March 13 Historical Events

The following events took place on March 13. The list is arranged in chronological order.

Found 40 events. Showing 1 - 30.

• 624
  Battle of Badr: a key battle between Muhammad’s army – the new followers of Islam and the Quraysh of Mecca. The Muslims won this battle, known as the turning point of Islam, which took place in the Hejaz region of western Arabia.
• 874
  The bones of Saint Nicephorus are interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople.
• 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 after clergyman John Harvard.
• 1697
  Nojpetén, capital of the last independent 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 from returning 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.
• 1921
  Mongolia is proclaimed an independent monarchy, ruled by Russian military officer Roman von Ungern-Sternberg as a dictator.
• 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
  First Indochina War: Viet Minh forces under Võ Nguyên Giáp unleashed a massive artillery barrage on the French to begin the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, the climactic battle in the First Indochina War.
• 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 Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Kennedy removes Lemnitzer from his position.
• 1963
  Police in Phoenix, Arizona arrest Ernesto Miranda and charge him with kidnap and rape. His conviction is ultimately set aside by the United States Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona
• 1964
  American Kitty Genovese is murdered, the media erroneously report that many of the victim’s neighbours witnessed the crime yet failed to help, 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'état 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.