Here’s a brief look back in time on this day, March 9.
In 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of a group of Africans who seized the Spanish slave ship La Amistad (The Friendship in Spanish) a couple of years prior as part of a mutiny. As previously mentioned, Congress abolished the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 alongside Great Britain. However, domestic trading within U.S. borders were still legal. Cuba was still actively sending captured Africans to other countries in lieu of trading with the United States. The captives were declared free as a result of the Supreme Court ruling due to their illegal capturing.
In 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducts a firebombing campaign on the Japanese capital of Tokyo. Codenamed “Operation Meetinghouse“, it’s often cited as a war crime among historians due to the campaign’s intentional targeting of civilians. In total, an upwards of 130,000 civilians were killed. It was declared as the single deadliest air raid over the course of World War II.
In 1997, amidst a bloody gang war between the Bloods and the Crips, The Notorious B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace) is murdered as part of an organized drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California. Biggie’s murder comes a few months after the shooting death of Tupac Shakur in Paradise, NV. The shooters in both cases have yet to be formally convicted, with some suspects currently in custody awaiting trial.