On This Day: March 9th

Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han dynasty of China.

Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

Scottish philosopher Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations, ushering in the classical period of political economy.

After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually died by suicide.

Safavid troops retreat from Basra, ending a three-year occupation.

The fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.

Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus in the Battle of Klokotnitsa.

Khwarazmian sultan Jalal ad-Din conquers the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The people of Constantinople riot against emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, whose preference of his mistress Maria Skleraina over empress Zoe Porphyrogenita is seen as an insult.

First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.