Today is Thursday, March 13, the 73rd day of 2008. There are 293 days left in the year.
1519 _ Cortez lands in Mexico
1634 _ Academie Francaise opens
1639 _ Cambridge College renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard
1656 _ Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam
1868 _ Senate begins President Andrew Johnson impeachment trial
1884 _ Siege of Khartoum Sudan begins
1921 _ Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China
1979 _ European Monetary System is established, ECU created
1981 _ Attempt on Pope John Paul II by Mehemet Ali Agca
1991 _ Exxon pays $1-billion dollars in fines and cleanup of Valdez oil spill (Prince William Sound, Alaska)