Shin Sang-ok, director and producer

Pulgasari is an epic monster film directed and produced by Shin Sang-ok (pictured) during his abduction in North Korea. Filmed in 1985 as a co-production between North Korea, Japan, and China, it is supposedly a remake of a lost 1962 South Korean film. The story is set during the Goryeo dynasty and centers on Ami (played by Chang Sŏnhŭi), a peasant who animates the fabled creature Pulgasari (played by Kenpachiro Satsuma) that her late father contrived to overthrow the monarchy. Intended to capitalize on the success of The Return of Godzilla (1984), Pulgasari was Shin's seventh and final film for Kim Jong Il, whose agents kidnapped Shin and Choi Eun-hee in 1978. An international ban on its distribution was imposed when Shin and Choi escaped their North Korean overseers to the United States in 1986. The film was ultimately released on VHS in Japan in 1995 and Japanese theaters in 1998, to critical and commercial success. Pulgasari is now considered a cult classic. (Full article...)

Tenrei Ōta

• ... that birth-control advocate Tenrei Ōta (pictured) changed his name and went into hiding after he was repeatedly arrested for his work?
• ... that a variety of the Mancos columbine was thought to be extinct but was found in its native cave in 2008?
• ... that Radim Novák conceded a goal directly from a corner kick in the first match of the season, but his team went on to win the league?
• ... that a rickshaw puller inspired Helal Hafiz to write "Nishiddho Sompadokiyo" during the 1969 East Pakistan mass uprising?
• ... that the Iron Alps Complex Fire took nearly $74 million to suppress?
• ... that the undisturbed Bronze Age necropolis of Byblos was discovered in 2019 during excavations of a previously unexplored area of the ancient city?
• ... that the language of Natalia Maree Belting was said to be "spare, rhythmic, and resonant"?
• ... that almost half of the invasive species in the United Arab Emirates are birds?
• ... that Ashley Tisdale did not record new screams for Phineas and Ferb season 5 because she was pregnant and did not want to scare her baby?

Rodrigo Duterte

• In Pakistan, the Balochistan Liberation Army hijacks a train traveling from Quetta to Peshawar, with 38 people killed and at least 440 taken hostage before their later rescue.
• Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte (pictured) is arrested on the basis of an International Criminal Court warrant charging him with crimes against humanity.
• Intuitive Machines' Athena lands on the Moon at an incorrect angle and is unable to complete its mission.
• In computing, Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton are awarded the Turing Award for their work on reinforcement learning.

March 13: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2025)

British attack on Cartagena de Indias

• 1741 – War of Jenkins' Ear: The British began an assault against Spanish forts in the Caribbean in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (pictured).
• 1848 – Klemens von Metternich was forced to resign as the foreign minister of Austria following student demonstrations in Vienna.
• 1964 – Kitty 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.
• 1996 – A 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.

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