What happened on 9 March?

8 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1776 Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Foundational treatise of classical economics; defends free markets and division of labour.
2. 1932 De Valera's years as head of government Dominated independent Ireland across three spells as head of government: a new constitution, the economic war, and neutrality in the Second World War.
3. 2016 AlphaGo defeats Lee Sedol Google DeepMind's AI beats a top human Go player, a long-anticipated milestone.
4. 1309 Avignon Papacy begins Pope Clement V moves the Papal court from Rome to Avignon, beginning seven decades of French dominance over the Church.
5. 1916 Villa raids Columbus, New Mexico Betrayed, as he sees it, by Washington's recognition of Carranza, Villa leads 500 men across the border and burns an American town — the first armed invasion of the continental Uni
6. 1933 FDR's First Hundred Days A burst of landmark legislation in Roosevelt's first months that launched the New Deal.
7. 1862 The ironclads duel at Hampton Roads The day after the Confederate ironclad Virginia (the rebuilt Merrimack) sinks two wooden Union warships at leisure, the Union's strange 'cheesebox on a raft' Monitor fights her to
8. 1864 Grant takes command of the Union armies Lincoln finally finds his general: Ulysses S. Grant, victor of Vicksburg, receives the revived rank of lieutenant general — held substantively by no one since Washington — and comm