On This Day: March 13

This is the 72nd day of the year.

Fact of the Day: earmuffs

Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine, invented earmuffs when he was just 15 years old. As he was ice skating, he wrapped his head in a scarf to protect his ears from the cold, but found this method too bulky and itchy. To solve the problem, Greenwood constructed two ear-shaped loops from wire and asked his grandmother to sew fur on them. He later patented an improved version, Greenwood's Champion Ear Protectors in 1887, that featured a steel band that held the earmuffs in place. Greenwood established Greenwood's Ear Protector Factory and supplied earmuffs for US soldiers during World War I. Greenwood accumulated over 100 patents in his lifetime, including one for the steel-tooth rake.

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.