March 13th

Battle of Badr: Muhammad's Muslim forces win significant victory over Meccan army.

Pope Francis succeeds Pope Benedict XVI. Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina became the 266th leader of the Catholic Church, which has 1.2 billion members around the world.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica discontinued its print edition after 244 years.

The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.

A series of unidentified lights appear over Phoenix, Arizona. The Phoenix Lights caused heated debate in the UFO community. It emerged later that some of the lights were caused by illumination flares dropped from a U.S. Air Force plane.

A gunman opened fire on a class of kindergarteners at an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.

Britain and China resumed full diplomatic relations after 22 years. Britain withdrew its consulate from Taiwan.

Apollo 9 returned to Earth after a mission to test the lunar module.

Kitty Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her Queens, New York, home. The case came to be a symbol of urban apathy, though initial reports that 38 neighbors ignored Genovese's calls for help have been disputed.

German troops liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków. Thousands of men, women and children were murdered by the nazis or deported to extermination camps. The horrific event is portrayed in the film, Schindler's List.

Defense attorney Clarence S. Darrow died at age 80.

Banks began to re-open after a holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory.

Tennessee passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Suffragist Susan B. Anthony died.

Fall of the Sokoto Caliphate in Northern Nigeria, the British claim supremacy of over 500,000 square miles.

Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, died in Indianaoplis at age 67.

Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins by Mahdist forces, lasts 10 months.

The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate.

'Uncle Sam' made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern.

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premiered. The German composer's opus 64 is one of the most frequently performed violin concertos in history.

The German-born English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Georgium Sidus, later known as Uranus.

New College was renamed Harvard College for clergyman John Harvard.

Battle at Tondibi: Moroccan army under Judar defeats Sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai.