This Day In History for February 9

1960, Adolph Coors Co. chairman Adolph Coors III, 44, was shot to death during a botched kidnapping attempt while on his way to the family brewery in Golden, Colo. (Coors' body wasn't found for seven months; the man who killed him, Joseph Corbett Jr., served 19 years in prison. Corbett committed suicide in Aug. 2009.)


On this date:

In 1773, the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, was born in Charles City County, Va.

In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

In 1942, daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.

In 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

In 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.

In 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.

In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was succeeded by Konstantin U. Chernenko (chehr-NYEN'-koh).

In 2002, Britain's Princess Margaret, the high-spirited and unconventional sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in London at age 71.