On This Day: March 10

This is the 69th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: cloud nine

Someone who is extremely pleased or happy has long been described as being "on cloud nine." The phrase is thought to come from the classification system used by the old US Weather Bureau, which divided clouds into nine types. "Cloud Nine" was the dramatic cumulonimbus, towering into the sky and so to be "on cloud nine" meant to feel or be very high.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Kessog, St. John Ogilvie, St. Attalas, St. Hymelin, St. Macarius of Jerusalem, St. Simplicius, pope, and St. Anastasia Patricia.

Events

49 B.C.E. - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy.

1496 - Christopher Columbus left Hispaniola for Spain, concluding his second visit to the Western Hemisphere.

1629 - England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament and did not call it back for 11 years.

1785 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.

1792 - John Stone patented the pile driver.

1862 - The first paper money was issued in the U.S.: $5, $10, and $20 bills.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call -- calling his assistant in another room by saying, "Mr. Watson, come here; I want you."

1880 - The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

1903 - Harry C. Gammeter of Cleveland patented the multigraph duplicating machine.

1969 - James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Three days later, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, but his motion was denied, as were his dozens of other requests for a new trial over the next 29 years.

1987 - The Vatican condemned surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.

1997 - The Spice Girls, a British all-girl band, made music history by becoming the first group to have their first four singles top the charts.

Births

1858 - Henry W. Fowler, English lexicographer and philologist.

1903 - Clare Boothe Luce, American playwright, editor, journalist, and conservative politician.

1916 - James Herriot, Scottish writer and veterinarian.

Deaths

1986 - Ray Milland, American film actor.