This day in history

[March 13, 2013]  (AP)  Today is Wednesday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2013. There are 293 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On March 13, 1933, banks in the U.S. began to reopen after a "holiday" declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On this date:

In 1639, New College was renamed Harvard College for clergyman John Harvard.

In 1781, the seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, was discovered by Sir William Herschel.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure prohibiting Union military officers from returning fugitive slaves to their owners.

In 1901, the 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis at age 67.

In 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a bill prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin Peay signed the measure on March 21.)

In 1938, famed attorney Clarence S. Darrow died in Chicago.

In 1943, author-poet Stephen Vincent Benet, 44, died in New York. Financier and philanthropist J.P. Morgan, Jr., 75, died in Boca Grande, Fla.

In 1964, bar manager Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her Queens, N.Y. home; the case generated controversy over the supposed failure of Genovese's neighbors to respond to her cries for help.

In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.

In 1980, Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., found the company not guilty of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto.

In 1988, yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president.

In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.

Ten years ago: Forced into a diplomatic retreat, U.S. officials said President George W. Bush might delay a vote on his troubled United Nations resolution or even drop it -- and fight Iraq without the international body's backing. The Senate voted 64-33 to ban a procedure that critics called partial birth abortion. (The measure passed the House and was signed into law by President Bush in November 2003.) Norwegian Robert Sorlie won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race in nine days, 15 hours, 47 minutes.

Five years ago: The body of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was found in a shallow grave in northern Iraq, two weeks after he was kidnapped by gunmen in one of the most dramatic attacks against the country's small Christian community. Gold hit a record, rising to $1,000 an ounce for the first time (however, it fell sharply later in the year). Bode Miller clinched the men's overall World Cup ski title in Bormio, Italy.

One year ago: A resurgent Rick Santorum swept to victory in Republican presidential primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. Twenty-two students returning from a ski holiday and six adults died when their bus crashed inside a tunnel in southern Switzerland. A ferry carrying more than 200 people collided with a cargo boat and sank just short of Dhaka, Bangladesh; most on board died. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. said it would stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopedia. Dallas Seavey, at age 25, became the youngest winner ever of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.

Today's birthdays: Jazz musician Roy Haynes is 88. Country singer Jan Howard is 83. Songwriter Mike Stoller (STOH'-ler) is 80. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 74. Opera singer Julia Migenes is 64. Actor William H. Macy is 63. Comedian Robin Duke is 59. Actress Glenne Headly is 58. Actress Dana Delany is 57. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 53. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 51. Actor Christopher Collet is 45. Rock musician Matt McDonough (Mudvayne) is 44. Actress Annabeth Gish is 42. Actress Tracy Wells is 42. Rapper-actor Common is 41. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob, The Lumberjacks) is 41. Singer Glenn Lewis is 38. Actor Danny Masterson is 37. Actor Noel Fisher is 29. Actor Emile Hirsch is 28. Singers Natalie and Nicole Albino (Nina Sky) are 27.

Thought for today: "Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you." -- Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist (1904-1971)

[Associated Press]

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