TODAY IN HISTORY ― MARCH 9

March 9 is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 297 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday (58 in 400 years each) than on Saturday or Sunday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Thursday (56).  

NATIONAL GET OVER IT DAY 

632 – The Farewell Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada') of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

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.

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 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1847 – The Mexican–American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.

1862 – The American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (the Merriamac)fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1910 – The Westmoreland County (PA) coal strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers begins (lasting 16 months). ― Photo: Export , PA (1910)

1916 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.

1933 – The Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.

1945 – The Bombing of Tokyo by the United States Army Air Forces begins, one of the most destructive bombing raids in history.

1956 – Soviet forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.

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.

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.

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; 12 Palestinians militants are killed as part of the latest escalation in violence in the region.


BORN TODAY

1454 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (d. 1512)

1824 – Amasa Leland Stanford, American businessman and politician, founded Stanford University (d. 1893)

1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician and diplomat, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1986)

1904 – Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American soldier and engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (d. 2002)

1910 – Samuel Barber, American pianist and composer (d. 1981)

1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1968)

1943 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player and author (d. 2008)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.