On this day, March 9
1933 Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its “hundred days” of enacting New Deal legislation.
1945 During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers began launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths.
1964 The U.S. Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, raised the standard for public officials to prove they’d been libeled in their official capacity by news organizations.
1976 A cable car in the Italian ski resort of Cavalese fell some 700 feet to the ground when a supporting line snapped, killing 43 people.
1989 The Senate rejected President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of John Tower to be defense secretary by a vote of 53-47. (The next day, Bush tapped Wyoming Rep. Dick Cheney, who went on to win unanimous Senate approval.)
1997 Rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles at age 24.
2000 John McCain suspended his presidential campaign, conceding the Republican nomination to George W. Bush. Bill Bradley ended his presidential bid, conceding the Democratic nomination to Vice President Al Gore.
2018 Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical CEO who’d been vilified for jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug, was sentenced in New York to seven years in prison for securities fraud.
2020 Global stock markets and oil prices plunged, reflecting mounting alarm over the impact of the coronavirus. An alarmingly sharp slide at the opening bell on Wall Street triggered the first automatic halt in trading in more than two decades; the Dow industrials finished nearly 8% lower.
2021 Buckingham Palace said allegations of racism made earlier in the week by Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, were “concerning” and would be addressed privately by the royal family.
2022 A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and wounded at least 17 people.
Today’s birthdays: Actor Joyce Van Patten, 90. Actor Trish Van Devere, 83. Singer-musician John Cale (The Velvet Underground), 82. Singer Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders), 82. Former ABC anchorman Charles Gibson, 81. Singer Jeffrey Osborne, 76. Country musician Jimmie Fadden (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), 76. Actor Jaime Lyn Bauer, 75. Magazine editor Michael Kinsley, 73. TV newscaster Faith Daniels, 67. Actor Linda Fiorentino, 66. Actor Tom Amandes, 65.