5 million. The alliance would create Japan's
biggest retail grouping.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, President Felipe
Calderon proposed sweeping reforms to Mexico's justice system,
including US-style trials and a unified criminal code. Mexican federal
police detained 81 Chinese immigrants and 22 immigration agents after
the Chinese were discovered hiding in the Cancun airport terminal,
possibly with the protection of Mexican immigration officers.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, The UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture said Nigerian police routinely torture suspects,
shooting them in the legs, beating them and hanging them from the
ceiling for long periods. Royal Dutch Shell said that it has
successfully contained a major oil spill in a production facility in
southern Nigeria but yet to regain output loss of 187,000 barrels per
day.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AFP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, In Northern Ireland
substantial election results showed the polar extremes of politics have
strengthened their grip on the province's legislature, ensuring they
will control any future Catholic-Protestant administration. Anna Lo
(56), a Hong Kong native who has lived in Northern Ireland for 32
years, became the first ethnic minority to be elected to political
office. Lo was one of seven people elected to the 108-member Northern
Ireland Assembly from the Alliance Party, which seeks to draw support
from all sides of the community.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, Pakistan's state media
reported that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf replaced Iftikhar
Chaudhry, the Islamic nation's chief justice, for "misuse of
authority." Chaudhry refused to resign and mass demonstrations for his
support soon followed.
(AP, 3/9/07)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.23)
2007 Mar 9, Thousands of people
across Spain took part in rallies called by the right wing opposition
to protest the Socialists government's decision to allow a
hunger-striking Basque separatist serve out his jail term under house
arrest.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, The Sri Lanka Defense
Ministry said ground troops, backed by artillery, had captured three
Tamil Tiger bases in the northeast in a major military operation.
Anti-insurgency commandos overran a rebel base in eastern Sri Lanka,
killing at least 20 guerrillas. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead
four security personnel and four park officials inside a wildlife
sanctuary as fighting escalated elsewhere on the island.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AFP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, A prominent Turkish
politician was convicted of breaching Swiss anti-racism laws by saying
that the early 20th-century killing of Armenians could not be described
as genocide. Perincek was charged with breaking Swiss law by denying
during a visit to Switzerland in 2005 that the World War I-era killings
of up to 1.5 million Armenians amounted to genocide. He was ordered to
pay a fine of $2,450 and was given a suspended penalty of $7,360.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 9, Thailand's junta chief
urged people living in restive Muslim-majority provinces to act as
informants for security forces trying to quell three years of
separatist unrest.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, Turkey lifted its ban
on YouTube two days after a court ordered the Web site blocked because
of videos that allegedly insulted the founder of modern Turkey.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, Zimbabwe state media
said authorities have sealed off the eastern Marange diamond fields as
part of measures to prevent plundering of the site.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2008 Mar 9, In Cupertino, Ca., 2
racing cyclists, Kristy Gough (30) and Mat Peterson (29), were killed
during a training ride when a deputy sheriff veered into the opposite
lane of traffic on Stevens Canyon Road. Officer James Council (27) said
he had fallen asleep at the wheel. In 2009 Council was sentenced to 4
months in jail and 800 hours of community service.
(SFC, 3/10/08, p.A1)(SFC, 3/10/08, p.A1)(SFC,
3/12/08, p.C1)(SFC, 6/26/09, p.B1)
2008 Mar 9, Thousands of Afghan
students in Jalalabad chanted slogans and burned Danish and Dutch flags
in the latest in a series of protests over perceived insults against
Islam. 4 militants were killed in clashes with Afghan and foreign
troops in the Korengal Valley in the eastern province of Kunar.
(AP, 3/9/08)(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 9, In Argentina a
passenger train slammed into a bus at a rural rail crossing before
dawn, killing 18 people and leaving at least 47 others injured.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 9, In Tanta, Egypt, at
least 5,000 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated
against government attempts to block members from registering their
candidacy in April's key local elections.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 9, French voters went to
the polls for local elections predicted to deliver yet more bad news to
Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity has plummeted since his triumphant
presidential victory last year.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 9, In Hungary 80% of
voters in a referendum rejected small charges for doctor visits, and
hospital stays as well as tuition fees for higher education.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.67)
2008 Mar 9, An Israeli
Construction Ministry official said PM Ehud Olmert has approved new
construction in a West Bank settlement outside Jerusalem. An Israeli
soldier wounded by Gaza militants in a border ambush on Mar 6 died of
his wounds. The news immediately drew Palestinian condemnation.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 9, An army operation
began in western Kenya pursuing members of a group linked to bloody
clashes over land. Up to 30,000 people fled their homes.
(AP, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 9, Moroccan security
forces arrested 19 members of the country's largest Islamic opposition
group. Another 25 were arrested as day earlier after they tried to hold
marches in solidarity with the Palestinians.
(Reuters, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 9, Former Pakistani PM
Nawaz Sharif said he would join the late Benazir Bhutto's party in a
coalition, raising the prospect of a government hostile to President
Pervez Musharraf. Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif declared they would
work together in what came to be called the Murree declaration.
(Reuters, 3/9/08)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.52)
2008 Mar 9, Spaniards voted in a
general election after a divisive campaign dominated by economic
concerns. PM Zapatero won re-election as the Socialists gained five
seats for a total of 169 in the 350-seat parliament. The opposition
conservative Popular Party (PP) also gained five seats to reach 153,
while smaller left-wing parties and some nationalist parties lost
ground.
(AP, 3/9/08)(AP, 3/10/08)(WSJ, 3/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 9, A government newspaper
reported that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a
bill giving local owners the right to take majority control of foreign
companies, including mines and banks.
(Reuters, 3/9/08)
2009 Mar 9, President Barack Obama
signed an executive order reversing the US government’s ban on funding
stem-cell research today and pledge to “use sound, scientific practice
and evidence, instead of dogma” to guide federal policy.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, The US and South Korea
began annual war games prompting North Korea to call its military into
full combat readiness.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 9, In North Carolina
Philip Guyett (42) pleaded guilty to falsifying records so that he
could sell human tissue from corpses that were riddled with cancer or
showed intravenous drug use. He was sentenced in October to 8 years in
prison.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.38)(http://tinyurl.com/yfnbh8p)
2009 Mar 9, The latest American
Religious Identification Survey said 15% of respondents had no
religion, an increase from 14.2% in 2001 and 8.2% in 1990.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman
and state house and senate leaders agreed to eliminate the state’s
40-year-old private club system in an effort to boost tourism.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 9, Virginia Gov. Tim
Kaine signed a bill that generally restricts smoking in bars and
restaurants to separate rooms that have their own ventilation.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 9, Merck & Co. said
it is buying Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion in stock and cash
in a deal that gives the companies more firepower to compete in a drug
industry facing slumping sales, tough generic competition and intense
pricing pressures. The merger was expected to eliminate some 16,000
jobs.
(AP, 3/9/09)(SFC, 3/10/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 9, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales ordered a US diplomat to leave his country for allegedly
conspiring with opposition groups, further straining tense relations
six months after he expelled the American ambassador.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, China's President Hu
Jintao ordered a "Great Wall" against Tibetan separatism, as extra
soldiers were deployed to the Himalayan region on the 50th anniversary
of a failed anti-Chinese uprising. Homemade bombs damaged police
vehicles in a Tibetan part of western China. Authorities expanded a
security cordon across the restive region ahead of the 50th anniversary
of a failed revolt that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.
(AFP, 3/9/09)(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, Chinese ships
surrounded and harassed a Navy mapping ship in international waters off
China, at one point coming within 25 feet of the American boat and
strewing debris in its path. The Obama administration said it would
continue naval operations in the South China Sea, most of which China
considers its territory, and protested to China about what it called
reckless behavior that endangered lives. China held that the USNS
Impeccable was operating illegally inside its 200-mile exclusive
economic zone.
(AP, 3/10/09)(WSJ, 3/11/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 9, Dubai’s public
prosecution indicted 7 suspects on bribery and fraud charges alleging
losses to the Dubai Islamic Bank of over $501 million in fake deals
from 2004 to 2007. Two of the men had left the country.
(WSJ, 3/10/09, p.A7)
2009 Mar 9, A group of Egyptian
army cadets stormed a police station in a southern suburb of Cairo,
leaving at least five policemen and three cadets injured. The attack
came after a local police chief arrested a cadet on March 5 for
loitering on a street corner and refusing to show any ID. The cadet was
taken to the police station, beaten and held overnight.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 9, A cargo ship sank off
the Red Sea coast of Egypt shortly after leaving port, leaving 14
sailors missing. At least 2 crew members drowned. 10 people were
rescued when the 5,600-tonne Ibn al-Battuta went down in the sea off
the port of Abu Dhunaima in Egypt’s Safaga region.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, French lawmakers
passed an amendment to ban the sale of alcohol to teens under 18, part
of an effort to tackle the rise of binge drinking in a country known
for a relaxed attitude toward a little libation.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, Helg Sgarbi, a man
dubbed "the Swiss gigolo" by the German media, was sentenced to six
years in prison for defrauding BMW heiress Susanne Klatten (46),
Germany's richest woman, of euro7 million ($9 million) and attempting
to blackmail her for tens of millions more.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Iraq rockets
slammed into the British military base outside the southern city of
Basra, killing one civilian. It was the first such attack on the base
in nearly three months.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, The Icelandic
government took control of Straumur Burdaras Investment Bank hf., the
last of the major Icelandic banks to collapse after running out of
liquidity.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed six people, including the police chief of Pungarabato, in a
series of attacks in mountain towns in the Pacific coast state of
Guerrero. Gunmen also shot and killed a Michoacan state police
commander outside police headquarters in the city of Zamora.
(AP, 3/9/09)(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 9, In Northern Ireland
Constable Stephen Paul Carroll (48) was shot in the head in an area
known to be home to nationalist republican supporters in Craigavon, 20
miles southwest of Belfast. The Continuity IRA said it killed the
police officer.
(AFP, 3/10/09)(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, Pakistan's top
security official warned opposition leader Nawaz Sharif that his recent
anti-government speeches amounted to treason, ratcheting up tensions in
the country ahead of planned protest rallies this week. A tribe in the
northwestern Bajur region, where the military has fought insurgents,
agreed to stop sheltering foreign fighters and hand over local Taliban
leaders. A tribal elder said some militants could be pardoned and freed.
(AP, 3/9/09)(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, The Sri Lankan
military said its troops had killed at least 250 Tamil Tigers during a
weekend of fierce fighting around the rebels' shrinking fiefdom in the
northeast of the island.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Sudan 4 soldiers
from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in the war-torn
Darfur region have been wounded in an ambush.
(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Sweden researchers
reported that a chimpanzee named Santino had collected a stash of rocks
and then hurled them at visitors at the Furuvik Zoo, confirming that
apes can plan ahead just like humans.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 9, In Uganda a cargo
plane carrying equipment for African Union peacekeepers in Somalia
caught fire and crashed into Uganda's Lake Victoria shortly after
takeoff, killing all 11 people on board.
(AP, 3/9/09)
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