March 9
1822: Charles Graham of NY granted first US patent for artificial teeth.
1858: Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox.
1861: Us Confederate currency authorized – $50, $100, $500, $1,000.
1936: Babe Ruth turns down Reds to make a comeback as a player.
1942: Construction of the Alaska Highway begins.
1959: Barbie makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York. Over a billion have been sold worldwide since.
1964: 1st Ford Mustang produced.
1989: Eastern Airlines files for bankruptcy.
1995: Mexican peso worth 7.55 pesos to a dollar (record).
1998: Dr. Dre‘s Aftermath Entertainment signs then unknown rapper Eminem.
2006: Liquid water is discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn.
March 10
1847: 1st money minted in Hawaii
1876: First telephone call; Alexander Graham Bell says “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you” to his assistant Thomas Watson.
1906: Baker Street & Waterloo Railway opens, constructed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London. The contraction Bakerloo became the official name in July 1906.
1964: Simon and Garfunkel record the first version of “The Sound of Silence” at Columbia Studios in New York City.
1969: James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
2003: “My Front Porch Looking In” single released by Lonestar (Billboard Song of the Year 2003).
2015: The family of Marvin Gaye win a record $7.3 million lawsuit for music copyright infringement against Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I.
March 11
1779: US Army Corps of Engineers established (1st time).
1882: Fridtjof Nansen sets out on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology.
1897: A meteorite enters the earth’s atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human injuries are reported.
1971: Jim Morrison leaves for Paris to reorient himself emotionally and creatively and to avoid the jail sentence given to him in Miami. He will never return to the US.
1974: Mount Etna in Sicily erupted.
1991: Janet Jackson signs $40M 3 album deal with Virgin records.
2020: Smallest dinosaur ever discovered – skull preserved in piece of amber smaller than a fingertip from a mine in Myanmar, reported in “Nature”.
March 12
1642: Abel Tasman is the 1st European to sight New Zealand, viewing the north-west coast of the South Island.
1664: New Jersey becomes an English colony.
1737: Galileo‘s body moved to Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.
1849: 1st gold seekers arrive in Nicaragua en route to California.
1850: 1st US $20 gold piece issued.
1894: Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1957: Random House and Houghton-Mifflin co-publish “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss.
2003: Elizabeth Smart found after having been missing for 9 months.
2008: Streaming service Hulu launches for public access in the United States.
March 13
1639: Harvard College was named for clergyman John Harvard.
1781: William Herschel discovered Uranus.
1925: Tennessee outlawed the teaching of evolution.
1930: News of the discovery of Pluto was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory.
1964: New York City resident Kitty Genovese was murdered, reportedly in view of neighbors who did nothing to help her, prompting research into the so-called bystander effect.
1971: Arlester “Dyke” Christian, leader of the influential black funk band Dyke & the Blazers, was shot to death in Phoenix, Ariz., at age 27, joining the 27 Club.
1993: Birmingham, Ala., received 13 inches of snow.
1996: In Dunblane, Scotland, gunman Thomas Watt Hamilton entered a school and murdered 16 students, all 5 years old, and their teacher before turning the gun on himself.
2013: Jorge Mario Bergoglio (born Dec. 17 1936) became Pope Francis after he was elected in the papal conclave to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned. He became the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, the first Hispanic pope (Argentina), and the first pope to use the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.
March 14
1794: Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.
1989: President George H. W. Bush banned the import of assault rifles into the United States.
1994: The free, open-source computer operating system, Linux version 1.0.0, was released.
2004: Pope John Paul II became the second-longest serving pope in history.
2012: The publishers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica announced that they would cease publishing a print edition after 244 years in business. (The company continued offering an on-line version for $70 per year.)
March 15
1778: Martha Washington wrote a letter to a friend describing the harsh winter conditions at Valley Forge, which she called “The Great Valley.
1820: Maine became the 23rd U.S. state.
1875: Archbishop of New York John McCloskey was named the first Roman Catholic cardinal in the United States.
1956: My Fair Lady received its premiere performance on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.
1975: Born this day: rapper, producer and actor will.i.am, and actress/producer Eva Longoria.
1985: The first internet domain name was registered (symbolics.com).