0607 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1138 German king Koenraad II von Hohenstaufen crowned
1519 Cortez lands in México
1560 Spanish fleet occupies Djerba, at Tripoli
1564 Cardinal Granvelle flees Brussels
1567 Battle at Oosterweel Spanish troops destroy Geuzenleger
1569 Battle of Jarnac, Count of Anjou defeats Huguenots
1591 Battle at Tondibi Moroccans army under Judar beats sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai
1634 Académie Française opens
1639 Cambridge College renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard
1656 Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam
1677 Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1735 The first US Moravian bishop, David Nitschmann, consecrated in Germany
1759 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1781 Sir William Herschel sees what he thinks is a comet but he really discovers the planet Uranus
1781 The German-born astronomer William Hershel discovers Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun and the third largest planet by diamete
1808 Denmark's demented Christian VII has died March 13 at age 59 after a 32-year reign
1809 Seven Swedish army officers break into the royal apartments March 13, seize the insane Gustav IV in a coup d'état, and conduct him to the château of Gripsholm
1835 Charles Darwin departs Valparaiso for Andes crossing
1852 Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly
1859 John Brown 1800-1859 brings first black slaves to Canada from the US via the Underground Railway; he is later made famous in a song, John Brown's Body, about a raid he made on Harper's Ferry, Virginia.
1861 Jefferson Davis signs bill authorizing use of slaves as soldiers
1865 US Confederate Congress calls on black slaves for field service
1868 Senate begins President Andrew Johnson impeachment trial
1869 Arkansas legislature passes anti-Klan law
