On this day, March 13
1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure prohibiting Union military officers from returning fugitive slaves to their owners.
1933 Banks in the U.S. began to reopen after a “holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1938 Famed attorney Clarence S. Darrow died in Chicago.
1943 Financier and philanthropist J.P. Morgan Jr., 75, died in Boca Grande, Fla.
1946 U.S. Army Pfc. Sadao Munemori was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing himself to save fellow soldiers from a grenade explosion in Seravezza, Italy; he was the only Japanese-American service member so recognized in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
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.
1995 Two Americans working for U.S.
defense contractors in Kuwait, David Daliberti and William Barloon, were seized by Iraq after they strayed across the border; sentenced to eight years in prison, both were freed later the same year.
1996 A gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
2011 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.
2020 Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot in her apartment in Louisville, Ky., during a botched raid by plainclothes narcotics detectives; no drugs were found, and the “no-knock” warrant used to enter by force was later found to be flawed. (A grand jury brought no charges against officers in her death, and prosecutors said two officers who fired at her were justified because her boyfriend shot at them; one officer was found not guilty of endangering Taylor’s neighbors by firing into the side of her apartment during the raid.)
Today’s birthdays: Jazz musician Roy Haynes, 98. Songwriter Mike Stoller, 90. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka, 84. R&B/gospel singer Candi Staton, 83. Opera singer Julia Migenes, 74. Actor William H. Macy, 73. Comedian Robin Duke, 69. Actor Dana Delany, 67. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2), 63. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard, 61. Actor Christopher Collet, 55. Rock musician Matt McDonough (Mudvayne), 54. Actor Annabeth Gish, 52. Actor Tracy Wells, 52. Rapper-actor Common, 51. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob, The Lumberjacks), 51. Singer Glenn Lewis, 48. Actor Danny Masterson, 47. Actor Noel Fisher, 39. Singers Natalie and Nicole Albino (Nina Sky), 39. Actor Emile Hirsch, 38. U.S. Olympic gold medal skier Mikaela Shiffrin, 28.