Today is Wednesday, March 9, the 69th day of 2016. There are 297 days left in the year.

Today’s birthdays: Former senator James L. Buckley, Conservative of New York, is 93. Actress Joyce Van Patten is 82. Country singer Mickey Gilley is 80. Actress Trish Van Devere is 75. Singer Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders) is 74. Former ABC anchorman Charles Gibson is 73. Rock musician Robin Trower is 71. Singer Jeffrey Osborne is 68. Magazine editor Michael Kinsley is 65. Actress Linda Fiorentino is 58. Actress Juliette Binoche is 52. Actor Emmanuel Lewis is 45.

In 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 1945, during World War II, US B-29 bombers began launching incendiary bomb attacks against Tokyo, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths.

In 1954, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-communism campaign on ‘‘See It Now.’’

In 1965, the Rev. James Reeb, a white minister from Boston who’d gone to Selma, Ala., to support civil rights marchers, was attacked by a mob; he died two days later at age 38.

In 1976, a cable car in the Italian ski resort of Cavalese fell when a supporting line snapped, killing 43 people.

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.)

Last year, Apple unveiled the Apple Watch in San Francisco.