WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016

Today is Wednesday, March 9, the 69th day of 2016. There are 297 days left in the year.

1697 — Czar Peter the Great begins tour of West-Europe

1701 — France, Cologne & Bavaria sign alliance

1796 — Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais

1820 — James Monroe’s daughter Maria marries in the White House

1842 — Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Nabucco” premieres in Milan

1858 — Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox

1860 — First Japanese ambassador arrives in San Francisco

1864 — Ulysses S Grant is appointed commander of Union Army

1889 — Kansas passes first general antitrust law in U.S.