February 13
is the 44th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 321 days remaining, 322 in
leap years.
*
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 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 - The first daylight robbery in
United States history during peacetime takes place in
Liberty, Missouri. This is considered to be the first robbery committed by
Jesse James and his gang, although James's role is disputed.
*
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.
*
1899 -
Tallahassee, Florida records its all time coldest temperature of -2 degrees Fahrenheit.
*
1901 - May be the day after a truncated
January 19,
2038 on
Unix and
Unix-like computer systems still suffering from the
year 2038 problem*
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 -
Olympic Games:
Winter Olympic Games - The
XV Olympic Winter 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 a bunker in
Baghdad. The bunker was being used as a military communications outpost and unknown to allied forces, as a shelter for
Iraqi civilians.
*
1996 - The
Nepalese People's War began.
*
1997 -
Space Shuttle program:
STS-82 Mission - Tune-up and repair work on the
Hubble Space Telescope started by
astronauts from the
Space Shuttle Discovery.
* 1997 - The
Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the
first time closing at 7,022.44.
*
2000 - The last original "
Peanuts"
comic strip appears in
newspapers one day after
Charles M. Schulz dies.
*
2001 - An
earthquake measuring 6.6 on the
Richter Scale hits
El Salvador, killing at least 400.
*
2004 - The
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known
diamond,
white dwarf star BPM 37093.
*
1457 -
Mary of Burgundy, daughter of
Charles the Bold and wife of
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d.
1482)
*
1480 -
Girolamo Aleandro, Italian Catholic cardinal (d.
1542)
*
1599 -
Pope Alexander VII (d.
1667)
*
1672 -
Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (d.
1731)
*
1743 -
Joseph Banks, English botanist and naturalist (d.
1820)
*
1768 -
Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French marshal (d.
1835)
*
1769 -
Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist (d.
1844)
*
1805 -
Peter Gustav Dirichlet, German mathematician (d.
1859)
*
1873 -
Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (d.
1938)
*
1876 -
Fritz Buelow, Baseball player (d.
1933)
*
1881 -
Eleanor Farjeon, English author (d.
1965)
*
1884 -
Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athelete, inventor, and businessman (d.
1961)
*
1885 -
Bess Truman,
First Lady of the United States, wife of President
Harry S. Truman (d.
1982)
*
1892 -
Grant Wood, American painter (d.
1942)
*
1903 -
Georges Simenon, Belgian writer (d.
1989)
*
1906 -
Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher (d.
1994)
*
1910 -
William Shockley, American physicist and eugenicist,
Nobel Prize Laureate (d.
1989)
*
1911 -
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, noted
Urdu poet and first Asian
Lenin Peace Prize winner, born in
Sialkot Pakistan. (d.
1984)
*
1913 -
George Barker, British poet (d.
1991)
*
1915 -
Aung San, Burmese general and politician (d.
1945)
*
1918 -
Patty Berg, American golfer
*
1919 -
Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d.
1991)
* 1919 -
Eddie Robinson, American football coach
*
1920 -
Eileen Farrell, American opera soprano (d.
2002)
*
1922 -
Francis Pym, British
Foreign Secretary 1982-83
*
1923 -
Michael Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (d.
2002)
* 1923 -
Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist (d.
2003)
* 1923 -
Chuck Yeager, American pilot and NASA official
*
1929 -
Omar Torrijos, Panamanian ruler (d.
1981)
*
1930 -
Ernst Fuchs, Austrian artist
*
1933 -
Paul Biya,
President of Cameroon* 1933 -
Kim Novak, American actress
*
1934 -
George Segal, American actor
*
1937 -
Susan Oliver, American actress (d.
1990)
*
1938 -
Oliver Reed, English actor (d.
1999)
*
1939 -
Beate Klarsfeld, German Holocaust investigator/Nazi hunter
*
1941 -
Sigmar Polke, German painter
*
1942 -
Carol Lynley, American actress
* 1942 -
Peter Tork, American musician and actor (
The Monkees)
*
1943 -
Geoff Edwards, American game show host
*
1944 -
Stockard Channing, American actress
* 1944 -
Jerry Springer, American television host
* 1944 -
Bo Svenson, Swedish-born actor
*
1946 -
Colin Matthews, British composer
*
1947 -
Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball player and coach
*
1950 -
Peter Gabriel, English musician (
Genesis)
*
1951 -
Greg Fulginiti, American
mastering engineer
* 1951 -
David Naughton, American actor and singer
* 1952 -
Freddy Maertens, Belgian cyclist
*
1954 -
Donnie Moore, baseball player (d.
1989)
*
1955 -
Joe Birkett,
DuPage County State's Attorney*
1956 -
Peter Hook, English bassist (
Joy Division and
New Order)
*
1958 -
Pernilla August, Swedish actress
*
1960 -
Pierluigi Collina, Italian football referee
* 1960 -
Matt Salinger, American actor
* 1960 -
Artur Yusupov, Russian/German chess player
*
1961 -
cEvin Key, musician
* 1961 -
Henry Rollins, American musician
* 1961 -
Marc Crawford, Canadian hockey player and coach
*
1962 -
Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, American politician
*
1964 -
Mark Patton, American actor
*
1966 -
Jeff Waters, Canadian musician (
Annihilator)
*
1968 -
Kelly Hu, American actress
*
1970 -
Karoline Krüger, Norwegian singer
*
1971 -
Sonia, British singer
* 1971 -
Mats Sundin, Swedish hockey player
* 1971 -
Tommy Dreamer, Professional wrestler
*
1972 -
Charlie Garner, American football player
*
1974 -
Gus Hansen, Danish professional poker player
* 1974 -
Robbie Williams, English singer
*
1975 -
Iván González, Puerto Rican disc jockey and musician
*
1976 -
Martin Sastre, Uruguayan artist
*
1977 -
Randy Moss, American football player
*
1978 -
Mini Anden, Swedish model and actress
*
1980 -
Sebastian Kehl, German footballer
*
1981 -
Luisão, Brazilian footballer
*
1987 -
Ryan Buchter, Baseball player
*
1130 -
Pope Honorius II*
1141 -
Béla II of Hungary (b.
1110)
*
1219 -
Minamoto no Sanetomo, Japanese shogun (b.
1192)
*
1322 -
Andronicus II Palaeologus,
Byzantine Emperor (b.
1260)
*
1539 -
Isabella d'Este, Marquise of Mantua (b.
1474)
*
1542 -
Catherine Howard, fifth wife of
Henry VIII of England (executed) (b.
1525)
*
1571 -
Benvenuto Cellini, Italian artist (b.
1500)
*
1585 -
Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish Jesuit biblical scholar (b.
1515)
*
1592 -
Jacopo Bassano, Italian painter
*
1600 -
Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (b.
1538)
*
1602 -
Alexander Nowell, English clergyman
*
1608 -
Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian prince (b.
1526)
*
1624 -
Stephen Gosson, English satirist (b.
1554)
*
1657 -
Miles Sindercombe, attempted assassin of
Oliver Cromwell*
1660 - King
Charles X of Sweden (b.
1622)
*
1662 -
Elizabeth of Bohemia (b.
1596)
*
1727 -
William Wotton, English scholar (b.
1666)
*
1728 -
Cotton Mather, American Puritan minister (b.
1663)
*
1732 -
Charles-René d'Hozier, French historian (b.
1640)
*
1787 -
Ruđer Bošković, Croatian scientist and diplomat (b.
1711)
* 1787 -
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (b.
1717)
*
1813 -
Samuel Ashe, Governor of North Carolina (b.
1725)
*
1818 -
George Rogers Clark, American military leader (b.
1752)
*
1826 -
Petr Alekseevich Pahlen, Russian general (b.
1845)
*
1845 -
Henrik Steffens, Norwegian-German philosopher (b.
1773)
*
1883 -
Richard Wagner, German composer (b.
1813)
*
1888 -
Jean Baptiste Lamy, 1st
Archbishop of Santa Fe*
1905 -
Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter (b.
1844)
*
1950 -
Rafael Sabatini, Italian author (b.
1875)
*
1951 -
Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (b.
1877)
*
1952 -
Josephine Tey, English author (b.
1896)
*
1964 -
Gerald Gardner, British writer (b.
1884)
*
1968 -
Mae Marsh, American actress (b.
1895)
*
1975 -
André Beaufre, (b.
1902)
*
1976 -
Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian military leader (b.
1938)
* 1976 -
Lily Pons, French-born soprano (b.
1904)
*
1989 -
Wayne Hays, American politician (b.
1911)
*
1980 -
David Janssen, American actor (b.
1931)
*
1996 -
Martin Balsam, American actor (b.
1919)
*
2000 -
James Cooke Brown, American author and inventor (b.
1921)
*
2002 -
Waylon Jennings, American musician (b.
1937)
*
2003 -
Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer (b.
1926)
* 2003 -
Axel Jensen, Norwegian author (b.
1932)
* 2003 -
Walt Rostow, U.S. government official (b.
1916)
*
2004 -
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen leader (b.
1952)
*
2005 -
Nelson Briles, baseball player (b.
1943)
* 2005 -
Lúcia Santos, Carmelite nun (b.
1907)
* 2005 -
Maurice Trintignant, French race car driver (b.
1917)
*
2006 -
Andreas Katsulas, American actor (b.
1946)
* 2006 -
Wang Xuan, Chinese scientist, the "Father of Chinese Language Laser Typesetting"
*
Saint Amelric*
Saint Beatrice*
Saint Ermenildis*
Saints Harlindis and Relindis*
On this day in Canada*
NY Times: On this day*
BBC: On This DayFebruary 12 -
February 14 -
January 13 -
March 13 --
listing of all days
