March 13: What Happened on This Day in History (Elementary Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1781 - William Herschel discovers Uranus.
2. 1862 - American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers to return fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
3. 1930 - The news of the discovery of Pluto is telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory.
4. 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
5. 2013 - Pope Francis is elected in the papal conclave to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.
6. Famous Birthdays: Georges de La Tour (French painter), Charles Bonnet (Swiss historian and author), Percival Lowell (American astronomer and mathematician), John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (American physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate), Giorgos Seferis (Greek poet, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: March 11

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: March 14

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.