March 13 is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 293 days remaining until the end of the year.

[edit] Events

• 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II.
• 1639 - Harvard College is named for clergyman John Harvard.
• 1781 - William Herschel discovers Uranus.
• 1845 - Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
• 1862 - American Civil War: The U.S. 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.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops.
• 1881 - Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)
• 1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins, ending on January 26, 1885.
• 1897 - San Diego State University is founded.
• 1900 - Second Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
• 1900 - In France the length of the workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.
• 1920 - The Kapp Putsch briefly oust the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.
• 1921 - Mongolia, under Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg, declares its independence from China.
• 1925 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.
• 1930 - The news of the discovery of Pluto is telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory.
• 1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the U.S. begin to re-open after President Franklin D. Roosevelt mandated a "bank holiday".
• 1938 - World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio in the United States.
• 1940 - The Russo-Finnish Winter War ends.
• 1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
• 1943 - The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
• 1954 - Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
• 1957 - Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.
• 1962 - Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivers a proposal, called Operation Northwoods, regarding performing terrorist attacks in Guantanamo Bay, to Secretary of Defense Robert Mcnamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Kennedy removes Lemnitzer from his position.
• 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
• 1979 - The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.
• 1986 - Microsoft has its Initial public offering.
• 1989 - A geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid. Six million people were left without power for nine hours.
• 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.
• 1992 - An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500 in Erzincan, eastern Turkey.
• 1996 - Dunblane massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 teacher are shot dead by a spree killer who then commits suicide.
• 1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
• 1997 - The Phoenix lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television. They are now a hotly debated controversy.
• 2003 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.
• 2005 - Terry Ratzmann shoots and kills six members of the Living Church of God and the minister at Sheraton Inn in Brookfield, Wisconsin before killing himself.
• 2008 - Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000.00 an ounce for the first time.

[edit] Births

• 1372 - Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France (d. 1407)
• 1615 - Pope Innocent XII (d. 1700)
• 1683 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-British philosopher (d. 1744)
• 1700 - Michel Blavet, French flutist (d. 1768)
• 1719 - John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal (d. 1797)
• 1720 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and writer (d. 1793)
• 1733 - Joseph Priestley, English scientist and minister (d. 1804)
• 1741 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1790)
• 1763 - Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French marshal (d. 1815)
• 1764 - Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1845)
• 1770 - Daniel Lambert, Englishman famous for his obesity (d. 1809)
• 1781 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect (d. 1841)
• 1798 - Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States (d. 1853)
• 1815 - James Curtis Hepburn, American missionary and linguist (d. 1911)
• 1825 - Hans Gude, Norwegian romanticist landscape painter (d. 1903)
• 1855 - Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d. 1916)
• 1855 - B. H. Roberts, Mormon leader, historian, and politician (d. 1933)
• 1860 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (d. 1903)
• 1864 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (d. 1941)
• 1870 - Albert Meyer, member of the Swiss Federal Council in the 1930s (d. 1953)
• 1883 - Enrico Toselli, Italian (Florentine) composer and pianist(d. 1926)
• 1884 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941)
• 1890 - Fritz Busch, German conductor (d. 1951)
• 1898 - Henry Hathaway, American film director and producer (d. 1985)
• 1899 - John Hasbrouck van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1980)
• 1899 - Jan Lechoń, Polish poet (d. 1956)
• 1900 - Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (d. 1981)
• 1900 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet, Nobel laureate (d. 1971)
• 1907 - Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religions and writer (d. 1986)
• 1908 - Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d. 2002)
• 1910 - Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt, Danish actor (d. 1985)
• 1910 - Sammy Kaye, American musician (d. 1987)
• 1911 - L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction author and founder of Scientology (d. 1986)
• 1913 - William Casey, American CIA director (d. 1987)
• 1913 - Lambros Konstantaras, Greek actor (d. 1985)
• 1913 - Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer
• 1914 - Edward O'Hare, American pilot (d. 1943)
• 1914 - W.O. Mitchell, Canadian writer (d. 1998)
• 1921 - Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
• 1923 - William F. Bolger, 65th Postmaster General of the United States (d. 1989)
• 1926 - Raúl Alfonsín, President of Argentina
• 1926 - Roy Haynes, American jazz drummer
• 1926 - Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (d. 2003)
• 1927 - Robert Denning, American interior designer (d. 2005)
• 1929 - Peter Breck, American actor
• 1930 - Jan Howard, American singer
• 1930 - Liz Anderson, American country music singer-songwriter
• 1933 - Mike Stoller, American songwriter
• 1934 - Barry Hughart, American author
• 1935 - Joseph Mascolo, American actor
• 1935 - Leslie Parrish, American actress
• 1935 - Michael Walzer, American philosopher
• 1938 - Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)
• 1939 - Neil Sedaka, American singer and songwriter
• 1941 - Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian prominent poet and writer of prose.(d. 2008)
• 1942 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer
• 1942 - Geoffrey Hayes, English television presenter and actor
• 1942 - Scatman John, (real name John Larkin) American singer (d. 1999)
• 1943 - André Téchiné, French film director and screenwriter
• 1945 - Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician
• 1946 - Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier (d. 1976)
• 1947 - Beat Richner, Swiss physician and cellist
• 1948 - Robert S. Woods, American actor
• 1949 - Hiroshi Kazato, Japanese racing driver (d. 1974)
• 1949 - Julia Migenes, American soprano
• 1950 - Charles Krauthammer, American political commentator
• 1950 - William H. Macy, American actor
• 1951 - Fred Berry, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
• 1952 - Wolfgang Rihm, German composer
• 1953 - Deborah Raffin, American actress
• 1955 - Bruno Conti, Italian footballer
• 1955 - Glenne Headly, American actress
• 1956 - Dana Delany, American actress
• 1957 - Steve Lake, American baseball player
• 1957 - John Hoeven, American politician, governor of North Dakota
• 1958 - Linda Robson, English actress.
• 1959 - Kathy Hilton, socialite-Hilton Hotels, mother of Nikki Hilton and Paris Hilton
• 1960 - Yuri Andrukhovych, Ukrainian writer, poet and political essayist
• 1960 - Adam Clayton, Irish bassist (U2)
• 1960 - Joe Ranft, American animator (d. 2005)
• 1963 - Fito Páez, Argentine musician and songwriter
• 1964 - Will Clark, American baseball player
• 1967 - Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (d. 1994)
• 1968 - Akira Nogami, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1970 - Tim Story, American film director
• 1971 - Annabeth Gish, American actress
• 1971 - Robert Lanham, American author and satirist
• 1972 - Common, American rapper
• 1973 - Edgar Davids, Dutch footballer
• 1973 - David Draiman, American musician and songwriter (Disturbed)
• 1973 - Bobby Jackson, American basketballer
• 1974 - Thomas Enqvist, Swedish tennis player
• 1974 - Vampeta, Brazilian footballer
• 1976 - James Dewees, musician
• 1976 - Danny Masterson, American actor
• 1977 - Ed Sloan, American musician (Crossfade)
• 1977 - Momo Sylla, Guinean footballer
• 1977 - Kay Tse, Hong Kong singer
• 1978 - Tom Danielson, American cyclist
• 1978 - Karina Smirnoff, Ukrainian dancer
• 1978 - Kenny Watson, American football player
• 1979 - Johan Santana, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1979 - Spanky G, American musician (Bloodhound Gang)
• 1979 - Cedric Van Branteghem, Belgian athlete
• 1980 - Caron Butler, American basketballer
• 1980 - Lee Jung-hyun, South Korean pop singer and actress
• 1980 - Molly Stanton, American actress
• 1981 - Stephen Maguire, Scottish snooker player
• 1982 - Jeremy Curl, British explorer
• 1982 - Nicole Ohlde, WNBA basketball player
• 1983 - Kaitlin Sandeno, American swimmer
• 1984 - Rachael Bella, actress
• 1984 - Pieter Custers, Dutch athlete
• 1984 - Steve Darcis, Belgian tennis player
• 1984 - Noel Fisher, Canadian actor
• 1984 - Yuuka Nanri, Japanese seiyū
• 1984 - Marc Zwiebler, German badminton player
• 1985 - Emile Hirsch, American actor
• 1985 - Austin Scott, American football player
• 1985 - Alcides, Brazilian football player
• 1986 - Chiaki Kyan, Japanese gravure idol
• 1987 - Marco Andretti, American racecar driver (grandson of Mario Andretti)
• 1989 - Harry Melling, British actor
• 1989 - Steven Ozemba, Cherokee singer and percussionist
• 1990 - Alec Medlock, American actor
• 1999 - Wiktoria Gąsiewska, Polish actress

[edit] Deaths

• 1271 - Henry of Almain, English crusader (b. 1235)
• 1395 - John Barbour, Scottish poet
• 1516 - King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (b. 1456)
• 1569 - Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French Huguenot general (b. 1530)
• 1573 - Michel de l'Hôpital, French statesman
• 1604 - Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (b. 1537)
• 1619 - Richard Burbage, English actor (b. 1567)
• 1711 - Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (b. 1636)
• 1773 - Philibert Commerçon, French naturalist and explorer (b. 1727)
• 1778 - Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
• 1803 - William Emes, English landscape architect (b. 1729 or 1730)
• 1808 - King Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1749)
• 1842 - Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor (b. 1761)
• 1854 - Jean-Baptiste Guillaume Joseph, comte de Villèle, French statesman (b. 1773)
• 1879 - Adolf Anderssen, German chess player (b. 1818)
• 1881 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1818)
• 1884 - Leland Stanford, Jr., son of American railroad magnate, Stanford University named for him (b. 1868)
• 1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
• 1906 - Susan B. Anthony, American women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)
• 1911 - John J. Toffey, American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient (b. 1844)
• 1918 - César Cui, Russian composer (b. 1835)
• 1925 - Lucille Ricksen, American actress (b. 1909)
• 1938 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician and intellectual (b. 1888)
• 1938 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
• 1941 - Elizabeth Madox Roberts, American poet and novelist (b. 1881)
• 1943 - Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (b. 1898)
• 1949 - Henri Giraud, French general (b. 1879)
• 1955 - King Tribhuvan of Nepal (b. 1906)
• 1963 - Austin Dobson, British racing driver (b. 1912)
• 1964 - Kitty Genovese, American murder victim (b. 1935)
• 1965 - Corrado Gini, Italian statistician (b. 1884)
• 1965 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop, poet, and politician (b. 1882)
• 1965 - Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (b. 1891)
• 1972 - Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941)
• 1975 - Ivo Andrić, Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel laureate
• 1983 - Louison Bobet, French cyclist (b. 1925)
• 1988 - John Holmes, American porn star (b. 1944)
• 1990 - Bruno Bettelheim, American psychiatrist (b. 1903)
• 1990 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (b. 1915)
• 1995 - Leon Day, American baseball player (b. 1916)
• 1995 - Odette, French-born WWII heroine (b. 1912)
• 1996 - Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (b. 1941)
• 1998 - Bill Reid, Canadian artist (b. 1920)
• 1998 - Hans von Ohain, German engineer (b. 1911)
• 1999 - Lee Falk, American cartoonist (b. 1911)
• 1999 - Garson Kanin, American writer and director (b. 1912)
• 1999 - Bidu Sayão, Brazilian born soprano (b. 1902)
• 2001 - Encarnacion Alzona, Filipino historian (b. 1895)
• 2002 - Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (b. 1900)
• 2004 - Franz König, Austrian Catholic Archbishop of Vienna (b. 1905)
• 2006 - Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (b. 1944)
• 2006 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925)
• 2006 - Robert C. Baker, Inventor of the chicken nugget (b. 1921)
• 2006 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host (Press Your Luck) (b. 1942)
• 2007 - Arnold Skaaland, American professional wrestler (b. 1925)

[edit] Holidays and observances

• In the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Saint Gerald
  • Saint Nicephorus
  • Saint Roderick
  • Saint Leticia
• In the Greek Orthodox Church
  • Saint Nicephorus

[edit] External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada