TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, MARCH 9, the 68th day of 2018. There are 297 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va.
In 1661, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis XIV in full control.
In 1796, the future emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais. The couple later divorced.
In 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. The Amistad, ruled 7-1 in favor of a group of illegally enslaved Africans who were captured off the U.S. coast after seizing control of a Spanish schooner, La Amistad; the justices ruled that the Africans should be set free.
In 1916, more than 400 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, N.M., killing 18 Americans. During the First World War, Germany declared war on Portugal.
In 1918, writer Mickey Spillane, famous for his pulp detective novels, was born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn, N.Y.
In 1933, Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its “hundred days” of enacting New Deal legislation.
In 1945, during World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers began launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths.
In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R.
Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anticommunism campaign on “See It Now.” In 1977, about a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later. In 1997, gangsta rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; he was 24.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Sen. James L. Buckley, Conservative-N.Y., is 95. Singer Lloyd Price is 85. Actress Joyce Van Patten is 84. Country singer Mickey Gilley is 82. Actress Trish Van Devere is 77. Singer-musician John Cale (The Velvet Underground) and singer Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders) are 76. Former ABC anchorman Charles Gibson is 75. Rock musician Robin Trower is 73. Singer Jeffrey Osborne and country musician Jimmie Fadden (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) are 70. Actress Jaime Lyn Bauer is 69. Magazine editor Michael Kinsley is 67. Actress Linda Fiorentino is 60. Actor Tom Amandes and actor-director Lonny Price are 59. Country musician Rusty Hendrix (Confederate Railroad) is 58. Actress Juliette Binoche is 54. Rock musician Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five) is 50. Rock musician Shannon Leto (30 Seconds to Mars) is 48. Actor Emmanuel Lewis is 47. Actor Oscar Isaac and comedian Jordan Klepper (TV: “The Daily Show”) are 39. Actor Matthew Gray Gubler is 38. Rock musician Chad Gilbert (New Found Glory) is 37. Actor Luis Armand Garcia is 26. Actress Cierra Ramirez is 23.