Your American History Reference Guide! - February 13
February 13
February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar . There are 321 days remaining, 322 in leap years .
Events
1130 - Innocent II is voted Pope .
1542 - Catherine Howard , the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England , is executed for adultery .
1575 - Henry III of France is crowned at Reims
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition .
1635 - The first public school in the U.S. , Boston Latin Public School , is founded.
1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.
1689 - William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England .
1692 - Massacre of Glencoe : About 78 Macdonalds at Glen Coe , Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange .
1815 - The Cambridge Union Society founded.
1866 - Jesse James robs his first bank.
1880 - Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect .
1881 - The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by activist Hubertine Auclert .
1894 - Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe , a combination movie camera and projector .
1914 - Copyright : In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
1920 - The Negro National League is formed.
1934 - The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean .
1935 - A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby , the son of Charles Lindbergh .
1945 - World War II : Soviet Union forces capture Budapest , Hungary from the Nazis .
1945 - World War II: The Royal Air Force bombers were dispatched to Dresden , Germany (see Bombing of Dresden in World War II ).
1955 - Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls .
1960 - Nuclear testing : France tests its first atomic bomb .
1971 - Vietnam War : Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos .
1974 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1970 , is exiled from the Soviet Union .
1978 - Hilton bombing : a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney , Australia , killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
1979 - The intense February 13, 1979 Windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge
1984 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union .
1988 - 1988 Winter Olympic Games open in Calgary, Alberta , Canada .
1990 - German reunification : An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany .
1991 - Gulf War : Two laser-guided "smart bombs " destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad killing hundreds of Iraqis civilians.
1996 - The Nepalese People's War began.
1997 - Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery .
2000 - The last original Peanuts comic strip appears in newspapers a day after Charles M. Schulz died.
2001 - An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador , killing at least 400.
2002 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood .
2004 - Travis Metcalfe from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond , white dwarf star BPM 37093 .
Births
1599 - Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667 )
1682 - Giovanni Battista Piazzetta , painter (d. 1754 )
1743 - Joseph Banks , botanist and naturalist (d. 1820 )
1873 - Feodor Chaliapin , operatic bass (d. 1938 )
1884 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert , gold medal winner at 1908 Summer Olympics , inventor of Erector Set (d. 1961 )
1885 - Bess Truman , First Lady , wife of President Harry S. Truman (d. 1982 )
1892 - Grant Wood , painter (d. 1942 )
1903 - Georges Simenon , thriller writer (d. 1989 )
1908 - William Dozier , American film and television producer (d. 1991 )
1910 - William Shockley , physicist (d. 1989 )
1913 - George Barker , British poet (d. 1991 )
1918 - Patty Berg , American golfer
1919 - Tennessee Ernie Ford , musician (d. 1991 )
1919 - Eddie Robinson , American college football coach
1920 - Eileen Farrell , American opera soprano (d. 2002 )
1923 - Michael Bilandic , mayor of Chicago (d. 2002 )
1923 - Chuck Yeager , pilot of first supersonic flight
1929 - Omar Torrijos , Panamanian ruler (d. 1981 )
1930 - Ernst Fuchs , painter and graphic artist
1933 - Kim Novak , actress
1933 - Paul Biya , President of Cameroon
1934 - George Segal , actor
1938 - Oliver Reed , actor (d. 1999 )
1939 - Beate Klarsfeld , German Holocaust investigator
1941 - Sigmar Polke , painter
1942 - Peter Tork , musician and actor (The Monkees )
1942 - Carol Lynley , American actress
1943 - Geoff Edwards , American game show host
1944 - Jerry Springer , television host
1944 - Stockard Channing , American actress
1944 - Bo Svenson , Swedish-American actor
1947 - Mike Krzyzewski , Duke University basketball coach, Basketball Hall of Famer
1950 - Peter Gabriel , musician
1954 - Donnie Moore , American baseball player (d. 1989 )
1956 - Peter Hook , bass player for Joy Division and New Order , bass player and lead vocals for Revenge and Monaco
1958 - Pernilla August , actress
1960 - Pierluigi Collina , football referee
1961 - Henry Rollins , musician
1961 - cEvin Key , musician
1968 - Kelly Hu , American actress
1971 - Sonia , British singer
1974 - Robbie Williams , Pop singer
1977 - Randy Moss , NFL star
1979 - Mena Suvari , American actress
Deaths
1130 - Pope Honorius II
1542 - Catherine Howard , fifth wife of Henry VIII of England (executed) (b. 1525 )
1657 - Miles Sindercombe , attempted assassin of Oliver Cromwell
1660 - King Charles X of Sweden (b. 1622 )
1728 - Cotton Mather , Puritan minister, author (b. 1663 )
1787 - Ruđer Bošković , scientist and diplomat (b. 1711 )
1883 - Richard Wagner , German composer (b. 1813 )
1950 - Rafael Sabatini , author (b. 1875 )
1951 - Lloyd C. Douglas , author (b. 1877 )
1952 - Josephine Tey , mystery novel author (b. 1896 )
1964 - Gerald Gardner , pagan writer (b. 1884 )
1976 - Lily Pons , opera singer (b. 1904 )
1976 - Murtala Mohammed , Nigerian military leader (b. 1938 )
1989 - Wayne Hays , American politician (b. 1911 )
1980 - David Janssen , actor (b. 1930 )
1996 - Martin Balsam , American actor (b. 1919 )
2000 - Charles Schulz , cartoonist , creator of Peanuts (b. 1922 )
2002 - Waylon Jennings , country musician (b. 1937 )
2003 - Kid Gavilan , world boxing champion and hall of famer (b. 1926 )
2003 - Walt Rostow , US government official (b. 1916 )
2004 - Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev , Chechen leader (b. 1952 )
2005 - Lucia dos Santos , Carmelite nun (b. 1907 )
2005 - Maurice Trintignant , race car driver (b. 1917 )
2005 - Nelson Briles , Major League Baseball player (b. 1943 )
Holidays and observances
External links
February 12 - February 14 - January 13 - March 13 -- listing of all days