Today in History - History - February 9th

1940Joe Louis beats Arturo Godoy in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

2011Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday album reached number one on the Billboard 200 in its eleventh week on the chart.

1943FDR orders minimal 48 hour work week in war industry

2006Al Michaels joins NBC's "Sunday Night Football" broadcast with Johh Madden

1947Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia

1950Sen Joseph McCarthy charges State Dept infested with 205 communists

1985Madonna's "Like a Virgin," album goes #1 for 3 weeks

1997Kelly Robbins wins LPGA Diet Dr Pepper National Pro-Am

1986Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic

1807French Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon

1944Alice Walker, US, novelist (Color Purple, Meridian)

1923Brendan Behan, Dublin Ireland, author/poet (Hostage)

1943Joseph E. Stiglitz, American economist, Nobel laureate

1970Glenn McGrath, cricketer (NSW & Australian fast bowler 1993-)

1989NBA power forward Charles Barkley (26) weds legal aide Maureen Blumhardt in Elkton, Maryland

1991Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (42) weds equestrian Madeleine Gurdon (28) in Westminster, London

1957Actor Richard Harris (26) weds socialite Elizabeth Rees (20)

1864Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer marries Elizabeth Clift Bacon

1906Paul Laurence Dunbar, black dialect poet, dies at 33 in Dayton, Ohio

1881Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (Crime & Punishment), dies at 59