13th March

[chenrezig]

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.

1884 – The Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins, ending on January 26, 1885.

1933 – Great Depression: Banks in the U.S. begin to re-open after President Franklin D. Roosevelt mandates a "bank holiday".

1943 – The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.

1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

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.

1996 – Dunblane massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 primary school children and one teacher are shot dead by spree killer Thomas Watt Hamilton who then commits suicide.

2003 – Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human had been found in Italy.

2008 – Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.

2013 – Pope Francis is elected, in the papal conclave, as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.

Births
1884 – Hugh Walpole, English author (d. 1941)
1911 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (d. 1986)
1935 – David Nobbs, English author
1939 – Neil Sedaka, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1940 – Christopher Gable, English actor, dancer, and choreographer (d. 1998)
1947 – Lesley Collier, English ballet dancer
1960 – Adam Clayton, English-Irish bass player and songwriter (U2 and Automatic Baby)
1980 – Flavia Cacace, Italian dancer
1989 – Peaches Geldof, English model and television host (d. 2014)

Deaths
1941 – Elizabeth Madox Roberts, American poet and author (b. 1881)
1995 – Odette Hallowes, French-English nurse and agent (b. 1912)

[annie]

Thankyou

[Rosalind]

go90 than999