Charlotte Johnson

The Barbie doll makes its debut

Born on This Day

Bobby Fischer Portrait Session

Bobby Fischer

1943 - 2008

Chess prodigy who became the youngest grandmaster at age 15. Famously defeated Russia's world champ Boris Spassky in 1972.

73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Press Room

Oscar Isaac

1979 -

Guatemalan-born actor best known for the third "Star Wars" trilogy, "Dune" and "Ex Machina."

"Slack Bay (Ma Loute)" Photocall - The 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival

Juliette Binoche

1964 -

Oscar-winning French actress renowned for films like "The English Patient," "Chocolat" and "Three Colors: Blue."

Bobby FischerGetty Images

Oscar IsaacWireImage

Juliette BinocheWireImage

1822

MAR9

Nearly 30 years after WWII ended, Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese intelligence officer hiding out in the Philippine jungle, finally surrenders. He refused to believe the war was over until his former commander came from Japan to relieve him of his duty.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on March 9th

Spanish siege of Pensacola begins

After successfully capturing British positions in Louisiana and Mississippi, Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, commander of the Spanish forces in North America, turns his attention to the British-occupied city of Pensacola, Florida, on March 9, 1781. General Galvez and a Spanish naval force of more than 40 ships and 3,500 men landed at Santa Rosa […]

1:28m read read

This Day In History: Spanish siege of Pensacola begins

Jackson appointee John Eaton sworn in as secretary of war—igniting a scandal

On March 9, 1829, President Andrew Jackson defies Washington society matrons when his scandal-plagued appointee John Eaton takes the oath as his secretary of war. Earlier that year, Eaton had married a former tavern maid with a supposedly lurid past. Margaret Peggy Eaton had been raised in a boardinghouse frequented by Washington politicians and became […]

2:20m read read

Supreme Court rules on Amistad slave ship mutiny case

At the end of a historic case, the U.S. Supreme Court rules, with only one dissent, that the enslaved Africans who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery, and thus are free under American law. In 1807, the U.S. Congress joined with Great Britain in abolishing the African slave […]

3:34m read read

U.S.S. Monitor battles C.S.S. Virginia

On March 9, 1862, one of the most famous naval battles in American history occurs as two ironclads, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia, fight to a draw off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The ships pounded each other all morning but their armor plates easily deflected the cannon shots, signaling a new era of steam-powered iron […]

Pancho Villa attacks Columbus, New Mexico

Angered over American support of his rivals for the control of Mexico, the peasant-born revolutionary leader Pancho Villa attacks the border town of Columbus, New Mexico. In 1913, a bloody civil war in Mexico brought the general Victoriano Huerta to power. American President Woodrow Wilson despised the new regime, referring to it as a “government […]

2:04m read read

Germany declares war on Portugal

On March 9, 1916, Germany declares war on Portugal, who earlier that year honored its alliance with Great Britain by seizing German ships anchored in Lisbon’s harbor. Portugal became a republic in 1910 after a revolution led by the country’s military toppled King Manuel II (his father, King Carlos, and elder brother had been assassinated […]

1:34m read read

Dutch surrender on Java

Dutch forces surrender to the Japanese after two months of fighting. Java, an island of modern-day Indonesia, lies southeast of Malaysia and Sumatra, south of Borneo and west of Bali. The Dutch had been in Java since 1596, establishing the Dutch East India Company, a trading company with headquarters at Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), which the […]

1:30m read read

Firebombing of Tokyo

On the night of March 9, 1945, U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the […]

President Eisenhower criticizes Senator Joseph McCarthy

President Eisenhower writes a letter to his friend, Paul Helms, in which he privately criticizes Senator Joseph McCarthy’s approach to rooting out communists in the federal government. Two days earlier, former presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson had declared that the president’s silence on McCarthy’s actions was tantamount to approval. Eisenhower, who viewed political mud-slinging as beneath […]

2:14m read read

Marines hand over control of I Corps region

The U.S. Marines turn over control of the five northernmost provinces in South Vietnam to the U.S. Army. The Marines had been responsible for this area since they first arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. The change in responsibility for this area was part of President Richard Nixon’s initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels as […]

0:40m read read

Lawsuit prompts MLB to allow locker room access to female reporters

On March 9, 1979, the 26 Major League Baseball teams are ordered by MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn to allow equal access to all reporters, regardless of sex. The commissioner’s order comes after Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke’s successful lawsuit against MLB for refusing her access to clubhouses at Yankee Stadium during the 1977 World Series between the […]

1:24m read read

First Adopt-a-Highway sign goes up

On March 9, 1985, the first-ever Adopt-a-Highway sign is erected on Texas’s Highway 69. The highway was adopted by the Tyler Civitan Club, which committed to picking up trash along a designated two-mile stretch of the road. The Adopt-a-Highway program really began the year before, when James Evans, an engineer for the Texas Department of […]

1:24m read read

Comedian George Burns dies at age 100

On March 9, 1996, the legendary cigar-chomping performer George Burns dies at his home in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday. Born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City, Burns was one of 12 children. As a young child, he sang for pennies on street corners and in saloons, and at age […]

2:58m read read

Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles

Christopher Wallace, a.k.a Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., is shot to death at a stoplight in Los Angeles. The murder was thought to be the culmination of an ongoing feud between rap music artists from the East and West coasts. Just six months earlier, rapper Tupac Shakur was killed when he was shot while […]

1:36m read read

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