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On March 9, 1945, American B-29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on Tokyo in Operation Meetinghouse — the largest air raid in history: 16 km² of the city centre burned, more than 100,000 people died and one million were left homeless. The bombing was more devastating than the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in terms of immediate casualties.

On March 9, 1954, CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow broadcast a devastating television report against Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose communism hearings had terrorised Hollywood and Washington for years. The programme marked the beginning of the end of McCarthyism and set the precedent of television journalism as a political counterbalance. McCarthy was censured by the Senate in December of that year.

On March 9, 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte married Joséphine de Beauharnais, a Creole widow of Martinican origin, in Paris. Two days after the wedding, Napoleon left for Italy in command of the Army of Italy, beginning his dazzling military career. The marriage, passionate but tormented, ended in divorce in 1809, when Napoleon needed an heir from the nobility.