March 13
March 13 is the 72th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap
years). There are 293 days remaining.
Events
* 483 - St. Felix becomes Pope
* 874 - The bones of Saint Nicephorus are interred in the Church of the
Apostles, Constantinople.
* 1138 - Cardinal Gregory is elected anti-pope as Victor IV, succeeding
Anacletus II
* 1639 - Harvard University is named for a clergyman named John Harvard.
* 1781 - William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus.
* 1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America
reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops.
* 1881 - Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is
thrown at him.
* 1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
* 1900 - Boer Wars: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free
State.
* 1921 - Mongolia declares its independence from China
* 1925 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of
evolution.
* 1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the United States begin to re-open
after the Presidentially mandated "bank holiday."
* 1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault
on American forces at Hill 700.
* 1954 - Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces attack French
* 1957 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
* 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing
the Lunar Module.
* 1991 - The United States Justice Department annouces that Exxon has
agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill
in Alaska.
* 1992 - In eastern Turkey, an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter
scale kills over 500.
* 1993 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing
record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to
QuŽbec.
* 1996 - The Dunblane Massacre
* 1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to
succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
* 2003 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that
350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in
Italy.
Births
* 1733 - Joseph Priestley, scientist, minister (+ 1804)
* 1741 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (+ 1790)
* 1763 - Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French soldier (+ 1815)
* 1764 - Charles Grey, second Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom
* 1781 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel, master builder (+ 1841)
* 1798 - Abigail Fillmore, First Lady
* 1855 - Percival Lowell, astronomer (+ 1916)
* 1860 - Hugo Wolf, composer (+ 1903)
* 1864 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian impressionist painter (+ 1941)
* 1880 - Frank Thiess, writer (+ 1977)
* 1884 - Oskar Loerke, lyricist, narrator and essayist (+ 1941)
* 1884 - Sir Hugh Walpole, novelist (+ 1941)
* 1900 - George Seferis, Nobel prize-winning poet (+ 1971)
* 1908 - Walter Annenberg, publisher, philanthropist (+ 2002)
* 1910 - Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt, Danish actor (+ 1985)
* 1911 - L. Ron Hubbard, author (+ 1986)
* 1913 - William Casey, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (+
1987)
* 1914 - Edward O'Hare, US pilot
* 1939 - Neil Sedaka, singer
* 1942 - Dave Cutler, software engineer
* 1949 - Julia Migenes, soprano
* 1950 - William H. Macy, actor
* 1952 - Wolfgang Rihm, composer
* 1956 - Dana Delany, actress
* 1960 - Adam Clayton, bassist for the rock band U2
Deaths
* 1619 - Richard Burbage, actor
* 1808 - King Christian VII of Denmark
* 1842 - Henry Shrapnel, soldier, inventor
* 1881 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia
* 1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States
* 1906 - Susan B. Anthony, civil rights and women's suffrage activist
* 1938 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician and intellectual
* 1938 - Clarence Darrow, attorney
* 1965 - Corrado Gini, statistician
* 1990 - Bruno Bettelheim, child psychologist, psychiatrist
* 1996 - Krzysztof Kieslowski, film director
* 1998 - Bill Reid, Canadian artist
* 1999 - Garson Kanin, writer, director
Holidays and observances
* Feast of Saint Nicephorus (Roman and Greek churches)
