Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis, making him the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.
13 March 2027
A Saturday in history
Weekday
Saturday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
21st century
Records
297
2013
2004The Filipino singer Rachelle Ann Go won the reality talent show Search for a Star, performing a cover of Mariah Carey's "Through the Rain" in the grand final.
2002The Sutton Hoo visitor centre, featuring Rick Kirby's sculpture Sutton Hoo Helmet (pictured in present location) was unveiled by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.
1996A mass shooting at a primary school occurred in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and a teacher and prompting tighter gun control in the United Kingdom.
- 1988
The 53.85 km (33.46 mi) Seikan Tunnel opened between the cities of Hakodate and Aomori, Japan.
- 1986
Claiming the right of innocent passage, the American warships Yorktown and Caron entered Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea.
1985One of England's worst incidents of football hooliganism occurred when supporters of Luton Town and Millwall rioted before a match at Kenilworth Road stadium.
1964Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, prompting research into the bystander effect due to the false story that neighbors witnessed the killing and did nothing to help her.
1943The Holocaust: Nazi troops began the final liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto in German-occupied Poland, sending about 2,000 Jews to the Płaszów labor camp (deportation pictured), with the remaining 5,000 either killed or sent to Auschwitz.
1920The Kapp Putsch (participants pictured), an attempted coup aiming to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919, briefly ousted the government of the Weimar Republic.
- 1888
The eruption of Ritter Island triggered tsunamis that killed up to 3,000 people on nearby islands.
1848Klemens von Metternich was forced to resign as the foreign minister of Austria following student demonstrations in Vienna.
1845German composer Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto was premiered in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as the soloist.
1811Napoleonic Wars: A British frigate squadron defeated a much larger squadron of French and Italian frigates and smaller vessels in the Battle of Lissa (depicted) in the Adriatic Sea.
1781William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus from the garden of his house in Bath, England, initially considering it to be a comet.
1741War of Jenkins' Ear: The British began an assault against Spanish forts in the Caribbean in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias.
1697Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya kingdom, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.
1567A Spanish mercenary army surprised a band of rebels at the Battle of Oosterweel in the Habsburg Netherlands, beginning the Eighty Years' War.
Photo archive
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What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
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