Quick glance of 13 March in the pages of History

March 13: Here are the major events that occurred on 13 March….

• 13 March, 1781: Astronomer William Herschel sees what he thinks is a “comet” but is actually the discovery of the planet Uranus.
• 13 March, 1800: Death anniversary of Nana phadnavis who was one of the most important Statesman and a very influential minister in the Peshwa administration during the Maratha empire. He has also been referred as the Indian Machiavelli because of his political vision.
• 13 March, 1881: Tsar of Russia, Alexander II of Russia is assassinated by members of far-left terror group ‘People’s Will’ who throw a bomb at him in the city of St. Petersburg.
• 13 March, 1905: Exotic Dancer, Courtesan and German Spy, Mata Hari first performs her dance act at the Guimet Museum, Paris.
• 13 March, 1929: Cricket Legend, Don Bradman scores 123 Aust v England at MCG, his 2nd Test Cricket century.
• 13 March, 1940: Indian Revolutionary Udham Singh shot the governor of Punjab Michael O’dyer in London in a public gathering. Udham Singh held Michael order responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. In 1919 under the leadership of General Dyer, British police had open fire on completely unarmed civilians which has led to the death of more than 1500 people. The governor of Punjab was actually seen supporting this event and this act was done by Udham Singh to avenge the death of people killed during the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
• 13 March, 1996: Looks like history of India is incomplete with a leaf out of cricket. Sri Lanka played brilliantly against india in the World Cup Semi-Final after a disastrous first over to achieve an unbeatable advantage. But the headlines were devoted to the riot which ended the match. Enraged by an Indian collapse of seven wickets for 22, some home supporters threw bottles on to the outfield and set fire to the seating. Referee Clive Lloyd took the teams off for 15 minutes, attempted a restart and then awarded Sri Lanka the game by default.
• 13 March, 1997: India’s Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader. Mother Teresa stepped down owing to ill health. She died on 5 September 1997.
• 13 March, 2004: Death anniversary of Ustad Vilayat Khan who was a Sitar Maestro of India. The Indian government actually offered to honour him with India’s highest civilian honours of Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma vibhushan but he refused to accept all of them and declared the selection committee as being incompetent to judge him. He believed that these committees had given awards based on lobbying and political interests and as a result, he considered these awards as an insult.
• 13 March, 2005: Bob Iger is named CEO of Walt Disney International, succeeding Michael Eisner.
• 13 March, 2012: Encyclopedia Britannica announces that it will no longer publish printed versions of its encyclopedia.
• 13 March, 2013: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis.
• 13 March, 2019: British MPs vote to reject a no-deal Brexit, defeating Theresa May’s government 321 votes to 278.