March 9, 1961 (Thursday)
- Sputnik 9 was launched by the USSR from Baikonur LC1, carrying "Ivan Ivanovich" (a dummy cosmonaut), the dog Chernushka, mice, and a guinea pig. The spaceship made several orbits of the Earth at an average altitude of 135 miles, and then was recovered. NASA spokesman George M. Law said that the test showed that the Russians were "about ready to put a man up".
- An underground fire at the Ueda Mine Company in Japan's worst coal mine disaster since World War II killed 71 miners at the Ueda Mine Company at Kawara.
- Born: Andrei Ivanţoc, Moldovan politician, in Opaci; and Rick Steiner, American pro wrestler, as Robert Rechsteiner in Bay City, Michigan
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Famous quotes containing the word march:
“Our Germany’s dead. However hard this may be for some of us older people, it’s a blessing for our children. Our children grew up against new backgrounds, new horizons. And they are free. Free to grow up as children. Free to run and to laugh without being forced into uniforms. Without being forced to march up and down streets, singing battle songs.”
—Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)