This Day in History: March 9

Take a look at all of the important historical events that took place on March 8th.

On this day, March 9 ...

1997: The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace), 24, is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; his slaying remains unsolved.

Also on this day:

1796: Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of the French, marries Josephine de Beauharnais.
1841: The U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. The Amistad, rules 7-1 that a group of illegally enslaved Africans who were captured off the U.S. coast after they rebelled and seized control of a Spanish ship, La Amistad, should be set free.
1862: During the Civil War, the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) battle for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va.
1916: During World War I, Germany declares war on Portugal.
1933: Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, begins its "hundred days" of enacting New Deal legislation.
1935: Porky Pig first appears in the Warner Bros. animated short "I Haven’t Got a Hat."
1945: During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers begin launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in approximately 100,000 deaths.
1954: CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviews Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-communism campaign on "See It Now."
1964: The U.S. Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, raises the standard for public officials to prove they have been libeled in their official capacity by news organizations.
1977: About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invade three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. (The siege would end two days later.)
1989: The Senate rejects President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of John Tower to be defense secretary by a vote of 53-47. (The next day, Bush would tap Wyoming Rep. Dick Cheney, who would win unanimous Senate approval.)
2009: President Obama lifts George W. Bush-era limits on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research.
2018: Weeks after the shooting that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Gov. Rick Scott signed a school-safety bill that raises the minimum age to buy rifles to 21 and creates a program enabling some teachers and other school employees to carry guns. This prompts a lawsuit from the National Rifle Association.

2018: "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical CEO vilified for jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug, is sentenced in New York to seven years in prison for securities fraud.
2018: Rene Boucher, a neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., pleads guilty to a federal charge of assaulting a member of Congress resulting in personal injury. (Paul was left with six broken ribs in an attack Boucher’s lawyer said was triggered by a dispute over lawn maintenance.)

2019: Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez announce their engagement.