2003 - Iraqis celebrate the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in the capital, Baghdad. They topple a statue of their longtime dictator just weeks after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

1959 - NASA announces the first seven astronauts for America's space program, a group dubbed the Mercury Seven.

And 1939 - in Washington, African-American singer Marion Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial That happens after the Daughters of the American Revolution ban Anderson from singing at their headquarters because of her race.

And 2005 - "We may grow together in love and peace all the days of our life." Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, marries his longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles, she takes the title Duchess of Cornwall and not Princess of Wales - the title held by Charles' first wife, the late Princess Diana.

Today in History, April 9th, Sandy Kozel, the Associated Press.