March 13

Thursday 13, 2003:

Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints have been found in Italy.

Thursday 13, 1997:

India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.

Wednesday 13, 1996:

The Dunblane Massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 adult teacher are shot dead by a spree killer who then commits suicide.

Saturday 13, 1993:

The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec.

Friday 13, 1992:

In eastern Turkey, an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500.

Wednesday 13, 1991:

The United States Justice Department announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

Sunday 13, 1988:

I. King Jordan becomes the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University after the Deaf President Now demonstrations.

Tuesday 13, 1979:

The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.

Saturday 13, 1971:

In New York City, Rock group The Allman Brothers Band record a concert that will be released as their classic live album At Fillmore East

Thursday 13, 1969:

Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

Friday 13, 1964:

A young woman, Kitty Genovese is murdered in front of multiple witnesses who all fail to help her, in an incident which shocks the world and prompts investigation into the Bystander effect.

Wednesday 13, 1957:

The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.

Saturday 13, 1954:

Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces attack the French.

Saturday 13, 1943:

Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.

Wednesday 13, 1940:

Winter War ended.

Monday 13, 1933:

Great Depression: Banks in the United States begin to re-open after the Presidentially mandated "bank holiday".

Friday 13, 1925:

Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.

Sunday 13, 1921:

Mongolia, under Black Baron, declares its independence from China.

Tuesday 13, 1900:

1900 - In France, length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law

Thursday 13, 1884:

The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).

Sunday 13, 1881:

Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was 1 March in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)

Monday 13, 1865:

American Civil War: The Confederate States of America reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops.

Thursday 13, 1862:

American Civil War:the US federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.

Tuesday 13, 1781:

William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus.

Sunday 13, 1639:

Harvard College was named for clergyman John Harvard.

Sunday 13, 1138:

Cardinal Gregory is elected anti-pope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II.

Tuesday 13, 874:

The bones of Saint Nicephorus are interred in the Church of the Apostles, Constantinople.

Saturday 13, 483:

St. Felix becomes Pope.

More on March, 13

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