By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Thursday, March 9, the 68th day of 2017. There are 297 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On March 9, 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. The Amistad, ruled in favor of a group of Africans captured by U.S. authorities after they had seized control of a Spanish schooner, La Amistad, that was transporting them to a life of slavery in Cuba; the justices ruled, 7-1, that the Africans had been illegally enslaved, and should be set free.

On this date:

In 1796, the future emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais (boh-ahr-NAY’). (The couple later divorced.)

In 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

In 1907, Indiana’s General Assembly passed America’s first involuntary sterilization law, one aimed at “confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists” in state custody. (This law was struck down in 1921 by the Indiana Supreme Court, but a new law was passed in 1927 that was repealed in 1974.)

In 1916, more than 400 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18 Americans. During the First World War, Germany declared war on Portugal.

In 1933, Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its “hundred days” of enacting New Deal legislation. In 1945, during World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers began launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths. In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-communism campaign on “See It Now.”

In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, raised the standard for public officials to prove they’d been libeled in their official capacity by news organizations.

In 1977, about a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. (The siege ended two days later.)

In 1987, Chrysler Corp. announced it had agreed to buy the financially ailing American Motors Corp.

Thought for Today: “Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.” — Karl Barth, Swiss theologian (1886-1966).