February 13
February 13
Events
Before 1900
- 1130 - Innocent II is voted Pope.
- 1542 - Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
- 1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
- 1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.
- 1689 - William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
- 1692 - Massacre of Glencoe occurs.
- 1866 - Jesse James robs his first bank.
- 1880 - Thomas Edison becomes the first person to observe the Edison Effect.
- 1894 - Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector.
After 1900
- 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.
- 1924 - King Tutankhamun's tomb is opened.
- 1933 - Giuseppe Zangara kills Chicago mayor Anton Cermak during an assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, Florida.
- 1935 - A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby boy.
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces capture Budapest, Hungary from the Nazis.
- 1945 - World War II: The Royal Air Force bombs 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.
- 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.
- 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
Before 1800
- 1599 - Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667)
- 1682 - Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, painter (d. 1754)
- 1743 - Joseph Banks, botanist and naturalist (d. 1820)
1800's
- 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)
1900's
- 1903 - Georges Simenon, thriller writer (d. 1989)
- 1910 - William Bradford Shockley, physicist, social commentator (d. 1989)
- 1913 - George Barker, British poet (d. 1991)
- 1919 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, musician (d. 1991)
- 1923 - Michael Bilandic, mayor of Chicago, IL (d. 2002
- 1923 - Chuck Yeager, pilot of first supersonic flight
- 1930 - Ernst Fuchs, painter and graphic artist
- 1933 - Kim Novak, actress
- 1934 - George Segal, actor
- 1938 - Oliver Reed, actor (d. 1999)
- 1941 - Sigmar Polke, painter
- 1942 - Peter Tork, musician and actor (The Monkees)
- 1944 - Jerry Springer, television host
- 1947 - Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University basketball coach, Basketball Hall of Famer
- 1950 - Peter Gabriel, musician
- 1958 - Pernilla August, actress
- 1960 - Pierluigi Collina, football referee
- 1961 - Henry Rollins, musician
- 1974 - Robbie Williams, Pop singer
- 1977 - Randy Moss, NFL star
- 1983 - Amy Mizzi, actress
Deaths
Before 1800
- 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)
After 1800
- 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)
- 1976 - Lily Pons, opera singer
- 1980 - David Janssen, actor (b. 1930)
- 2002 - Waylon Jennings, country musician (b. 1937)
- 2003 - Walt Rostow, US government official
Holidays and observances
February 12 - February 14 - January 13 - March 13 -- listing of all days