From Historynet: Today in History March 9

1617          The Treaty of Stolbovo ends the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.

1734          The Russians take Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.

1788          Connecticut becomes the 5th state.

1796          Napoleon Bonaparte  marries 

Josephine de Beauharnais  in Paris, France.

1812          Swedish Pomerania is seized by Napoleon .

1820          Congress passes the Land Act, paving the way for westward expansion.

1839          The French Academy of Science announces the Daguerreotype photo process.

1841          The rebel slaves who seized a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, in 1839 are freed by the Supreme Court despite Spanish demands for extradition.

1862          The first and last battle between the ironclads U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia ends in a draw.

1864          General Ulysses Grant  is appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.

1911          The funding for five new battleships is added to the British military defense budget.

1915          The Germans take Grodno on the Eastern Front.

1916          Mexican bandit Pancho Villa  leads 1,500 horsemen on a raid of Columbus, N.M. killing 17 U.S. soldiers and citizens.

1932          Eamon De Valera  is elected president of the Irish Free State and pledges to abolish all loyalty to the British Crown.

1936          The German press warns that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections will be arrested.

1939          Czech President Emil Hacha  ousts pro-German Joseph Tiso  as the Premier of Slovakia in order to preserve Czech unity.

1940          Britain frees captured Italian coal ships on the eve of German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop's  visit to Rome.

1956          British authorities arrest and deport 

Archbishop Makarios  from Cyprus. He is accused of supporting terrorists.

1957          Egyptian leader Nasser  bars U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.

1959          The Barbie doll is unveiled at a toy fair in New York City.

1964          The first Ford Mustang rolls off the Ford assembly line.

1967          Svetlana Alliluyeva , 

Josef Stalin's  daughter defects to the United States.

1968           General William Westmoreland  asks for 206,000 more troops in Vietnam.

1975          Iraq launches an offensive against the rebellious Kurds.

1986          Navy divers find the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.