March 13

March 13 in recent years

2024 (Wednesday)

2023 (Monday)

2022 (Sunday)

2021 (Saturday)

2020 (Friday)

2019 (Wednesday)

2018 (Tuesday)

2017 (Monday)

2016 (Sunday)

2015 (Friday)

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

Events

• 624 – Battle of Badr: a key battle between Muhammad's army – the new followers of Islam and the Quraish of Mecca. The Muslims won this battle, known as the turning point of Islam, which took place in the Hejaz region of western Arabia.
• 1138 – Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II.
• 1591 – Battle of Tondibi: In Mali, Moroccan forces of the Saadi Dynasty led by Judar Pasha defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least five to one.
• 1639 – Harvard College is named for clergyman John Harvard.
• 1697 – Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya kingdom, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.
• 1781 – William Herschel discovers Uranus.
• 1809 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden is deposed in a coup d'état.
• 1845 – Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto receives its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers to return fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act 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.
• 1920 – The Kapp Putsch briefly ousts the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.
• 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 mandates 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 – 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 upon Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Kennedy removes Lemnitzer from his position.
• 1964 – American Kitty Genovese is murdered, reportedly in view of neighbors who did nothing to help her, prompting research into the bystander effect.
• 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.
• 1985 – The Kenilworth Road riot takes place at an association football match at Kenilworth Road in Luton, England with disturbances before, during and after an F.A. Cup 6th Round tie between Luton Town F.C. and Millwall F.C..
• 1988 – The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.
• 1991 – The United States Department of Justice 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 Primary School children and 1 teacher are shot dead by a spree killer, Thomas Watt Hamilton who then committed suicide.
• 1997 – India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
• 1997 – The Phoenix lights are seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television.
• 2003 – Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.
• 2008 – Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.

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 flautist (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)
• 1753 – Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, great heiress and wife of Philippe Égalité (d. 1821)
• 1762 – Anine Frölich, Danish ballerina (d. 1784)
• 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)
• 1777 – Charles Lot Church, Nova Scotia politician (d. 1864)
• 1781 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect (d. 1841)
• 1782 – Sir Robert Bateson, 1st Baronet, Irish nobility (d. 1863)
• 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)
• 1857 – 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 – Henri Étiévant, French actor, film director (d. 1953)
• 1870 – William Glackens, American artist (d. 1938)
• 1870 – Albert Meyer, member of the Swiss Federal Council in the 1930s (d. 1953)
• 1883 – Enrico Toselli, Italian composer and pianist (d. 1926)
• 1884 – Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941)
• 1886 – John Franklin "Home Run" Baker, Hall of Fame third baseman (d. 1963)
• 1886 – Albert William Stevens, United States Army Air Corps officer, balloonist and aerial photographer (d. 1949)
• 1888 – Paul Morand, French writer (d. 1976)
• 1890 – Fritz Busch, German conductor (d. 1951)
• 1892 – Janet Flanner, American writer and journalist (d. 1978)
• 1897 – Yeghishe Charents, Armenian poet, writer and public activist (d. 1937)
• 1898 – Henry Hathaway, American film director and producer (d. 1985)
• 1899 – Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (d. 1981)
• 1899 – John Hasbrouck van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1980)
• 1899 – Jan Lechoń, Polish poet (d. 1956)
• 1900 – Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet, Nobel laureate (d. 1971)
• 1902 – Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Egyptian singer and composer (d. 1991)
• 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 J. Casey, American CIA director (d. 1987)
• 1913 – Lambros Konstantaras, Greek actor (d. 1985)
• 1913 – Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer (d. 2009)
• 1914 – Edward "Butch" O'Hare, American pilot and Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1943)
• 1914 – W. O. Mitchell, Canadian writer (d. 1998)
• 1916 – Lindy Boggs, American politician
• 1918 – Grigory Pomerants, Russian philosopher and author (d. 2013)
• 1920 – Ralph J. Roberts, co-founder of Comcast Communications
• 1921 – Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
• 1923 – William F. Bolger, 65th Postmaster General of the United States (d. 1989)
• 1923 – Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek military officer
• 1925 – Roy Haynes, American jazz drummer
• 1926 – Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (d. 2003)
• 1927 – Robert Denning, American interior designer (d. 2005)
• 1928 – Ellen Raskin, American writer and illustrator (d. 1984)
• 1929 – Peter Breck, American actor (d. 2012)
• 1929 – Joseph Mascolo, American actor
• 1930 – Jan Howard, American singer
• 1933 – Mike Stoller, American songwriter
• 1934 – Barry Hughart, American author
• 1935 – Leslie Parrish, American actress
• 1935 – Michael Walzer, American philosopher
• 1936 – Nana Meskhidze, Georgian artist-painter (d. 1997)
• 1938 – Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)
• 1938 – Robert Gammage, American politician (d. 2012)
• 1938 – Tochinoumi Teruyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 49th Yokozuna
• 1939 – Neil Sedaka, American singer and songwriter
• 1940 – Christopher Gable, British dancer, choreographer and actor (d. 1998)
• 1940 – Jacqueline Sassard, French actress
• 1940 – Candi Staton, American singer
• 1941 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian prominent poet and writer of prose (d. 2008)
• 1941 – Donella Meadows, American scientist (d. 2001)
• 1942 – Marshall Chess, American record producer, formerly of Chicago blues label Chess Records
• 1942 – Dave Cutler, American software engineer
• 1942 – Geoffrey Hayes, English television presenter and actor
• 1942 – Scatman John, American singer (d. 1999)
• 1942 – Herman Wijffels, Dutch economist and politician
• 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
• 1949 – Emmy Verhey, Dutch violinist
• 1949 – Sian Elias, First female Chief Justice of New Zealand
• 1950 – Charles Krauthammer, American political commentator
• 1950 – William H. Macy, American actor
• 1952 – Wolfgang Rihm, German composer
• 1953 – Ridley Pearson, American writer
• 1953 – Deborah Raffin, American actress (d. 2012)
• 1954 – Robin Duke, Canadian actress and comedienne
• 1955 – Bruno Conti, Italian footballer
• 1955 – Glenne Headly, American actress
• 1956 – Dana Delany, American actress
• 1956 – Jamie Dimon, American Banking executive
• 1956 – Davor Slamnig, Croatian writer and musician (Buldožer)
• 1957 – John Hoeven, American politician, 31st governor and junior senator from North Dakota
• 1957 – Steve Lake, American baseball player
• 1958 – Linda Robson, English actress
• 1959 – Kathy Hilton, American socialite, mother of Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton
• 1960 – Yuri Andrukhovych, Ukrainian writer, poet and political essayist
• 1960 – Adam Clayton, Irish bassist (U2 and Automatic Baby)
• 1960 – Joe Ranft, American animator (d. 2005)
• 1962 – Terence Blanchard, American jazz musician
• 1963 – Fito Páez, Argentine musician and songwriter
• 1964 – Will Clark, American baseball player
• 1964 – João Gordo, Brazilian musician (Ratos de Porão)
• 1965 – Cees Geel, Dutch actor
• 1965 – Gigi Rice, American actress
• 1967 – Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (d. 1994)
• 1968 – Christopher Collet, American actor
• 1968 – Akira Nogami, Japanese wrestler
• 1969 – Christopher Coke, Jamaican drug lord
• 1970 – Tim Story, American director
• 1971 – Annabeth Gish, American actress
• 1971 – Tracy Wells, American actress
• 1972 – Common, American rapper and actor (Soulquarians)
• 1972 – Khujo, American hip hop musician (Goodie Mob and The Lumberjacks)
• 1973 – Edgar Davids, Dutch footballer
• 1973 – David Draiman, American musician and songwriter (Disturbed)
• 1973 – Bobby Jackson, American basketball player
• 1974 – Thomas Enqvist, Swedish tennis player
• 1975 – Chris Ashworth, American actor
• 1975 – Glenn Lewis, Canadian singer-songwriter
• 1976 – James Dewees, American musician (The Get Up Kids and Reggie and the Full Effect)
• 1976 – Troy Hudson, American basketball player
• 1976 – Danny Masterson, American actor
• 1977 – Momo Sylla, Guinean footballer
• 1977 – Kay Tse, Hong Kong singer
• 1978 – Tom Danielson, American cyclist
• 1978 – Kenny Watson, American football player
• 1979 – Spanky G, American musician (Bloodhound Gang)
• 1979 – Johan Santana, Venezuelan baseball player
• 1979 – Cedric Van Branteghem, Belgian athlete
• 1980 – Caron Butler, American basketballer
• 1980 – Molly Stanton, American actress
• 1981 – Toccara Jones, American fashion model
• 1981 – Stephen Maguire, Scottish snooker player
• 1981 – April Matson, American actress and singer
• 1982 – Jeremy Curl, British explorer
• 1982 – Nicole Ohlde, WNBA basketball player
• 1982 – Adam Thomson, New Zealand rugby player
• 1983 – Dan Lupu, Romanian actor
• 1983 – Kaitlin Sandeno, American swimmer
• 1983 – George Rose, Australian rugby league player
• 1984 – Rachael Bella, American actress
• 1984 – Pieter Custers, Dutch athlete
• 1984 – Steve Darcis, Belgian tennis player
• 1984 – Noel Fisher, Canadian actor
• 1984 – Chiaki Kyan, Japanese gravure idol
• 1984 – Yuuka Nanri, Japanese voice actress
• 1984 – Rieneke Terink, Dutch swimmer
• 1984 – Marc Zwiebler, German badminton player
• 1985 – Alcides Araújo Alves, Brazilian football player
• 1985 – Emile Hirsch, American actor
• 1985 – Ben Lowe, Australian rugby player
• 1985 – Austin Scott, American football player
• 1986 – Shunsuke Daito, Japanese actor
• 1987 – Marco Andretti, American race car driver
• 1987 – Andreas Beck, German footballer
• 1987 – Rosela Gjylbegu, Albanian singer
• 1987 – Chris Stark, English radio host
• 1988 – Furdjel Narsingh, Dutch footballer
• 1989 – Holger Badstuber, German footballer
• 1989 – Marko Marin, German footballer
• 1989 – Harry Melling, British actor
• 1991 – Kim Eli, American-Korean singer (U-KISS)
• 1991 – Lê Quang Liêm, Vietnamese chess player
• 1991 – Tristan Thompson, Canadian basketball player
• 1991 – Aaron Woods, Australian rugby player
• 1992 – Kaya Scodelario, English actress
• 1999 – Wiktoria Gąsiewska, Polish actress
• 1993 – Moshe Bressler, Jewish Cyclist

Deaths

• 600 – Leander of Seville, Catholic bishop (or 601)
• 1271 – Henry of Almain, English crusader (b. 1235)
• 1395 – John Barbour, Scottish poet
• 1417 – Crown Prince Minyekyawswa of Ava (b. 1391)
• 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 (b. 1507)
• 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)
• 1719 – Johann Friedrich Böttger, German alchemist (b. 1682)
• 1767 – Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France, mother of Louis XVI (b.1731)
• 1773 – Philibert Commerçon, French naturalist and explorer (b. 1727)
• 1778 – Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
• 1800 – Nana Fadnavis, influential minister and statesman of the Maratha Empire in India (b. 1742)
• 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 de Villèle, French statesman (b. 1773)
• 1873 – David Swinson Maynard, Founder of Seattle, Washington, United States (b. 1808)
• 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)
• 1912 – Eugène-Étienne Taché, French Canadian civil engineer and architect (b. 1836)
• 1912 – Hugo Treffner, Baltic German pedagogue (b. 1845)
• 1914 – Hakeem Noor-ud-Din, Muslim scholar and 1st Caliph of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam.
• 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)
• 1960 – Yosef Zvi HaLevy, Israeli rabbi and judge (b. 1874)
• 1963 – Austin Dobson, British racing driver (b. 1912)
• 1964 – Kitty Genovese, American murder victim (b. 1935)
• 1964 – Friedrich Lahrs, German architect (b. 1880)
• 1965 – Corrado Gini, Italian statistician (b. 1884)
• 1965 – Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (b. 1891)
• 1965 – Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop, poet, and politician (b. 1882)
• 1972 – Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941)
• 1975 – Ivo Andrić, Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1892)
• 1983 – Louison Bobet, French cyclist (b. 1925)
• 1983 – Paul Citroen, Dutch artist (b. 1896)
• 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 Sansom Hallowes, 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 – Robert C. Baker, Inventor of the chicken nugget (b. 1921)
• 2006 – Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (b. 1944)
• 2006 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925)
• 2006 – Peter Tomarken, American game show host (b. 1942)
• 2007 – Arnold Skaaland, American professional wrestler (b. 1925)
• 2009 – Betsy Blair, American actress (b. 1923)
• 2009 – Andrew "Test" Martin, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1975)
• 2010 – Jean Ferrat, French singer and songwriter (b. 1930)
• 2010 – He Pingping, the world's shortest man who was able to walk. (b. 1988)
• 2011 – Rick Martin, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1951)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Euphrasia of Constantinople
  • Gerald of Mayo
  • Leander of Seville
  • Leticia
  • Nicephorus
  • Roderick
  • Sabinus of Hermopolis
• Kasuga Matsuri (Kasuga Grand Shrine, Nara, Japan)

External links

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

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