By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Saturday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2021. There are 293 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On March 13, 1933, banks in the U.S. began to reopen after a ìholidayî declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On this date:

In 1639, New College was renamed Harvard College for clergyman John Harvard.

In 1781, the seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, was discovered by Sir William Herschel.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure prohibiting Union military officers from returning fugitive slaves to their owners.

In 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a bill prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin Peay (pee) signed the measure on March 21.)

In 1934, a gang that included John Dillinger and ìBaby Faceî Nelson robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, making off with $52,344. In 1938, famed attorney Clarence S. Darrow died in Chicago.

In 1947, the Lerner and Loewe musical ìBrigadoon,î about a Scottish village that magically reappears once every hundred years, opened on Broadway.

In 1954, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu began during the First Indochina War as Viet Minh forces attacked French troops, who were defeated nearly two months later.