March 13 has been an eventful date in Mediterranean and world history. In world history, on this day, German troops murdered thousands of men and women in the Jewish neighbourhood of Krakow in 1943. In North America, UFOS appeared over Phoenix, Arizona in 1997. As for the Mediterranean, Spain is the country that has most been marked by this date which comes 2 days after the bombings of Madrid on March 11, 2004. Here is a list of some important events in Mediterranean history that took place on this day.
1604: Fire destroys Madrid’s Palacio Real de El Pardo, which led to the loss of dozens of works of art. The Palace would be renovated in the 18th century by King Carlos III.
1900: In France, a new law limited the work hours to 11 for men and women.
1900: Spanish courts approve a law on child labour.
1902: Madrid registers its first car. The marqués of Bolaños, one of Spain’s noblemen owned Spain’s first registered car.
1908: More than 80000 people die in Sicily in the aftermath of Europe’s most violent earthquake.
2003: Nature, a scientific journal, reports the discovery of 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human in Italy
2013: the Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected as Pope Francis. Today, he completes his 10th year as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Unlike many of his predecessors, Pope Francis has been outspoken on issues like LGBTQ rights, the environment, international peace, and the envoronment.
