March 2013 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Mar 4 The Papal Conclave begins to select the successor of Pope Benedict XVI

Mar 5 The Dow Jones surpasses its 2007 pre-financial crisis levels for the first time

Event of Interest

Mar 5 Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolás Maduro assumes the presidency after the death of Hugo Chávez

Mar 5 Willcom announces the world’s smallest mobile phone, weighing 32 grams
Mar 6 9 people die after a plane crashes after being ensnared in power lines in Peru
Mar 6 Microsoft is fined €561M ($731M USD) by the Euro Commission for failing to respect an antitrust settlement to provide options to chose an alternative web browser
Mar 6 Syrian rebels capture Ar-Raqqah, their first major city
Mar 7 Hilary Mantel is awarded the 2013 David Cohen Prize for literature
Mar 7 UN Security Council approves further North Korean sanctions for its nuclear testing
Mar 8 North Korea terminates all peace pacts with South Korea
Mar 9 19 people are killed in two suicide bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan
Mar 9 Asteroid 2013 ET comes within 960,000 km from the Earth’s surface

Election of Interest

Mar 10 Aung San Suu Kyi is re-elected leader of the Burmese National League for Democracy

Mar 11 European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals
Mar 11 Falkland Islands’ sovereignty referendum: 99.8% choose to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom
Mar 11 North Korea cuts the phone line with South Korea, breaching the 1953 armistice
Mar 12 JOGMEC becomes the first to successfully extract methane hydrate from seabed deposits
Mar 12 The 2013 Papal conclave begins with no new Pope elected on the first day
Mar 13 10 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Kunduz province, Afghanistan
Mar 13 Aleqa Hammond’s Siumut party wins the Greenland parliamentary elections
Mar 13 An Embraer 821 aeroplane crashes and kills 9 people in Para, Brazil

Papal Inauguration

Mar 13 Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis

Mar 13 North Korea shreds the Korean Armistice agreement
Mar 13 The European Parliament rejects a European Union budget for the first time
Mar 14 25 people are killed and 50 are wounded by a series of car bombings in Baghdad, Iraq
Mar 14 7 people are killed after gunmen storm a bar in Cancun, Mexico

Event of Interest

Mar 14 Xi Jinping named the new President of the People's Republic of China

Mar 15 16 people are killed by a fireworks accident in Tlaxcala, Mexico
Mar 15 24 people die after a double decker bus veers of a pass in Cape Town, South Africa

Premier Li Keqiang

Mar 15 Li Keqiang assumes office as the 7th Premier of the People's Republic of China

Mar 16 24 Pakistani Army soldiers are killed in Rawalpindi after their bus falls down a ravine
Mar 16 A €10 billion Cyprus bailout plan will wipe out 10% of the citizens' bank deposits
Mar 17 10 people are killed by a car bombing in Basra, Iraq
Mar 17 Pope Francis delivers his first Angelus prayer and blessing
Mar 17 Toyo Ito wins the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize
Mar 18 98 people are killed and 248 are injured across Iraq from a series of bombings and shootings
Mar 18 A car bombing kills 10 people and injures 20 in Mogadishu, Somalia
Mar 18 Explosions kill 25 people at a bus park in Kano, Nigeria
Mar 19 16 people are killed by mudslides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mar 19 27 people are killed and 14 are injured in a bus crash in Maharashtra, India
Mar 19 NASA's Mars rover Curiosity discovers further evidence of water-bearing minerals
Mar 20 First Breakthrough Prizes, world's most generous science prize worth $3 million, awarded in Mathematics, Life Sciences and Physics established by Julia and Yuri Milner
Mar 20 Pierre Deligne wins the 2013 Abel Prize in mathematics
Mar 21 12 people are killed and 30 are injured by a car bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan
Mar 21 24 people are killed and 100 are injured by a tornado and hail storm in southern China
Mar 21 42 people are killed and 84 are injured by a bombing in a mosque in Damascus, Syria
Mar 21 A barter dispute loses control and results in 10 people being killed, 20 injured, and 4 mosques being burnt to the ground in Myanmar
Mar 21 At least 45 people drown and 60 are missing after a Nigerian boat sinks off the shore of Gabon
Mar 21 The European Space Agency reveals new data that indicates that the universe is 13.82 billion years old
Mar 22 37 people are killed and 200 are injured in a refugee camp fire in Ban Mae, Thailand
Mar 23 20 people are killed and 200 are injured by a tornado in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh
Mar 23 The US Senate approves its first budget in four years by a margin of 50–49
Mar 24 17 soldiers are killed by a suicide bomber at a military checkpoint in North Waziristan, Pakistan
Mar 24 25 people are killed by gunmen in a coordinated attack in Adamawa State, Nigeria
Mar 24 A series of emergency meetings in Brussels undertaken to resolve Cyprus’ financial situation
Mar 27 12 people are killed in the Philippines after a mini-tornado causes a boat to capsize
Mar 28 143 rebels and 20 government troop are killed in conflict in Pibor County, Sudan
Mar 28 15 students are killed and 7 are injured after a mortar strikes Damascus University
Mar 28 Banks in Cyprus re-open after having been closed for two weeks; the government agrees a 10 billion euro bailout deal with the EU and IMF
Mar 28 Pope Francis becomes the first Pope to wash the feet of women in the Maundy Thursday service
Mar 29 10 people are killed and 31 are injured by a blast outside the US consulate in Pakistan
Mar 29 23 people are killed by coordinated bombings on Shiite mosques in Iraq
Mar 29 36 people are killed after a 16-floor building collapses in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mar 29 American horse, Animal Kingdom, wins the 2013 Dubai World Cup
Mar 29 Soyuz TMA-08M sets a new record of 6 hours in orbit before docking with the International Space Station
Mar 29 UN regulation of international arms trade is blocked by North Korea, Iran, and Syria

Election of Interest

Mar 30 Kenya's Supreme Court declares Uhuru Kenyatta the rightful winner of the Kenyan presidential election

Mar 30 North Korea declares it is at a state of war with South Korea
Mar 31 11 people are killed in flooding at Port Louis, Mauritius
Mar 31 14 Boko Haram suspects are killed in a Nigerian Army raid
Mar 31 2 people die from bird flu (type H7N9) in China

Weddings in History

Mar 30 ER actor Mekhi Phifer (38) weds long time girlfriend Reshelet Barnes at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, California

Deaths in History

Hugo Chávez (1954-2013)

Mar 5 President of Venezuela (1998-2013), dies from respiratory failure at 58

Mar 7 Elmar Tampõld, Estonian-Canadian architect, dies at 92
Mar 14 Mirja Hietamies, Finnish skier, dies at 82
Mar 15 Booth Gardner, American politician, dies from Parkinson's disease at 76
Mar 17 Jan van Houwelingen, Dutch politician (Undersecretary of Defense (CDA), dies at 73
Mar 18 Muhammad Mahmood Alam, Pakistani general and fighter ace, dies at 77
Mar 20 James Herbert, British horror writer, dies at 69

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

Mar 21 Nigerian poet and novelist (Things Fall Apart, Christmas in Biafra), dies at 82

Mar 22 Aya Zikken, Dutch author (Atlasvlinder, Rameh), dies at 93
Mar 23 David Bond, British sailor, dies at 90
Mar 24 Barbara Anderson, New Zealand author, dies at 86
Mar 25 Anthony Lewis, American journalist (Pulitzer Prize 195,1963) & author, dies from kidney and heart failure at 85
Mar 26 Yury Rudov, Soviet fencer, dies at 82