On This Day:
Friday March 13, 2015 This is the 72nd day of the year, with 293 days remaining in 2015. Fact of the Day: jigsaw puzzles Jigsaw puzzles originated as educational devices to teach geography (dissected maps) in 18th-century England. Dissected pictures followed, covering such subjects as history, alphabets, botany, and zoology. The use of popular pictures began in the 1860s and 1870s, in both Great Britain and the United States. The puzzles became extremely popular in the early 1900s and had a revival in the Great Depression of the 1930s as an inexpensive, reusable amusement. Another revival began after World War II, and jigsaw puzzles have remained popular since then.
Holidays Feast day of St. Gerald of Mayo, St. Mochoemoc, St. Nicephorus of Constantinople, Saints Roderic and Salomon, St. Ansovinus, and St. Euphrasia.
Events 1639 - Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.
1781 - The planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel.
1852 - Uncle Sam made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York "Lantern."
1868 - The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U. S. Senate.
1877 - Ear mufflers were patented by Chester Greenwood of Maine.
1878 - The first collegiate golf match was played; Oxford University defeated Cambridge University.
1884 - Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.
1935 - Tennessee outlawed the teaching of evolution.
1974 - The five-month oil embargo by Arab countries was lifted. The embargo was in retaliation for the U.S. support of Israel during the 1973 Middle East war.
1996 - A gunman burst into an elementary school in Scotland and opened fire on a class of kindergartners, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
2007 - The Bank of England launched a new £20 banknote, featuring the Scottish economist Adam Smith.
Births 1733 - Joseph Priestley, English chemist.
1855 - Percival Lowell, American astronomer.
1911 - L. Ron Hubbard, American Church of Scientology founder, author.
1927 - Raúl Alfonsín, President of Argentina.
1939 - Neil Sedaka, singer and songwriter, born in Brooklyn, New York.
1942 - Dave Cutler, software engineer, born in Lansing, Michigan.
1950 - William H. Macy, actor, born in Miami, Florida.
1960 - English-born Adam Clayton, bass player of the rock band U2.
1987 - Marco Andretti, American race car driver and grandson of racing legend Mario Andretti.
Deaths 1842 - Henry Shrapnel, a British Army officer and inventor, best known for the "shrapnel shell."
1881 - Czar Alexander II, the ruler of Russia since 1855, in the streets of St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary "People's Will" group.
1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States.
1906 - Susan B. Anthony, American women's suffrage activist.
1938 - Clarence Darrow, American defense attorney.
1998 - Hans von Ohain, German engineer, and one of the inventors of jet propulsion.
2002 - Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher.
2006 - Maureen Stapleton, film, theater, and television actress, born in Troy, New York.
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