A closer look at the key events on March 9 in history:
In 1976, The deadliest cable car accident in history occurs in Italy
The Cavalese cable car crash occurred as the fully loaded cable car carrying 43 passengers was descending Mt. Cermis from the Cavalese ski resort in the Dolomites. The steel supporting the cable broke resulting in a 70 meter fall and then a dragging of about 200 meters. The three-ton overhead carriage assembly crushed the car as it fell on top of it. 42 people were killed either from the initial impact or, mainly, from suffocation. Only a 14-year old girl survived the crash.
Cavalese cable car disaster, 1976, Wikimedia Commons
In 1959, The Barbie doll goes on sale
Barbara Millicent Roberts, aka Barbie, was created by Ruth Handler and manufactured by toy company Mattel Inc. Although it has been citicized for creating unrealistic body standards and supporting materialism, it as been extremely popular for decades. Mattel argues that 3 dolls are sold every second.
The first Barbie Doll. Konrad Summers
The bombing occurred towards the end of World War II. It is the most destructive act of war in history with estimates of 80,000 to 100,000 death toll in a single night, worse than Hiroshima or Nagasaki. A million more people were left homeless. The air raid, where napalm bombs were thrown, lasted one night from March 9 to March 10. The Japanese call the incident the “Night of the Black Snow.”
Tokyo after bombing, 1945. Wikimedia Commons
In 1931, The electron microscope is invented
German physicist Ernst Ruska, from the University of Berlin is credited with the invention. his creation allowed a resolution of billionths of a meter. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for his invention.
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