This day in History: March 13

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March 13 483 St. Felix begins his reign as Catholic Pope. 607 The 12th recorded passage of Halley’s Comet occurs. 1519 Hernando Cortez lands in what will become Mexico. 1660 A statute is passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia. 1777 Congress orders its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army. 1781 Astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus, names it ‘Georgium Sidus,’ in honor of King George III. 1793 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin. 1861 Jefferson Davis signs a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy. 1868 The U.S. Senate begins the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. 1881 Czar Alexander II is assassinated when a bomb is thrown at him near his palace. 1915 The Germans repel a British Expeditionary Force attack at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in France. 1918 Women are scheduled to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York due to a shortage of men. 1935 A three-thousand-year-old archive is found in Jerusalem confirming biblical history. 1940 Finland capitulates conditionally to Soviet terms, but maintains its independence. 1941 Hitler issues an edict calling for an invasion of the Soviet Union. 1942 Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps becomes the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army. 1943 Nazi forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków, Poland, murdering approximately 2,000 of its Jewish occupants. 1943 Japanese forces end their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville. 1951 Israel demands $1.5 billion in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees. 1957 The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa on bribery charges. 1963 China invites Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev to visit Beijing. 1970 Cambodia orders Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to get out. 1974 The U.S. Senate votes 54-33 to restore the death penalty. 1974 Arab nations decide to end the oil embargo on the United States. 1981 The United States plans to send 15 Green Berets to El Salvador as military advisors. 1985 Upon the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the new leader of the Soviet Union. 1991 Exxon pays $1 billion in fines and costs for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill. Born on March 13 1615 Innocent XII, Roman Catholic Pope 1733 Joseph Priestly, scientist credited with the discovery of oxygen. 1764 Charles Earl Grey, British Prime Minister 1798 Abigail Powers Fillmore, First Lady and wife of Millard Fillmore 1855 Percival Lowell, astronomer who predicted the discovery of the planet Pluto. 1886 Albert William Stevens, balloonist and photographer. 1892 Janet Flanner, writer (Letter from Paris). 1900 George Seferis, Greek poet.