March 13
1781: The seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, was discovered by astronomer William Herschel.
1925: The Tennessee General Assembly approved the Butler Act, which prohibited public schools from teaching of the theory of evolution.
2020: President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 14
1794: Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized the American cotton industry.
1879: Albert Einstein, who would revolutionize physics and the human understanding of the universe, was born in Ulm, Germany.
1964: A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentenced Ruby to death.
2018: Stephen Hawking, the best-known theoretical physicist of his time, died at the age of 76.
March 15
44 B.C.: On the “ides of March,” Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by Roman senators, including Brutus and Cassius, who feared Caesar was working to establish a monarchy.
1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson called for new legislation to guarantee every American’s right to vote. The result was passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1972: “The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola’s film based on the Mario Puzo novel and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premiered in New York.
March 16
1802: President Thomas Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
1926: Rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket at his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Massachusetts.
1968: The My Lai (mee ly) massacre took place during the Vietnam War as U.S. Army soldiers hunting for Viet Cong fighters and sympathizers killed unarmed villagers in two hamlets of Son My (suhn mee) village; estimates of the death toll vary from 347 to 504.
March 17
1762: New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.
1941: The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
1942: During World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater.
1969: Golda Meir took power in Israel, beginning a stint as prime minister that would last through five crucial years in the nation’s history.
March 18
1766: Britain repealed the Stamp Act of 1765.
1922: Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years’ imprisonment for civil disobedience.
1940: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany’s war against France and Britain.
2017: Chuck Berry, rock ’n’ roll’s founding guitar hero and storyteller behind such classics as “Johnny B. Goode,” “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” died at age 90.
March 19
1859: The opera “Faust” by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris.
1931: Nevada Gov. Fred B. Balzar signed a measure legalizing casino gambling.
1945: During World War II, 724 people were killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacked the carrier USS Franklin off Japan.
2003: President George W. Bush ordered the start of war against Iraq.
