This Day in History: Explosion in Ankara

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 13:

1900 – Surrender of Bloemfontein.

1992 – Pravda, the official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party, ceased publication due to lack of funds.

1994 – Bare cemetery in Sarajevo, one of the largest cemeteries in Europe, re-opens after nearly two years when French U.N. troops secure front line area for six hours.

1995 – The U.N. social summit ended with 182 countries pledging to wipe out global poverty.

1996 – A gunman shot dead 16 children and a woman teacher at a school in Dunblane, Scotland. He then killed himself.

1996 – Krzysztof Kieslowski, Polish film director, died. Best known for his “Decalogue” films on the Ten Commandments and his “Three Colours” series.

1997 – Sister Nirmala succeeds Mother Teresa.

2004 – Cardinal Franz Koenig, Austria’s most prominent Catholic cleric of the 20th century who worked for years to build bridges between the Vatican and communist states, died. He was 98.

2007 – Japan and Australia signed a groundbreaking defence agreement, Japan’s first such pact with a country other than the United States.

2012 – South Korean maestro conducts North Korean orchestra in Paris.

2013 – Pope Francis elected.

2016 – A car bomb tore through a crowded transport hub in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Sunday, killing at least 34 people and wounding 125 in the second such attack in the administrative heart of the city in under a month.

(Reuters)