February 13th in History

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.