Under Sunday, March 13, the book of history records, among other things:
1707: King Louis XIV of France concludes the evacuation treaty of Milan with Emperor Joseph I.
1772: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s tragedy “Emilia Galotti” premieres in Braunschweig.
1872: A Berber uprising in Kabylia against French colonial rule in Algeria is bloodily crushed after almost two years.
1912: As a result of Russia’s intervention, the initially secret “Balkan Alliance” is formed between Serbia and Bulgaria. In May, this will be expanded to include a military alliance between the south-eastern European states of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece. The common goal is the ousting of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary from the Balkans and the division of its remaining European provinces. The First Balkan War begins on October 18.
1932: In the election of the German Reich President, the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg, who was supported by the democratic parties, just missed the required absolute majority with 49.6 percent of the votes. The NSDAP leader Adolf Hitler accounts for 30.1 percent, the KPD leader Ernst Thälmann 13.2 percent. In the second ballot on April 10, Hindenburg is re-elected.
1942: The Nazi German decree on the forced labor of Jews is extended to the “Gypsies”.
1967: Charges of negligent homicide and bodily harm are brought against employees of the company Chemie Grünenthal GmbH. Their sleeping pill and sedative “Contergan”, which has been freely available since 1957, has led to deformities in children whose mothers have taken it during pregnancy. Between 1958 and 1962 around 4,000 children were born with deformities in Germany alone, of which only 2,800 survived. The trial was dropped on December 18, 1970 after the company agreed to pay millions in damages to the victims.
1992: The central figure in the air conditioning scandal, 62-year-old Erwin Tautner, dies in a traffic accident on the Costa Brava in Spain.
1992: A severe earthquake shakes eastern Turkey and causes great destruction, especially in the provincial capital Erzincan. Hundreds of people die.
1997: Sister Nirmala is elected Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, succeeding Mother Teresa.
2007: A visit by Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik (ÖVP) to Pakistan was overshadowed by protests against President Pervez Musharraf’s dismissal of Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. At the same time, talks are being held in Islamabad with India – which Plassnik will then visit – about the Kashmir conflict.
2007: Pope Benedict XVI publishes the Apostolic Exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” (Sacrament of Love), in which, among other things, he clearly rejects a common Communion for Catholics and Protestants, Latin is to be promoted again in the Mass, the acceptance of Communion for remarried people is rejected and compulsory celibacy for priests is reconfirmed.
2012: In a bus accident in the Sierre tunnel in the canton of Valais, 22 Belgian and Dutch children, their teachers and the two bus drivers are killed, and 24 other people are injured. The victims were on their way back from a skiing holiday, and the cause of the accident has not yet been fully clarified.
birthdays: Oskar Blumenthal, German writer (1852-1917); Juan Gris (actually José González-Pérez), Spanish painter and graphic artist (1887-1927); Wilhelm Borchert, German actor (1907-1990); Carl Raddatz, German actor (1912-2004); Karl Dietrich Bracher, German historian (1922-2016); Vladimir S. Makanin, Russian writer (1937-2017); Joesi Prokopetz, Austria musician and cabaret artist (1952); Toni Mörwald, Austria Cook (1967).
days of death: Johan Nygaardsvold, Norway. Politician (1879-1952); Karl Maisel, east. Politician (1890-1982); Gerald Moore, brit. Pianist (1899-1987); Hans-Georg Gadamer, dt. Philosoph (1900-2002); Jan Patočka, Czech. Philosoph (1907-1977); Bernhard Grzimek, dt. Zoologist (1909-1987); Harald Leupold-Löwenthal, east. Psychoanalyst (1926-2007); Herbert Fux, east. Actor (1927-2007).
name days: Judith, Maximilian, Paulina, Sancha, Roderich, Rosina, Ernst, Leander, Hortense, Gerald, Christina.