March 9 is:
National Crab Day
Amerigo Vespucci Day honoring the fifteenth-century Italian navigator and cartographer for whom the Americas were named. He is known for demonstrating that the New World was not Asia but a previously unknown fourth continent.
The United States v. The Amistad In 1839, a group of slaves aboard the Spanish ship Amistad rebelled and took control of the vessel. They were eventually captured and brought to the United States, where they argued that they were free people who had been wrongfully kidnapped and sold into slavery. This case was one of the first times that slavery was questioned in court.
The United States v. The Amistad tested the issue of whether the United States could seize slave ships from foreign countries on behalf of slaves being transported illegally or if they were protected property under Spanish and Cuban law.
The United States eventually won the case, with the court ruling that the slaves were illegally transported and thus were not protected by international law. They were ordered to be freed and returned to Africa. This case was an important step in the fight against slavery and helped to lay the groundwork for future abolitionist movements.
Anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads, the engagement between the first American ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack) on March 9, 1862.
1907 The first involuntary sterilization law was enacted in Indiana. The law provided for the involuntary sterilization of “confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles and rapists.”
March 9, 1959 – The first Barbie dolls were sold. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children’s toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel’s directors.
During a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel… Lilli was a blonde bombshell, a working girl who knew what she wanted and was not above using men to get it. The Lilli doll was first sold in Germany in 1955, and although it was initially sold to adults, it became popular with children who enjoyed dressing her up in outfits that were available separately.
Upon her return to the United States, Handler reworked the design of the doll (with help from engineer Jack Ryan) and the doll was given a new name, Barbie, after Handler’s daughter Barbara. The doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959. This date is also used as Barbie’s official birthday.