Important Events From This day in History – 09 March

Today in History

• 2011 Space Shuttle Discovery completes its final mission

  Following its journey to the International Space Station, the shuttle landed at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center (ISS).

• 1976 The deadliest cable car accident in history occurs in Italy

  The cable car fell 160 feet (50 meters) to the ground after the steel cable snapped, killing 43 people. Alessandra Piovesana, 14, was the sole survivor.

• 1961 Ivan Ivanovich, a human dummy, travels into space

  The mannequin was accompanied by a dog, reptiles, mice, and guinea pigs on its test flight aboard the Soviet spacecraft Korabl-Sputnik 4 (also known as Sputnik 9).

• 1959 The Barbie doll goes on sale

  Mattel, an American toy company, claims that over one billion Barbie dolls have been sold, with approximately three dolls sold every second.

• 1931 The electron microscope is invented

  Ernst Ruska, a German physicist, is credited with inventing the microscope. His first device had a resolution of 50 nanometers (billionths of a meter).