On this day on History - Mar 13

• 0483 - St. Felix becomes Pope.
• 0607 - 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet .
• 0874 - 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.
• 1599 - Johannes Berchmans was born in Belgium. Jesuit, saint.
• 1615 - Pope Innocent XII was born (d. 1700).
• 1619 - Richard Burbage dies (b. 1567). Actor .
• 1621 - Filipe II dies. King of Spain.
• 1634 - Academie Francaise was established. Its task was to preserve the purity of the French language, which included maintaining a dictionary
• 1639 - Harvard University is named for a clergyman named John Harvard.
• 1642 - The marquis de Cinq-Mars, a favourite of King Louis XIII of France, signed a secret treaty with King Philip IV of Spain in a plot to overthrow Cardinal de Richelieu.
• 1733 - Joseph Priestley was born (d. 1804). English chemist, author and clergyman. He is credited with the discovery of oxygen
• 1741 - Joseph II was born (d. 1790). Archiduke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1763 - Guillaume Marie Anne Brune was born (d. 1815). French soldier.
• 1764 - Earl Grey was born (d. 1845). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born, obtainer of a popular bergamot tea recipe [nothingandall webmaster comment: great tea i love it. ]
• 1777 - Portugal : Nomeação dos novos secretários de estado, em substituição do Marquês de Pombal. Começo do que é considerado a "Viradeira."
• 1781 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel was born (d. 1841). German architect.
• 1781 - William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus the seventh planet from the Sun —first described by him as “a curious either nebulous star or perhaps a comet” and named for the father of the god Saturn.
• 1784 - Jean Moufot was born (d. 1842). French philosopher and mathematician.
• 1798 - Abigail Fillmore was born (d. 1853). First Lady of the United States
• 1808 - King Christian VII of Denmark dies (b. 1749)
• 1813 - Lorenzo Delmonico, was born in Marengo, Switzerland (d. 1881). For nearly 50 years Lorenzo Delmonico operated the foremost and largest restaurant in the United States.
• 1828 - D. Miguel dissolve a Câmara dos Deputados estabelecida pela Carta Constitucional outorgada por D. Pedro IV.
• 1842 - Henry Shrapnel dies (b. 1761). Soldier, inventor.
• 1855 - Percival Lowell was born (d. 1916). Astronomer .
• 1860 - Hugo Wolf was born (d. 1903). Composer.
• 1864 - Alexej von Jawlensky was born (d. 1941). Russian impressionist painter.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops.
• 1870 - William Glackens was born. American artist, whose paintings of street scenes and urban life rejected the dictates of 19th-century academic art and introduced a matter-of-fact realism into U.S. art.
• 1878 - José Maria Tristão Leitão da Cunha was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (d. 1942). Journalist, essayst and poet.
• 1879 - Realizou-se o casamento do Príncipe Arthur de inglaterra com a Duqueza Louise Margaret da Prússia .
• 1880 - Frank Thiess was born in Eluisenstein bei Uexküll/Livland (d. 22 Dec 1977). Writer.
• 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.)
• 1884 - Leland Stanford, Jr. dies (b. 1868). Namesake of Stanford University.
• 1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
• 1884 - Oskar Loerke was born (d. 24 Feb 1941). German lyricist, narrator and essayst.
• 1884 - Sir Hugh Walpole was born (d. 1941). English novelist.
• 1899 - John Hasbrouck van Vleck was born (d. 1980). American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1900 - Béla Guttman was born (d. 1981). Hungarian footballer and coach.
• 1900 - George Seferis was born. Turkish-born poet, Nobel prize laureate .
• 1900 - Boer Wars: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
• 1900 - In France, length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law .
• 1901 - Benjamin Harrison dies (b. 1833). 23rd President of the United States
• 1905 - Margaretha Zelle made her debut as the oriental dancer “Mata Hari,” in Paris.
• 1906 - Susan B. Anthony dies (b. 1820). Civil rights and women's suffrage activist.
• 1907 - Dona Maria Pia de Braganca, was born, pretender to the Portuguese throne
• 1908 - Walter Annenberg was born (d. 2002). American publisher and philanthropist.
• 1908 - Helen Sinclair Glatz was born . Musician
• 1910 - Sammy Kaye was born in Rocky River Ohio, orch leader (Sammy Kaye Show)
• 1910 - Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt was born (d. 1985). Danish actor.
• 1911 - L. Ron Hubbard was born (d. 1986). American author.
• 1913 - William Casey was born (d. 1987). Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• 1913 - Tessie (Teresa) O'Shea was born in Cardiff , Wales (d. 21 Apr 1995, Leesburg, Florida, USA). Actress . Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical) for her rousing interpretation of a fish-and-chips seller in "The Girl Who Came to Supper."
• 1914 - Edward O'Hare was born (d. 1943). American pilot
• 1914 - Bobby Haggart was born. Jazz musician.
• 1916 - Ina Ray Hutton was born, Chicago, IL (d. 19 Feb 1984 Ventura, CA ). The only prominent female bandleader during the Big Band era; orch leader (Ina Ray Hutton Show).
• 1918 - César Cui dies (b. 1835). Russian composer.
• 1921 - Al Jaffee was born. American cartoonist.
• 1921 - Mongolia, under Black Baron, declares its independence from China.
• 1925 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.
• 1925 - Roy Haynes was born in Boston. Jazz musician (drummer) .
• 1926 - Raúl Alfonsín was born. President of Argentina
• 1926 - Carlos Roberto Reina was born (d. 2003). President of Honduras.
• 1930 - It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
• 1930 - Peter Breck was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts actor (The Big Valley's ) .
• 1930 - Liz Anderson was born in Roseau, Minnesota, singer.
• 1930 - Jan Howard [Lula Grace Johnson] was born in West Plains, Missouri. Country music singer.
• 1931 - Rosalind Elias was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA, American mezzo-soprano
• 1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the United States begin to re-open after the Presidentially mandated "bank holiday".
• 1933 - Mike Stoller was born. Musician Leiber & Stoller .
• 1934 - Dick Katz was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Jazz musician.
• 1934 - Barry Hughart was born. American author .
• 1935 - Michael Walzer was born. American philosopher
• 1938 - Erma Franklin was born (d. 2002). American singer.
• 1938 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin dies (b. 1888). Soviet politician and intellectual.
• 1938 - Clarence Darrow dies (b. 1857). American attorney.
• 1939 - Neil Sedaka was born. American singer and songwriter, singer .
• 1940 - Winter War ended.
• 1942 - Dave Cutler was born. American software engineer .
• 1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
• 1943 - Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
• 1943 - Stephen Vincent Benét dies (b. 1898). American author.
• 1947 -19th Academy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Actor/producer/comedian Jack Benny hosted the glittering gala. "The Best Years of Our Lives" won Oscars for Best Director (William Wyler); Actor (Fredric March); Supporting Actor (Harold Russell); Film Editing (Daniel Mandell); Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood); and a shared award with "The Jolson Story" for Best Score. Other awards for the best of 1946: Actress: Olivia de Havilland in "To Each His Own", and Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Baxter in "The Razor’s Edge". The Best Song was "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (from "The Harvey Girls") by Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren. Foreign-made films showed up in these Oscars, bringing an end to Hollywood’s then exclusive rights to the coveted awards. Of the foreign movies nominated, three were British ("Henry V" - producer, Laurence Olivier; "Brief Encounter" starring Celia Johnson; "Perfect Strangers" which won the Oscar for Best Writing/Original Story [Clemence Dane]), one was French ("Les Enfants du paradis", an original screenplay by Jacques Prévert) and one Italian ("Roma, città aperta", screenplay written by Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini).
• 1947 - Beat Richner was born. Swiss pediatrician in Cambodia, cellist .
• 1949 - Julia Migenes was born. American soprano .
• 1950 - William H. Macy was born. American actor .
• 1952 - Wolfgang Rihm, was born, composer .
• 1954 - The Baroness Amos was born. British politician, first black woman in the UK Cabinet .
• 1954 - Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
• 1955 - Tribhuvan dies (b. 1906). King of Nepal.
• 1956 - Dana Delany was born. American actress.
• 1957 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
• 1960 - Adam Clayton, was born, bassist for the rock band U2 .
• 1961 - Pablo Picasso (79) marries his model Jacqueline Rocque (37)
• 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.
• 1965 - Corrado Gini dies (b. 1884). Italian statistician.
• 1965 - Fan S. Noli dies (b. 1882). Albanian bishop, poet and political figure .
• 1965 - Em Angola, foi fundada a UNITA.
• 1967 - Billy Corgan, was, musician, songwriter.
• 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
• 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 .
• 1971 - Rockwell Kent dies (b.1882). Artist, illustrator and printmaker. He was a member of the rugged realist school of landscape painters. In the 1930s he created a set of illustrations for “Moby Dick.” In 1960 he donated 80 paintings and 800 watercolors to the people of the Soviet Union.
• 1972 - Tony Ray-Jones dies (b. 1941). British photographer.
• 1973 - Syria adopts constitution .
• 1973 - David Draiman, was born, musician, songwriter.
• 1973 - Edgar Davids was born. Dutch football player
• 1974 - Cillian Murphy was born. Irish actor .
• 1974 - Tatiana Cibele Mendonca Pereira was born. Brazilian educator and author
• 1975 - Ivo Andrić dies (b. 1892). Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1979 - The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.
• 1979 - European Monetary System was established, ECU created.
• 1986 - Soviet cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyev were sent aloft aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to rendezvous with the space station Mir and become its first occupants.
• 1987 - The president of Ecuador announced his country had suspended payments on its foreign debt after earthquakes killed hundreds of people and ruptured the country's main oil pipeline. The quake destroyed nearly 25 miles of oil pipeline.
• 1988 - 14th People's Choice Awards: Fatal Attraction and Bill Cosby win .
• 1990 - Bruno Bettelheim dies (suicide). Austrian-American psychoanalyst.
• 1991 - The United States Justice Department announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1,000 million for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
• 1991 - Karl Münchinger dies (b. 1915). German conductor.
• 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 Québec.
• 1995 - Leon Day dies (b. 1916). Baseball player
• 1995 - 9th Soul Train Music Awards: Boyz II Men, Anita Baker win .
• 1996 - Krzysztof Kieslowski dies (b. 1941). Polish film director.
• 1996 - The Dunblane Massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 adult teacher are shot dead by Thomas Hamilton (43) who then commits suicide.
• 1996 - Ruy Teixeira Guerra dies (b. 1903). Portuguese diplomat.
• 1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
• 1998 - Bill Reid dies (b. 1920). Canadian artist.
• 1998 - Risen Star dies (b. 1985). Famous race horse.
• 1999 - Garson Kanin dies in New York. Playwright and film director.
• 1999 - Bidu Sayão dies (b. 1902). Brazilian soprano.
• 1999 - In Indonesia the National Front Party of prime minister Mahathir Mohamad won elections in oil-rich Sabah state with 25 of the 48 seats.
• 2002 - In Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe was declared the winner with 1.6 million votes to Tsvangirai’s 1.2 mil. The opposition apposed the results and many observers escribed the process as deeply flawed.
• 2002 - Hans-Georg Gadamer dies (b. 1900). German philosopher.
• 2003 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints have been found in Italy.
• 2004 - Franz König dies (b. 1905). Austrian Catholic Archbishop of Vienna.
• 2005 - Taïra Yoshihisa dies (b. 1937). Japanese-born French composer.
• Roman Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church - Feast day of Saint Nicephorus
• Fast of Esther in Judaism (2006)
• Commonwealth Day (second Monday in March 2006)