Friday, March 13, 2015

Today in History for March 13, 2015

March 13, 0607 A.D. - The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet occurred.

March 13, 1519 - Cortez landed in Mexico.

March 13, 1660 - A statute was passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia.

March 13, 1697 – Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya kingdom, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.

March 13, 1733 - Joseph Priestley, supporter of the American Revolution and leader of the Unitarian Church in Britain and America, was born in Yorkshire, England. His home and laboratory were burned on the second anniversary of Bastille Day due to his support. In 1794, he moved to Northumberland, Pennsylvania.

March 13, 1777 - The U.S. Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.

March 13, 1778 - A French ambassador informed the British government that France had officially recognized the United States as an independent nation. England declared war on France four days later.


March 13, 1781 – English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

March 13, 1818 – Ogly Massacre occurred as Jack “Savannah Jack” Hague attacked the Ogly family. Elizabeth Stroud, her infant, four other children and Mary Ann Ogly were killed by Hague’s band. Stroud was buried in the Middleton Cemetery in northern Monroe County, Ala. Hague was pursued by Col. Hunter but escaped to whereabouts unknown.

March 13, 1852 - The New York Lantern newspaper published the first "Uncle Sam cartoon". It was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew. The name “Uncle Sam” had been used to refer to the United States since about 1810, but this was the first time that someone thought to make him into a character and draw him in human form.

March 13, 1855 – Astronomer Percival Lowell was born in Boston, Mass.

March 13, 1862 – During the Civil War, the U.S. federal government forbid 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.

March 13, 1862 - Union General Ambrose Burnside landed 12,000 troops along the Neuse River, 15 miles south of New Bern, N.C. The next day Burnside captured New Bern.

March 13, 1865 – During the Civil War, the Confederate States of America agreed to the use of African American troops in the main Rebel armies. There was no stipulation for freedom for those slaves that fought.

March 13, 1870 - Alabama editor Seale Harris was born in Cedartown, Ga.

March 13, 1887 - Fugitive Alabama State Treasurer Isaac "Honest Ike" Vincent was arrested on a train in Big Sandy, Texas, and was returned to Alabama for trial. Four years earlier Vincent had absconded with more than $225,000 in state funds unaccounted for. Vincent was tried and convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in the state penitentiary.

March 13, 1892 – Writer Janet Flanner was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.

March 13, 1901 - The 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died at the age of 67 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

March 13, 1911 – Marie Rudisill, aka “The Fruitcake Lady,” was born in Monroeville, Ala.

March 13, 1911 – Science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska. In 1950, he published “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” (1950), which promised that a therapeutic process called auditing could erase a person’s cellular traces of traumatic experiences, and that this would cure any physical or mental ailment and increase intelligence. Hubbard used his ideas about Dianetics to found the Church of Scientology in 1954.

March 13, 1914 – B.B. Comer spoke at the Conecuh County Courthouse during his campaign for Alabama governor.

March 13, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Alma M. Martin of Castleberry, Ala. “died from wounds.”

March 13, 1935 – 3,000-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming some biblical history.

March 13, 1941 - Adolf Hitler issued an edict calling for an invasion of the U.S.S.R.

March 13, 1954 - Bobby Thomson of the Milwaukee Braves broke his ankle sliding into a base during a spring training game. The Braves replaced him with a rookie named Hank Aaron.

March 13, 1955 – Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Cynthia Tucker was born in Monroeville, Ala.

March 13, 1957 - Jimmy Hoffa was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges.

March 13, 1960 - The NFL's Chicago Cardinals transferred to St. Louis, Mo.

March 13, 1964 – Major League Baseball first baseman Will Clark was born in New Orleans, La. He would go on to play for Mississippi State, the 1984 U.S. Olympic Baseball Team, the San Francisco Giants, the Texas Rangers, the Baltimore Orioles and the St. Louis Cardinals.
as about Dianetics to found the Church of Scientology in 1954.


March 13-16, 1967 – The Spring Term of Conecuh County Circuit Court was held in Evergreen, Ala. with Circuit Judge Robert E.L. Key presiding. District Attorney Ralph L. Jones of Monroeville and County Solicitor Henry J. Kinzer of Evergreen prosecuted for the state. Twelve cases were set for trial on the docket, according to Circuit Clerk Leon A. Salter.

March 13, 1972 – NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer was born in Santa Cruz, Calif. He would go on to play for Fresno State, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Baltimore Ravens, the Seattle Seahawks, the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers.

March 13, 1974 - A television version of Alabama author William Bradford Huie's book “The Execution of Private Slovick” was broadcast.

March 13, 1979 – Major League Baseball power pitcher Johan Santana was born in Tovar Merida, Venezuela. He went on to become the dominant left-handed pitcher in baseball from 2003 to 2006 and won the coveted Cy Young Award as the American League’s top pitcher following the 2004 season and again in a unanimous vote in 2006. He played for the Minnesota Twins and the New York Mets during his career.

March 13, 1996 – Hawkins’ Quarters near Forest Home in Butler County was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

March 13, 1997 – The Phoenix lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people and by millions on television. This huge triangular formation of lights was reported by countless witnesses, some who called in to Art Bell that night. Gov. Fife Symington, who initially made fun of the incident, belatedly publicly admitted he, too, saw the lights.

March 13, 2003 - A report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.

March 13, 2007 – The Old Sullivan Community Cemetery in Escambia County was added to the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.

March 13, 2008 – The “Mystery Tombstone” story was first published in The Evergreen Courant.

March 13, 2011 – Jeff Daniels of Evergreen, Ala. began his successful 2,181-mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

March 13, 2012 - After 244 years of publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica announced it would discontinue its print edition.

March 13, 2014 – “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” made its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.

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