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.
• 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)

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December