TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 13
607 The 12th recorded passage of Halley’s Comet occurs.
624 Battle of Badr: Muhammad’s Muslim forces win significant victory over Meccan army
1519 Hernando Cortez lands in what will become Mexico.
1660 A statute is passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia.
1677 Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1781 Astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus, which he names ‘Georgium Sidus,’ in honor of King George III.
1793 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.
1852 “Uncle Sam” cartoon appeared for the first time in N.Y. Lantern weekly.
1868 The U.S. Senate begins the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/impeachment-trial-of-andrew-johnson-begins
1869 Arkansas legislature passes anti-Klan law
1881 Czar Alexander II is assassinated when a bomb is thrown at him near his palace.
1887 Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs
1918 Women are scheduled to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York due to a shortage of men.
1925 Tennessee passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools.
1935 A three-thousand-year-old archive is found in Jerusalem confirming biblical history.
1942 Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps becomes the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.
1943 German troops liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków
Thousands of men, women and children were murdered by the nazis or deported to extermination camps.
1957 The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa on bribery charges.
1974 The U.S. Senate votes 54-33 to restore the death penalty.
1974 Arab nations decide to end the oil embargo on the United States.
1991 Exxon pays $1 billion in fines and costs for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.
1992 FCC rules companies can own 30 AM & 30 FM stations (formerly 12)
1996 A man shot dead 16 children and a woman teacher in a school in Dunblane, Scotland. He then shot himself.
2012 The Encyclopaedia Britannica discontinued its print edition after 244 years.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **