March 13th was a great day for astronomical discoveries. On this day in 1781, Uranus was discovered. 49 years later, in 1930, news of Pluto's discovery was sent to the Harvard College Observatory (Pluto is technically classified as a "dwarf planet" now, but many people still think of it as a real planet).
In 1862, during the US Civil War, the US government said that Union army officers didn't have to return runaway slaves anymore. Previously, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 said that the government had to send back runaway slaves. This was a clear victory for abolitionists.
In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt allows the banks to reopen, after a mandatory "bank holiday". The bank holiday closed the banks in order to allow finances to be straightened out as a means to prevent bank runs during the Great Depression.
In 1996, Thomas Watt Hamilton entered a kindergarten classroom, killing 16 children and a teacher. The murderer afterwards committed suicide. This event occurred a few years before the Columbine Massacre, but it was not the only school shooting that year; there would be seven other school attacks in 1996 alone.
On this day, gold prices went over $1000 an ounce for the first time. As of March 2011, gold was over $1400 an ounce. Don't you wish you would have bought back then?
I do wish I'd bought back then! I love history, and your lists!
select one here...