On March 9, 1996, the legendary cigar-chomping performer
George Burns died at his home in Beverly Hills, California,
just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.

1977

On March 9, 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at
the American Toy Fair in New York City.

Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie
was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States
with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth
Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband
in 1945.

Ruth Marianna Handler (November 4, 1916 – April 27, 2002)

The missing aircraft pictured in December 2011.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying 227
passengers and 12 crew members, lost contact with air traffic
control less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur,
then veers off course and disappears. Most of the plane, and
everyone on board, were never seen again.

Throughout 2015 and 2016, debris from the aircraft washed
ashore on the western Indian Ocean, but the fate of Flight
370 remains a mystery.

Map showing the scheduled destination of flight 370 and the wider surrounding region.

Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expanded its
product offerings to include a microbus, which went into
production on March 8, 1950.

Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was
the Type 1) or the Transporter, the bus was a favorite mode
of transportation for hippies in the U.S. during the 1960s
and became an icon of the American counterculture
movement.