TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2021. 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 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 1934, a gang that included John Dillinger and "Baby Face" Nelson robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, making off with $52,344.
In 1938, famed attorney Clarence S. Darrow died in Chicago.
In 1947, the Lerner and Loewe musical "Brigadoon," about a Scottish village that magically reappears once every hundred years, opened on Broadway.
In 1954, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu began during the First Indochina War as Viet Minh forces attacked French troops, who were defeated nearly two months later.
In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.
In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
In 2013, Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope, choosing the name Francis; he was the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.
In 2018, President Donald Trump abruptly dumped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- via Twitter -- and moved CIA Director Mike Pompeo from the role of America's spy chief to its top diplomat.
Ten years ago: The estimated death toll from Japan's earthquake and tsunami climbed past 10,000 as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns while hundreds of thousands of people struggled to find food and water. The NCAA men's basketball selection committee released its 68team draw which included a record 11 teams from the Big East, the deepest conference in the nation.