^{St. Louis Giants, Negro League Baseball team. Photograph by Starr Photo Company, 1916. Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints. N22949.}

Today in History

• Henry VIII executes his fifth wife, Catherine Howard (1575)
• William and Mary take the English throne (1689)
• The Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence (1913)
• The Negro National Baseball League is formed (1920)
• Bruno Hauptmann is found guilty of kidnapping and killing the Lindbergh baby (1935)
• Civil Rights Movement: The first Nashville sit-in takes place (1960)
• The largest diamond in the universe (a white dwarf star) is discovered. Astronomers name it “Lucy” (2004)

Birthdays

• Robert Malthus, economist (1766)
• Bess Truman, First Lady (1885)
• Grant Wood, painter (1891)
• Georges Simenon, writer (1903)
• Khalid of Saudi Arabia, monarch (1913)
• Tennessee Ernie Ford, singer (1919)
• Chuck Yeager, first to break the sound barrier (1923)
• Kim Novak, actress (1933)
• George Segal, actor (1934)
• Carol Lynley, actress (1942)
• Peter Tork, member of The Monkees (1942)
• Stockard Channing, actress (1944)
• Jerry Springer, politician and talk show host (1944)
• Peter Gabriel, musician (1950)

Deaths

• Benvenuto Cellini, painter and writer (1571)
• Cotton Mather, Puritan minister (1728)
• Richard Wagner, composer (1883)
• Albert Gottschalk, painter (1906)
• Rafael Sabatini, author (1950)
• Lloyd C. Douglas, minister and author (1951)
• Lily Pons, soprano (1976)
• David Janssen, actor (1980)
• Martin Balsam, actor (1996)
• Waylon Jennings, musician (2002)
• Ralph Waite, actor (2014)
• Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice (2016)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Children’s Day (Myanmar)
• National Italian Food Day
• World Radio Day

February 13 is the 44th day of the year. There are 321 days (322 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.