Historical Events on March 9

First Barbie

Here are some historical events that took place on March 9:

1454 - Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer and cartographer, was born. He would give his name to the continent of America.

1566 - David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte married Josephine de Beauharnais in Paris, France.

1842 - The first documented discovery of gold in California occurred at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1862 - The USS Monitor, the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy, was launched during the American Civil War.

1933 - The Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a "bank holiday", closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. forces landed on the island of Iwo Jima.

1959 - Barbie, the iconic fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1961 - The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 9, carrying a human dummy and a dog named Chernushka, in preparation for manned spaceflight.

1997 - Rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California.

2011 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami that resulted in widespread devastation and the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

2015 - Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father and first Prime Minister of Singapore, passed away at the age of 91.

These are just a few events that have occurred on March 9 throughout history. There are certainly many more, depending on the specific year and area of interest.