TODAY IN HISTORY - MARCH 9TH

1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

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

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.

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

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

1910 – The Westmoreland County coal strike, involving 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers, begins.

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

1918 – Mickey Spillane, American author and actor (d. 2006) is born.

1918 – George Lincoln Rockwell, American sailor and politician, founded the American Nazi Party (d. 1967) is born.

1935 – Andrew Viterbi, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Qualcomm Inc. is born.

1954 – McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly.

1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

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.

1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a Douglas DC-9-15, crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26.

1976 – Forty-two people die in the 1976 Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.

1996 – George Burns, American actor and singer (b. 1896) dies.

1997 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (Junior M.A.F.I.A.) (b. 1972) dies.

2014 – William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (b. 1925) dies.