This Date in History - March 13

Happy birthday, Neil Sedaka.  What's with the screwy hat?  You playing bocce ball these days?

624:  THE BATTLE OF BADR - A KEY BATTLE BETWEEN MUHAMMAD'S ARMY, THE NEW FOLLOWERS OF ISLAM AND THE QURAISH OF MECCA. 

I know I just typed this as a significant event, but I got bored halfway through.

1138:  CARDINAL GREGORIO CONTI IS ELECTED AS ANTIPOPE AS VICTOR IV.

Later on, Rosalind Russell was elected as Antimame.

1639:  HARVARD COLLEGE IS NAMED FOR CLERGYMAN JOHN HARVARD.

Masters of the obvious.

1764:  UNITED KINGDOM PRIME MINISTER EARL GREY IS BORN.

Love his tea.

1781:  WILLIAM HERSCHEL DISCOVERS URANUS.

When did he discover his own?

1809:  GUSTAV IV ADOLF OF SWEDEN IS DEPOSED IN A COUP D'ETAT.

If you're going to depose somebody named Adolf, you backed the wrong horse.

1862:  DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, THE US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FORBIDS ALL UNION ARMY OFFICERS TO RETURN FUGITIVE SLAVES AND ULTIMATELY SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

Emancipation Proclamation rhymes.  Maybe it was written by Neil Sedaka.

1881:  ALEXANDER II OF RUSSIA IS KILLED NEAR HIS PALACE WHEN A BOMB IS THROWN AT HIM.

I suppose that, if you throw a bomb at somebody, you would expect to kill him.

1901:  PRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON DIES.

And?

1906:  SUFFRAGE ACTIVIST SUSAN B. ANTHONY DIES.

Didn't even get to see her own coin.

1911:  AUTHOR L. RON HUBBARD IS BORN.

The inventor of Scientology.  So, essentially the guy is officially a lunatic.

1925:  SCOPES TRIAL - A LAW IN TENNESSEE PROHIBITS THE TEACHING OF EVOLUTION.

Too much monkeying around with school curriculums.

1933:  BANKS IN THE US BEGIN TO REOPEN AFTER PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT MANDATES A BANK HOLIDAY.

This was one of his devices to end the Depression.  Of course, the country's financial woes wouldn't get solved until we got into World War II.

1938:  WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP IS BROADCAST FOR THE FIRST TIME ON CBS RADIO.

Since this is the only historical event that happened on this day in 1938, what the hell did they have to report on?

1939:  SINGER/SONGWRITER NEIL SEDAKA IS BORN.

Breaking up is hard to do.  Coming down a birth canal...even tougher.

1943:  GERMAN FORCES LIQUIDATE THE JEWISH GHETTO IN KRAKOW.

When they say "liquidate" here, I think they really mean it.

1950:  ACTOR WILLIAM H. MACY IS BORN.

Mr. Felicity Huffman to you.

1954:  BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHU - VIET MINH FORCES ATTACK THE FRENCH.

Dien Bien Phu.  Gesundheit.

1964;  KITTY GENOVESE IS MURDERED, REPORTEDLY IN VIEW OF NEIGHBORS WHO DID NOTHING TO HELP.

Screaming?  What screaming?

1969:  APOLLO 9 RETURNS SAFELY TO EARTH AFTER TESTING THE LUNAR MODULE.

So, no movie this time, Ron Howard?

1991:  THE US DEPARTMENT OF JUSITCE ANNOUNCES THAT EXXON HAS AGREED TO PAY $1 BILLION FOR THE CLEAN-UP OF THE EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL IN ALASKA.

And gas prices go up to..?

1997:  THE PHOENIX LIGHTS ARE SEEN OVER PHOENIX, ARIZONA.

Where would you expect to see them?  Over Bumfuk, Alabama?

2006:  INVENTOR ROBERT C. BAKER DIES.

Who?  The guy who first made a chicken nugget, that's who.

2006:  ACTRESS MAUREEN STAPLETON DIES.

You just know she drank a lot.

2007:  WRESTLER ARNOLD SKAALAND DIES.

A big fave of my grandmother.

2009:  ACTRESS BETSY BLAIR DIES.

Once married to Gene Kelly.  The ugly duckling in the movie "Marty," although she looked pretty cute to me.

Dinner last night:  Beef pot pie with vegetables.