March 13

• March 13, 624
  Muslims under Muhammad defeat non-believers for the first time at the Battle of Badr
• March 13, 1401
  Samogitian uprisings supported by Vytautas took place against the German knights in Great Duchy of Lithuania
• March 13, 1560
  Ottoman navy defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Djerba
• March 13, 1567
  A Spanish professional army under General Beauvoir defeat an army of Dutch radical Calvinists rebels under Jan de Marnix at the Battle of Oosterweel during Dutch Revolt
• March 13, 1569
  Henry of Anjou, count of Anjou, defeat the Huguenots at the Battle of Jarnac during which co-leader of Huguenots Louis Conde dies
• March 13, 1591
  Moroccan forces of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur led by Judar Pasha defeat Askia Ishaq II at the Battle of Tondibi ending the Songhai Empire
• March 13, 1610
  Galileo publishes his observations of the night sky under the title Sidereus Nuncius
• March 13, 1634
  King Louis XIII at the urging of Cardinal Richelieu granted letters patent to formally establish the Académie française in Paris, responsible for the regulation of French grammar, orthography, and literature
• March 13, 1781
  British astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus, assuming it is a comet and names it Georgium Sidus, in honor of George III
• March 13, 1852
  A familiar symbol of the United States, Uncle Sam, makes his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern
• March 13, 1855
  Percival Lowell, an American businessman and astronomer, is born
• March 13, 1881
  Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, and one of the most successful Russian reformers, is assassinated at age 62 when a bomb is thrown at him near his palace by the anarchist group
• March 13, 1883
  Sergey Degayev, a Russian terrorist, shots and kills Russian Gendarme colonel Georgy Sudeykin, security chief of Emperor Alexander III
• March 13, 1884
  Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed himself the prophesied redeemer of Islam, begins successful siege of British-led Egyptian garrison at Khartoum during the Mahdist War in Sudan
• March 13, 1920
  Wolfgang Kapp's coup attempt in Berlin, Germany, fails
• March 13, 1923
  Lee de Forest demonstrates his sound-on-film moving pictures to the press in New York City, New York
• March 13, 1928
  450 die in Saint Francis Valley Dam burst in California
• March 13, 1933
  Joseph Goebbels becomes German minister of Information and Propaganda
• March 13, 1940
  Finland and the Soviet Union end Winter War concluding the Moscow Peace Treaty by which Finland retains independence but gives up the Karelian Isthmus, Viipuri, and a small band of land north of Lake Ladoga to the Soviet Union
• March 13, 1943
  In Smolensk, a bomb disguised as two bottles of brandy is put on board Adolf Hitler's personal Focke-Wulf 200 Condor plane; the detonator activates, but due to cold temperature, the plastic explosives do not detonate
• March 13, 1989
  Six million people in the northeastern U.S. and in Sweden are left without power for nine hours after a geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec power grid
• March 13, 1997
  India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader