This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

April 13

Today the United States celebrates Thomas Jefferson's birthday, by Presidential Proclamation (2276).


Events

1111 – Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1204 – Constantinople (♪ ♫Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople♪ ♫) falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.

1613 – Samuel Argall captures Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father, Powhatan; she is brought to Henricus as hostage.

1742 – Handel's Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

1743 - Thomas Jefferson is born in Shadwell, Virginia Colony.

1902 – James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

1919 – Eugene V. Debs is imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I.

1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.

1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.

1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.

1958 – American pianist Van Cliburn wins the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.

1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.

1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

1976 – Forty workers at the Lapua ammunition factory die in an explosion, the deadliest accidental disaster in modern history in Finland.

1992 – Basements throughout the Chicago Loop are flooded, forcing the Chicago Board of Trade Building and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to close.

1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

Births

1570 – Guy Fawkes (Gunpowder Plot), 1743 – Thomas Jefferson (23rd POTUS), 1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth (yeah, that Woolworth), 1866 – Butch Cassidy, 1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts (created Scrabble), 1906 – Samuel Beckett, 1909 – Eudora Welty, 1917 – Robert Orville Anderson (founded Atlantic Richfield Oil Co.), 1919 – Howard Keel♪ ♫, 1923 – Don Adams (Get Smart), 1931 – Dan Gurney, 1933 – Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 1937 – Edward Fox ('Jackal' in The Day of the Jackal (1973)), 1939 – Paul Sorvino (Good Fellas, Nixon), 1943 – Billy Kidd, 1945 – Tony Dow ('Wally' on Leave It To Beaver), 1945 – Lowell George♪ ♫(Little Feat), 1946 – Al Green♪ ♫, 1949 – Christopher Hitchens, 1950 – Ron Perlman, 1951 – Peabo Bryson♪ ♫, 1951 – Max Weinberg(E Street Band, Conan O'Brien), 1961 – Hiro Yamamoto(Soundgarden), 1962 – Hillel Slovak(Red Hot Chili Peppers), 1963 – Garry Kasparov, 1964 – Davis Love III, 1964 – Caroline Rhea, 1966 – Marc Ford♪ ♫(Black Crowes), 1970 – Ricky Schroder (The Champ, Silver Spoons, NYPD Blue), 1972 – Aaron Lewis♪ ♫(Staind), 1975 – Lou Bega♪ ♫, 1976 – Jonathan Brandis

Deaths

1641 – Richard Montagu, 1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, 1997 – Bryant Bowles (founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People, I shit you not), 2005 – Johnnie Johnson, 2013 – Vincent Montana, Jr.(MFSB)