March 9

1500 – Following Vasco da Gama’s route around Africa, the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. Sailing farther west into the Atlantic Ocean than planned, the fleet makes landfall on what is now the country of Brazil on the South American continent and Cabral claims it for Portugal since the land lies within boundaries granted to the Portuguese Crown in the Treaty of Tordesillas

1776 – The Wealth of Nations by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith is published.

1841 – In the case of United States v. The Amistad, the Supreme Court rules 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 – During the Mexican–American War, the first large scale amphibious assault in U.S. military history is launched to besiege the city of Veracruz.

1862 – During the war between the states, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1916 – Pancho Villa leads 500 Mexican raiders in an attack on U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment troop garrisoning the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 40 people, including 15 U.S. civilians, before being driven back across the border after suffering 183 casualties with 7 captured.

1945 – During World War II, 334 B29 bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces carry out Operation Meetinghouse, the first full scale firebombing of Tokyo, destroying most of the capital and killing over 100,000 Japanese, the single deadliest bombing raid of any theater in the war.

1957 – A 8.6 magnitude earthquake hits the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and tsunami, but with no deaths or reported injuries.

1959 – The Barbie doll debuts at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1960 – Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a vascular shunt he invented, into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.

1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, enroute from Pittsburgh to Dayton, crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing all 25 passengers and crew aboard the jet and the sole pilot of the Beechcraft.

1977 –  Armed Hanafi moslem terrorists seize 3 buildings in Washington, D.C., murdering 1 hostage and wounding 2 more, including a policeman who later dies, and holding 149 people hostage for 3 days until finally surrendering.

1997 –  Rap artist Christopher George Latore Wallace -The Notorious B.I.G. –  is murdered in Los Angeles after attending the Soul Train Music Awards.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes its final mission, STS-133, landing at Kennedy Space Center, having spent a cumulative total of nearly a full year in space