Today is Wednesday, March 9, the 68th day of 2011. There are 297 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight:

On March 9, 1861, the Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Ala., authorized the issuing of paper currency, in the form of interest-bearing notes, which were initially prin

ted by a New York firm, the National Bank Note Co.

On this date:

In 1661, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the chief minister of France, died, leaving King Louis XIV in full control.

In 1796, the future emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais.

I

n 1862, during the Civil War, the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va.

In 1916, Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, N.M., killing 18 Americans.

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths.

In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-Communism campaign on “See It Now.”

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In 1964, the Supreme Court, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, ruled that public officials who charged they’d been libeled by news reports could not recover damages unless they proved actual malice on the part of the news organization.

In 1977, about a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. (The siege ended two days later.)

In 1981, Dan Rather made his debut as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”

Ten years ago: A judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sentenced 14-year-old Lionel Tate to life in prison for killing 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick. (Tate’s first-degree murder conviction and sentence were overturned; he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a new sentence of probation, but later pleaded no contest to robbing a pizza delivery man, receiving concurrent 10-year sentences for the robbery and parole violation.) Attorney James St. Clair, who’d represented President Richard M. Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal, died in Westwood, Mass., at age 80.

Five years ago: Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company, DP World, relinquished its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports. John Profumo, the former British Cabinet minister whose affair with a prostitute rocked Britain in 1963, died in London at age 91.

One year ago: Vice President Joe Biden, visiting Israel, condemned an Israeli plan to build hundreds of homes in east Jerusalem. Former television producer Robert “Joe” Halderman pleaded guilty in New York to attempted grand larceny for trying to blackmail talk show host David Letterman. (Halderman was sentenced to six months in jail; he actually served four months.) Doris “Granny D” Haddock, a New Hampshire woman who’d walked across the country at age 89 to promote campaign finance reform, died at age 100.

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