This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to
secure our independence and our liberties that remain the
foundation of our nation today.” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Mar 9-15, 2026
March 9
1862 – The battle of the “Monitor” (Union) and the “Merrimack” (Confederate) took place in Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was the first battle between ironclads (submarines). The Monitor sank during a storm in December 1862 and the wreckage was finally discovered off the coast of Cape Hatteras in 1973. The Merrimack was scuttled by Confederate soldiers when the Union took over the port at Norfolk in April 1862.
1933 – Congress was called into special session by President FDR and begins its “100 days.” In all, Roosevelt pushed 15 major bills through Congress in his first 100 days in office. Already half way through his first 100 days, Biden has not signed any legislation passed by Congress. He has, however, signed almost three dozen Executive Orders.
1959 – The Barbie doll went on sale. Ruth Handler invented the iconic doll and named it after her own daughter Barbara. The doll’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. Ruth died in 2002 at age 85. Her daughter Barbara is 84 years old. Watch an interview with Ruth Handler.
1964 – The first Ford Mustang was produced. Introduced mid-year, it was known as the 1964 ½ Mustang. Over one million Mustangs were sold in the first two years of production.
1976 – The first female cadets were accepted to West Point Military Academy. Of the first 119 female cadets, 62 graduated.
1986 – NASA announced that searchers found the remains of the Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts following the January 28th explosion on takeoff.
2007 – The U.S. Justice Department released an internal audit that found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation acted illegally in its use of the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about U.S. citizens.
2011 – The Space Shuttle Discovery made its final landing after 39 flights. The last Space Shuttle flight was the Atlantis in July 2011. There were a total of 135 Space Shuttle missions. Watch the Discovery’s landing from space to touchdown.
March 10
1849 – Abraham Lincoln applied for and received (on May 22nd) a patent for his invention of a device to lift boats over shoals, although his device was never manufactured. Lincoln is the only U.S. president to hold a patent.
1862 – The U.S. issued the first paper money ($5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000 bills).
1951 – FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declined the job of baseball commissioner. Ford Frick was named baseball commissioner. Hoover remained FBI director until his death in 1972 at age 77.
1969 – James Earl Ray plead guilty of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray died in prison in 1998 at age 70.
1971 – The U. S. Senate approved the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
1980 – Willard Scott became the weather forecaster on the “Today Show.” He was the first Ronald McDonald. Scott died in 2021 at age 87. Watch Scott in a 1987 weather forecast.
1994 – White House officials began testifying before a federal grand jury about the Clinton Whitewater controversy. Although the Bill and Hillary Clinton were never charged with any crimes, 15 other people were convicted in the land swindle, including the sitting Arkansas governor, Guy Tucker, who was removed from office.
2020 – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed the National Guard to establish a one-mile radius zone around New Rochelle after 108 cases of COVID-19 are detected.
March 11
1789 – Benjamin Banneker, the son of a freed slave, and Pierre L’Enfant, who came from France to fight in the Revolutionary War, began laying out the plans for Washington, DC.
1841 – The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate ended. It began on February 18th. It started over Senator Henry Clay’s bill to charter the Second Bank of the United States. The word “filibuster” is derived from the French word meaning “pirate.”
1918 – The first confirmed case of the Spanish Flu are observed at Fort Riley, Kansas, starting the 3-year global flu pandemic that killed 3 to 5 percent of the world’s population after the soldiers were deployed overseas. It was called the Spanish Flu because Spain was the first country to report the outbreak.
1953 – An American B-47 aircraft accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The bomb didn’t detonate, but the hole it made is still visible.
1958 – Herb Stempel finally lost on the TV game show “Twenty-One.” It was later revealed that the show’s producers provided competitor Charles Van Doren with the correct answer and told Herb Stempel to give the wrong answer, resulting in one of the biggest game show scandals. Van Doren died in 2019 at age 93, Stempel died in 2020, also at age 93. Watch the full episode.
1986 – The National Football League adopted the instant replay rule. The first instant replay in baseball was used in 2008. Instant replay became official in major league baseball in 2014.
1997 – The ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were launched into space on the Voyager Memorial Spaceflight Service arranged by the Houston-based firm Celestis, Inc. The ashes of his wife, Majel Barrett, were also launched into space after her 2012 death.
2002 – Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
March 12
1789 – The U.S. Post Office is established. Ben Franklin served as the first Postmaster General.
1912 – Juliette Gordon Low formed the Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia. There are about 2.6 million Girl Scouts.
1933 – FDR conducted the first of his 31 “fireside chats” on the radio. Listen to the chat.
1980 – A jury found John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 men and boys in Chicago. Gacy was executed by lethal injection in 1994 at age 52.
1986 – Susan Butcher won the first of her four 1,158-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races (1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990). She ran the race 18 times. Butcher died of leukemia in 2006 at age 51. Only Rick Swenson and Dallas Seavey have won more Iditarod races (tied with 5 wins). The first Iditarod race was run in 1973. It recreated the dog-sled relay that transported the antitoxin serum to treat a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska, in January of 1925. Twenty mushers, using 150 dogs, covered 674 miles in 5 ½ days in brutal winter conditions. Watch a brief bio of Butcher by her daughter.
2003 – Elizabeth Smart was found after having been missing for 9 months. She was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Brian David Mitchell. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2011. Mitchell’s wife, Wanda Barzee, participated in the kidnapping. She was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison and was paroled in 2018. Smart is now 38 years old.
2003 – The U.S. Air Force announced it will resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.
March 13
1868 – The Senate began President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial. The Senate failed by one vote to impeach Johnson.
1901 – Andrew Carnegie announced he was retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his life giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million. That’s over $11 billion in today’s dollars.
1925 – Tennessee passed the “Butler Act,” making it unlawful to teach evolution. High school teacher John Scopes was tried in July for violating that act. He was found guilty and fined $100, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. It was later revealed that town leaders convinced Scoped to plead guilty for the publicity after the ACLU offered to defend anyone accused of teaching evolution.
1963 – Ernesto Miranda was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, and interrogated by police until he signs a confession. The Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that Miranda had not been informed of his legal rights and his conviction for kidnapping and rape was overturned. Miranda was stabbed to death in a bar fight in 1976. He was 34 years old.
1991 – Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the cleanup of the Valdez oil spill.
1997 – The unidentified flying objects called the “Phoenix Lights” were seen over Phoenix, Arizona, by hundreds of people and by millions on television. They continue to be a hotly debated controversy. Watch a news report.
2012 – After 244 years of publication, Encyclopedia Britannica announced it is discontinuing its U.S. print edition.
March 14
1812 – Congress authorized the sale of war bonds to finance the War of 1812.
1900 – U.S. currency went on the gold standard. Since 1971, the U.S. dollar has been called fiat currency, meaning it is not backed by a physical commodity (gold), and is only worth the paper it’s printed on.
1958 – The Recording Industry Association of American was created. Perry Como’s “Catch a Falling Star” is certified as its first gold record. Listen to Mr. Relaxation perform his hit song.
1967 – In the first NFL-AFL football common draft, the Baltimore Colts picked defensive lineman Bubba Smith. Smith won the 1971 Super Bowl with the Baltimore Colts. He turned to acting after a career-ending knee injury. Bubba died in 2011 at age 66.
1989 – Imported semi-automatic “assault” rifles were banned in the U.S. under President George H.W. Bush’s administration.
2018 – NASA reported the results of their twins study with astronaut Scott Kelly and his brother Mark. After one year in space, Scott is no longer identical to his twin brother because 7% of his genes had been altered.
March 15
1869 – The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team.
1892 – The first lever voting machine, the “Myers Automatic Booth,” debuted in Lockport, New York. A lever was assigned to each candidate and the voter pulled the lever to vote for the corresponding candidate.
1912 – Future Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Cy Young retired from baseball with 511 wins. The award bearing his name has been given annually to the best pitcher starting in 1956, the year after Young’s death.
1916 – General Pershing and 15,000 troops, on orders from President Wilson, chased Pancho Villa into Mexico after Villa repeatedly attacked American interests in New Mexico. Villa was never captured but was assassinated in Mexico in 1923.
1945 – Billboard published its first top album chart with “The King Cole Trio” as its first #1 album. The album included “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” Listen to the original song with still photos.
1954 – “CBS Morning Show” premiered with Jack Paar and Walter Cronkite. Paar died in 2004 at age 85 and Cronkite died in 2009 at age 92.
1985 – The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered.
1989 – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was officially established as a Cabinet position.
2002 – Burger King began selling a veggie burger in the U.S. The event was billed as the first veggie burger to be sold nationally by a fast food chain. Many fast food restaurants now sell plant-based meatless burgers.
Image from: automotivetimelines.com
