On This Day In History......

0837 Best view of Halley's Comet in 2000 years
0989 Battle at Abydos Byzantine emperor Basilius II beats Bardas Phocas
1055 Bishop Gebhard van Eichstätt named Pope Victor II
1111 Pope Paschalis II crowns Roman catholics-German king Hendrik II
1180 Republic day of Gelnhausen
1204 Crusaders occupy Constantinople
1241 Battle at Theiss Mongols beat Hungarian King Béla IV
1346 Pope Clemens VI declares German emperor Louis of Bavaria, envoy
1367 Battle at Nájera Spain Castilië & England beat Aragón & France
1517 Osmaanse army occupies Cairo
1556 Portuguese Marranos who revert back to Judaism burned by order of Pope
1598 Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots
1640 English Short Parliament forms (- May 5)
1668 John Dryden (36) becomes 1st English poet laureate
1741 Dutch people protest bad quality of bread
1741 Royal Military Academy forms at Woolwich
1742 George Frideric Händel's "Messiah" performed for 1st time (Dublin)
1759 French beat European Allies in Battle of Bergen
1796 1st elephant arrives in US from Bengal India
1796 Battle at Millesimo Italy Napoleon beats Austrians
1808 William Henry Lane ("Juda") perfects the tap dance
1829 English Emancipation Act grants freedom of religion to Catholics
1834 HMS Beagle anchors at river mouth of Rio Santa Cruz, Patagonia
1842 Lord Rosse successfully casts 72" (183-cm) mirror for a telescope
1849 Hungarian Republic proclaimed
1860 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento CA
1861 After 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates
1863 Battle of Irish Bend LA (Fort Bisland)
1863 Hospital for Ruptured & Crippled in New York is 1st orthopedic hospital
1865 Battle of Raleigh NC
1869 Steam power brake patented (George Westinghouse)
1870 Metropolitan Museum of Art forms in NYC
1873 Colfax Massacre in Grant Parish LA (60 blacks killed)
1882 Anti-Semitic League forms in Prussia
1883 Alfred Packer convicted of cannibalism
1895 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" (BG)
1902 JC Penney opens his 1st store in Kemmerer WY
1904 Congress authorizes Lewis & Clark Expo $1 gold coin
1904 Battle at Oviumbo Africa Herero's chase away German army
1906 Mutiny on Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos & Vasco da Gama
1908 Groundbreaking on Philadelphia's Shibe Park (home of A's & Phillies)
1911 Polo Grounds grandstand & left field bleachers go up in flames
1912 Royal Flying Corps forms (later RAF)
1914 1st Federal League Game Baltimore Terrapins beat Buffalo 3-2
1918 Electrical fire kills 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital
1919 Amritsar Massacre - British Army fires on hundreds of Indian Nationalist rioters in India
1920 1st woman US Civil Service Commissioner, Helen Hamilton appointed
1923 Army wins the 1st college three-weapon fencing championship
1924 Greek plebiscite for a republic
1925 Virginia Theater (ANTA, Guild) opens at 245 W 52nd St New York NY
1926 At 41, Walter Johnson pitches his 7th opening day shutout
1926 Bicyclists without bicycle-tax-stamp rounded up in Amsterdam
1927 Stanley Cup Ottawa Senators beat Boston Bruins, in 2 games & 2 ties
1928 1st trans atlantic flight Europe-US (Fitzmaurice-von Hünefeld-Köhl)
1932 Kozakken Boys soccer team forms in Werkendam forms
1933 1st flight over Mount Everest (Lord Clydesdale)
1933 Stanley Cup New York Rangers beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3 games to 1
1934 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments
1934 US Congress passes Johnson Debt Default Act
1936 Metaxas proclaims himself dictator of Greece
1938 Clifford Goldsmith' "What a Life", premieres in NYC
1939 W Saroyan's "My Heart's in the Highlands", premieres in NYC
1940 Cornelious Warmerdam becomes the 1st man to pole vault 15 feet, Berkeley CA
1940 2nd battle of Narvik-8 German destroyers, destroyed
1940 Stanley Cup New York Rangers beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4 games to 2
1941 Heavy German assault on Tobruk
1941 Russian-Japan no-attack treaty goes into effect
1943 FDR dedicates Jefferson Memorial
1943 Catholic University Nijegen closes
1943 Nazi's discover mass grave of Polish officers near Katyn
1944 South Carolina rejects black suffrage
1944 Stanley Cup Montréal Canadiens sweep Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games
1944 Transport nr 71 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1945 Allies occupy Wien (Vienna)
1945 Canadian army liberates Teuge & Assen Netherlands from Nazi's
1945 US marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa
1946 Belgian premier Acker proclaims wage & price freeze over
1946 Eddie Klepp, a white pitcher signed by defending Negro League champion Cleveland Buckeyes, is barred from field in Birmingham AL
1948 75 scientists ambushed on way to Mount Scopus
1949 Minneapolis beats Washington, 4 games to 2, for the NBA championship
1949 3rd NBA Championship Minneapolis Lakers beat Washington Capitals, 4 games to 2
1953 1st game of Milwaukee Braves, they beat Cincinnati Reds 2-0
1954 Baltimore Orioles 1st game, lose to Tigers in Detroit 3-0
1954 Milwaukee Braves' Hank Aaron's 1st game
1954 Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist
1955 20.33" (51.64 cm) of rainfall, Axis AL (state record)
1956 KETA TV channel 13 in Oklahoma City OK (PBS) begins broadcasting
1957 Due to lack of funds, Saturday mail delivery in the US is temporarily halted
1957 "Shinbone Alley" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 49 performances
1957 11th NBA Championship Boston Celtics beat St Louis Hawks, 4 games to 3
1957 11th Tony Awards Long Days Journey into the Night & My Fair Lady win
1958 12th Tony Awards Sunrise at Campobello & Music Man win
1959 Vanguard SLV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)
1959 Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics from voting for communists
1959 USAF launches Discoverer II into polar orbit
1960 France becomes the 4th nuclear nation exploding an A-Bomb in Sahara
1960 Transit 1B, 1st navigational satellite, placed in Earth orbit
1961 UN General Assembly condemns South Africa for apartheid
1961 "Carnival!" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 719 performances
1962 Stan Musial scores his 1,869th run, a new National League record
1962 US steel industry forced to give up price increases
1963 Pete Rose triples for his 1st major league base hit
1963 Pittsburgh Pirate's Bob Friend balks 4 times in a game
1964 New Zealand Colin Bosher shears a record 565 sheep in 1 work day
1964 Sidney Poitier becomes 1st black man to win Oscar for best actor
1964 36th Academy Awards - "Tom Jones", Sidney Poitier & Patricia Neal win
1964 Ian D Smith becomes premier of Rhodesia
1965 Beatles record "Help"
1965 Lawrence Bradford Jr (age 16), of NYC became 1st black congressional page
1965 1st US Senate black page, Lawrence W Bradford Jr, 16, appointed by New York Senator Jacob Javits
1966 Pan Am places $525,000,000 order for 25 Boeing 747s
1969 33rd Golf Masters Championship George Archer wins, shooting a 281
1970 Apollo 13 announces "Houston, we've got a problem!" as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon
1970 34th Golf Masters Championship Billy Casper wins, shooting a 279
1970 Greek composer Mikis Theordorakis is freed
1970 Oakland uses gold-colored bases during the club's home opener; Rules Committee subsequently bans this innovation
1972 1st baseball players' strike ends after 13 days
1975 Pittsburgh Penguins 5-New York Islanders 4-Quarterfinals-Penguins hold 1-0 lead
1975 39th Golf Masters Championship Jack Nicklaus wins, shooting a 276
1975 Chad military coup by General Odingar
1975 Christian Falange kills 27 Palestinians, begins Lebanese civil war
1976 1st NBA playoff game for Cleveland Cavliers, they lose 100-95 to Washington
1976 Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes
1978 New York Yankees defeat White Sox 4-2 in home opener on Reggie Candy Bar Day; Jackson slugs a 3-run homerun in the 1st inning, & the field is showered
1979 Longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours
1979 Christian Turks occupy St Jansbasiliek
1979 Yusuf Lule becomes premier of Uganda
1980 "Grease" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 3,388 performances
1980 "Reggae" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 21 performances
1980 44th Golf Masters Championship Seve Ballesteros wins, shooting a 275
1980 Amy Alcott wins LPGA American Defender/WRAL Golf Classic
1980 Emmy News & Documentaries Award presentation
1980 "TASS" denounced US boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics
1981 Washington Post's Janet Cooke wins Pulitzer Prize for "Jimmy's World" (later admits story was a hoax and returns prize)
1981 Pulitzer prize awarded to Beth Henley for "Crimes of the Heart"
1982 Pittsburgh Penguins 3-New York Islanders 4 (OT)-Preliminary-Islanders win series (3-2)
1983 Undefeated middleweight boxer Tony Ayala gets 35 years on sex assault
1983 Harold Washington elected 1st black mayor of Chicago
1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41C)-Challenger 5-returns to Earth
1984 Pete Rose becomes 1st National League to get get 4,000 hits in a career
1984 India beats Pakistan by 58 runs to win 1st Asia Cricket Cup in Sharjah
1985 Atlantis ferried to Kennedy Space Center via Ellington AFB, Texas
1985 Washington Capitals 1-New York Islanders 2-Patrick Division Semifinals- Capitals hold 2-1 lead
1985 Katrin Dörre wins 1st female World Cup marathon (2:33:30)
1985 Ramiz Alia succeeds Enver Hoxha as party leader of Albania
1986 Boston Celtics end season with a 40-1 home win record
1986 Pope John Paul II met Rome's Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff at Rome synagogue
1986 Spanish Grand Prix decided by 0.014 of a second
1986 50th Golf Masters Championship Jack Nicklaus wins, shooting a 279
1986 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Kyocera Inamori Golf Classic
1987 1st 3 San Diego Padres hit homeruns off San Francisco starter Roger Mason
1987 Portugal signs agreement to return Macau to China (in 1999)
1988 Italy government of De Mita forms
1989 "Welcome to the Club" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 12 performances
1990 4th largest NBA crowd (45,458) see Orlando play at Minneapolis
1990 Final episode of Pat Sajak's late night TV show on CBS
1990 New York Rangers beat New York Islanders 6-5, Rangers win preliminary, 4-1
1991 BPAA US Open by Pete Weber
1992 "Two Trains Running" opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC for 160 performances
1992 American Airlines reduces its 1st-class fares 20%-50%
1992 Crystal Pepsi begins test marketing in Providence, Denver & Dallas
1992 Great Chicago Flood - Chicago's underground tunnels flood
1992 Lou Conaseca retires as coach of St John's basketball team
1992 5.5 earthquake hits Netherlands
1992 Longest 2 undefeated baseball teams to meet (New York Yankees 5-0 vs Toronto Blue Jays 6-0); Yankees score 3 in top of 9th to win 5-2
1992 Nelson Mandela announces he will seek divorce from Winnie
1993 "3 Men on a Horse" opens at Lyceum Theater NYC for 40 performances
1993 14th Emmy Sports Award presentation
1993 Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia", premieres in London
1994 President guard at Kigali Rwanda, chops 1,200 church members to death
1994 Target date for Israeli complete withdrawal, doesn't occur
1994 United Arab Emirates' 1st official ODI, losing to India
1995 Yankees beat the Mets 2-0
1996 En route to NHL record 62 victories Detroit Red Wings win #61
1996 Ottawa Senators eliminate Stanley Cup champions New Jersey Devils from playoff
1997 1st time since 1961 that 2 doubleheaders are played in the same city - San Francisco Giants vs New York Mets & Oakland A's vs New York Yankees in New York
1997 "American Daughter" opens at Cort Theater NYC for 88 performances
1997 48th time opposing pitchers hit homeruns, Carlos Perez (Mon)/Darren Holmes
1997 61st Golf Masters Championship Tiger Woods at 21 (270-18 under par)
1997 Hartford Whalers last NHL game
1997 NHL Pittsburgh Penguin Mario Lemieux's last NHL regular game
1997 Travis Fryman homers off R Hernandez in both games of double header
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Missing In Action........

1966 MAPE JOHN CLEMENT DUBLIN CA REMAINS IDENTIFIED 03/17/99
1968 STISCHER WALTER MORRIS SAN ANTONIO TX 03/28/73 RELEASED BY PL (LAOS) ALIVE AND WELL 98
1969 PIERSON WILLIAM C. MADISON WI
1972 CHRISTENSEN JOHN MICHAEL OGDEN UT RADIO CONTACT LOST \
1972 LEET DAVID LAVERETT KENOSHA WI

Births which occurred on April 13:

1519 Catherine de Médici Queen of Spain/daughter of Henry II
1545 Elisabeth van Valois French queen of Spain/daughter of Henri II
1593 Thomas Wentworth London, earl of Strafford/Viceroy of Ireland
1626 Aert Jansz van Nes Lieutenant-Admiral, baptised
1648 Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Mothe-Guyon French mystic (quiétisme)
1713 Pierre de Jelyotte composer
1729 Thomas Percy English literary/bishop of Dromore
1732 Frederick Lord North © British PM (1770-82)
1733 Johann Heinrich Zang composer
1743 Thomas Jefferson Shadwell VA, (D-R) 3rd US President (1801-09)
1749 Frederik Sigismund van Bylandt Dutch count/Vice-Admiral
1756 Louis H J Condé French prince
1762 Johanna C Wattier-Ziesenis Dutch actress (Phaedra, Lady Macbeth)
1762 Karl Friedrich Horn composer
1771 Adam FJA van der Duyn Dutch Governorernor (South Holland)
1771 Richard Trevithick Illogan Cornwall England, inventor (steam locomotive)
1784 Cornelis Smit Dutch ship builder
1791 Félix Earl de Merode Belgian minister of War/Finance
1799 Heinrich F L Rellstab German music theorist
1799 Joseph Rastrelli composer
1810 Félicien C David French composer (Perle du Brésil, Désert)
1816 William Sterndale Bennett composer
1817 Alphonse Wauters Belgian historian/archivist (Brussels)
1822 Leroy Augustus Stafford Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1822 William Stephen Walker Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1899
1828 Joseph B Lightfoot English theologist/bishop of Durham
1830 Eduard Lassen composer
1832 James Wimshurst British designer/inventor (electricstatic generator)
1847 Cornelis Pijnacker Hordijk Governor-General (Netherlands East-Indies)
1849 Enrique José Varona Cuban sociologist/psychologist
1852 Frank W Woolworth 5¢ & 10¢ King (Woolworths)
1854 Richard T Ely US economist (Hard Times)
1860 James Ensor Flemish painter/etcher (De lampenjongen)
1865 Heinrich Reinhardt composer
1867 Sammy Woods cricket bowler (Australia & England Rugby wing-forward)
1868 John Blackwood McEwen composer
1872 A Roda Roda writer
1873 Theodore Morse composer
1881 Ludwig Binswanger Swiss psychiatrist (Über Ideenflucht)
1883 Alexander Alexandrov composer
1883 Demjan Bednyi writer
1885 György Lukács Hungarian philosopher (Zerstörung der Vernunft)
1885 Pieter S Gerbrandy Dutch lawyer/premier in London (1940-45)
1886 Ethel Leginska composer
1892 Arthur Harris Cheltenham, Marshal of the RAF
1892 Robert A Watson-Watt England, physicist (radar)
1894 Ludvig Irgens Jensen composer
1895 Olga Rudge violinist
1895 Olof R Jändel Swedish poet
1899 Alexander Alexandrovich Davidenko composer
1899 Alfred Moser Butts game inventor (Scrabble)
1899 Alfred Schutz Austrian/US architect/philosopher
19-- Jean Carol Hillsdale NJ, actress (Nadine-Guiding Light)
19-- Michael Leon actor (Pete Jannings-Days of Our Life)
19-- Richard Karron New York NY, actor (Fatso, Charlie & Company, Teacher's Only)
19-- Ruben Rabassa Havana Cuba, Spanish personality
1901 René-Jean Pleven French premier (1950-52)
1902 Philippe de Rothschild Paris France, manager (Bordeaux Vineyard)
1902 Godfrey Kenton actor (Well's Theater)
1903 Rex Evans actor (Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, Zara, Matchmaker)
1904 Georges Yves Marie Congar dominican Theologian cardinal
1906 Samuel Beckett Irish playwright (Waiting for Godot/Nobel 1969)
1906 Budd [Lawrence] Freeman US jazz saxophonist (Eel)
1907 Harold Stassen West St Paul MN, (Governor-Republican-MN) perennial presidential candidate
1909 Eudora Welty Jackson MS, novelist (Optimist's Daughter-Pulitzer 1973)
1909 Jan Veldkamp Dutch geophysicist/director (KNMI)
1909 Mervyn Hugh Cowie willife conservationist
1911 Nino Sanzogno composer
1912 Roy Winsor Chicago IL, producer (Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life)
1913 Bernard Chacksfield Air Vice-Marshal
1913 David Donald Albritton Danville AL, high jumper (Olympics-silver-1936)
1915 Bert [Albert L F] Peleman [Dirk Dyckmans], Flemish writer
1915 R N Coote Bishop (Colchester)
1915 Stephan Hermlin writer
1915 Stephen Roberts CEO (British Milk Marketing Board)
1915 Tom Greenshields sculptor
1918 Audrey Barker writer
1919 Howard Keel [Harry Clifford Leek] Gillespie IL, actor/singer (7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Kiss Me Kate)
1919 Madalyn Murray O'Hair American atheist (opppsed prayer in school)
1920 Liam Cosgrave leader (Fine Gael Party)
1921 Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza industrialist
1921 Carlo Prosperi composer
1921 James Wilson British Lieutenant-General
1921 Maxwell Henley Harris Australian poet/publisher (Gift of Blood)
1922 John Braine English novelist (Life at the Top)
1922 John George Vanderbile Henry Spencer-Churchill [11th Duke of Marlborough] English large landowner
1924 Stanley Donen Columbia SC, film director/producer (Bedazzled, Damn Yankees)
1925 Frank Chamberlain CEO (Test & County Cricket Board)
1925 Frank Neville Hosband Robinson physicist
1925 Hilda Dianda composer
1926 Don [James Yarmy] Adams New York NY, actor/comedian (Maxwell Smart-Get Smart, Check it Out)
1926 Godfrey Kenton actor
1927 Mari Blanchard Long Beach CA, actress (Kathy-Klondike)
1927 Lord Wedderburn of Charlton QC
1927 Maurice Ronet Nice France, actor (Frantic, Sphinz, Circle of Love)
1927 Rosa Joyce Plesters Brommelie conservation scientist
1929 Marilynn Smith Topeka KS, LPGA golfer (1972 Pabst Open)
1930 Justice Harman
1931 Beverley Cross playwright
1931 Michael Burchill actor
1932 Barney Simon theatre director/writer
1932 Karl Kroeger composer
1933 Shani Wallis Ireland, singer/actress (Oliver)
1933 Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Senator-D-CO)
1934 Horace Kay US singer (Tams-You Lied to Your Daddy)
1934 Siegfried Matthus composer
1935 Erich von Däniken author (Chariots of the Gods)
1935 Lyle Waggoner Kansas City KS, actor (Carol Burnett Show, Wonder Woman)
1935 Kenneth Hayr air marshal
1935 Peter Heap diplomat
1937 Lanford Wilson US playwright (Hot L Baltimore)
1937 Edward Fox London England, actor (M-Never Say Never Again)
1937 Peter M Harris Official Solicitor (Supreme Court)
1938 Frederic Rzewski Westfield MA, composer (Spacecraft)
1938 John Weston diplomat
1939 Paul Sorvino Brookyn NY, stage/screen actor, (Law and Order, Reds, Goodfellas, A Touch of Class, That Championship Season, An American Millionaire, The Mating Dance, Skyscraper, King Lear)
1939 Barbara-Rose Collins (Representative-Democrat-MI)
1939 Seamus Heaney poet
1939 Wijnie Jabaaij Dutch MP (PvdA)
1940 Lester Chambers Flora MS, vocalist (Chambers Brothers-Time Has Come Today)
1941 Margaret Price Tredegar Wales, soprano (Pamlina-Die Zauberflöte)
1942 Bill Conti Providence RI, composer (For Your Eyes Only, Rocky IV)
1943 Bill Koch US skier
1943 Eve Graham rocker (New Seekers)
1944 Brian Pendleton Wolverhampton West Midlands England, rocker (The Pretty Things)
1944 Charles Burnett director (When it Rains, Glass Shield)
1944 Jack Casady Washington DC, rock bassist (Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane)
1944 Michael Saunders barrister
1945 Lowell George rock vocalist/guitarist (Little Feat-Time is a Hero)
1945 Tony Dow Hollywood CA, actor (Wally-Leave it to Beaver)
1945 Carlos Gimenez Argentina/Venezuela, founder (Theater festival of Caracas)
1945 Edward J Caruthers Jr Troy AL, high jumper (Olympics-silver-1968)
1945 Raymond van Geytenbeek Dutch singer/drummer (Les Baroques)
1945 Stacy Johnson US singer (Sharpees-Tired of Being Alone)
1946 Al Green Forest City AR, singer (Lets Stay Together)
1946 Jim Pons rocker (Mothers Of Invention)
1946 Roy Loney rocker (Flaming Groovies)
1948 Amy Robinson Trenton NJ, writer/actress (Mean Streets)
1948 Kathleen Battle US soprano (Tannhäuser)
1948 Peter Swevel rocker
1949 Philippe Petit Nemours France, juggler/aerialist
1949 Jean-Jacques Favier Kehl Germany, astronaut (STS 78)
1950 Terry Lester Indianapolis IN, actor (Royce Keller-As The World Turns, Mason Capwell-Santa Barbara, Jack Abbott-Young & Restless)
1950 Riff West rock bassist (Molly Hatchet)
1950 Ron Perlman Bronx NY, actor (Quest for Fire, Beauty & the Beast)
1951 Beatrix "Trixie" Schuba Austria, figure skater (Olympics-gold-1972)
1951 Jack Quinn (Representative-Republican-NY)
1951 Max Weinberg rock drummer (E Street Band, Conan O'Brien Show)
1951 Peabo Bryson Greenville SC, R&B vocalist (I'm So into You)
1951 Peter Davison actor (Dr Who, Sink or Swim, Fiddlers Three)
1952 Jonjo O'Neill racehorse trainer
1953 Stephen Byers MP
1954 Barbara Roche MP
1954 Jimmy Destri rock keyboardist (Blondie-Heart of Glass, Rapture)
1955 Kabaka of Buganda
1955 Louis Johnson Los Angeles CA, rock bassist/vocalist (Brothers Johnson)
1956 Michael Nikolay German Democratic Republic, gymnast (Olympics)
1957 Saundra Santiago Bronx NY, actress (Gina-Miami Vice)
1957 Wayne Lewis keyboardist, (Atlantic Star-Touch a 4 Leaf Clover)
1957 Gary Kroeger Cedar Falls IA, comedian (Saturday Night Live, Return of Shaggy Dog)
1958 Randy Piper heavy metal rocker (Wasp-Wildchild)
1959 Vicki Witt Lansing MI, playmate (August 1978)
1961 Tammy Stephens Arlington TX, singer (Girls Next Door-Don't Be Cruel)
1963 Gary Kimovich Kasparov USSR, world chess champion (1985- )
1963 Jan Willem van Ede Dutch soccer player (FC Utrecht, PSV)
1963 Mark Leiter Joliet IL, pitcher (San Francisco Giants)
1964 Bill D'Angelo heavy metal rocker
1964 Page Hannah Chicago IL, actress (Kate Riley-Fame)
1964 Davis Milton Love III Charlotte NC, PGA golfer (1987 MCI Heritage)
1964 Doug Strange Greenville SC, infielder (Seattle Mariners)
1964 Jose Rijo pitcher (New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds)
1965 Quinn Early NFL wide receiver (New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills)
1966 Rodney Smith Washington DC, 149½ lbs greco-roman wrestler (Olympics-92, 96)
1967 Dana Barros NBA guard (Boston Celtics)
1968 Tami Lyn Jameson Minneapolis MN, team handball goalie/twin sister of Toni (Olympics-92, 96)
1968 Ted Washington NFL nose tackle (Buffalo Bills)
1968 Toni Lee Jameson Minneapolis MN, team handball back court/twin sister of Tami (Olympics-96)
1969 Harold Pruett rocker (Outsiders-Time Won't Let Me)
1970 Rick Schroder Staten Island NY, actor (Ricky-Silver Spoons, Champ, Earthling)
1970 Eddie Robinson NFL linebacker (Houston Oilers, Jacksonville Jaguars)
1970 Monty Brown NFL linebacker (Buffalo Bills)
1970 Ramona Reuter Miss New York-USA (1997)
1971 Corey Yothers Los Angeles CA, actor (Off the Rock)
1971 Charles Outlaw NBA forward (Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic)
1972 Dave Wohlabaugh NFL center/guard (New England Patriots)
1972 Jeroen Thesseling pop bassist (Pestilence, Spheres)
1972 Mariusz Czerkawski Radomsko Pol, NHL right wing (Edmonton Oilers)
1972 Mike Kennedy Vancouver British Columbia Canada, NHL left wing (Dallas Stars)
1973 Aaron Hayden NFL running back (San Diego Chargers, Green Bay Packers-Superbowl 31)
1973 Dave Wohlabaugh corner (New England Patriots)
1974 Sergei Gonchar Chelyabinsk Russia, NHL defenseman (Capitals, Olympics-silver-1998)
1976 Everton Matambanadzo Zimbabwean cricket pace bowler (vs Pakistan 1996)
1976 Jonathan Brandis Danbury CT, actor (Lucas Wolenczak-seaQuest DSV, Never Ending Story II)
1978 Grace Murray Tubbs Miss Montana Teen-USA (1996)
1979 Monica Ivey Miss Hawaii Teen-USA (1996)
1991 Dylan Frances Penn Los Angeles CA, daughter of Sean Penn & Robin Wright
1992 Jet Travolta daughter of John Travolta & Kelly Preston
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Deaths which occurred on April 13:
0799 Paulus Diaconus Warnafridi Longobardisch writer, dies
1475 Matteo Palmieri Italian writer (Città di Vita), dies at 69
1517 Tuman Bey last Mamelukken sultan of Egypt, hanged
1638 Henri II duke of Rohan-Gié, French hugenot leader, dies at 58
1695 Jean de La Fontaine poet, dies
1722 Charles Leslie Irish controversialist, dies
1728 Johann Christoph Schmidt composer, dies at 63
1742 Giovanni Veneziano composer, dies at 59
1756 Johann T Gottlieb Goldberg German klavecinist/composer, dies at 29
1794 Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort French playwright, commits suicide at 53
1806 Jean-Jacques Bachelier French painter, dies at about 82
1822 Gaetano Valeri composer, dies at 61
1825 Josef Gelinek composer, dies at 66
1826 Franz Danzi composer, dies at 62
1831 Ferdinand Kauer composer, dies at 80
1864 Johann Schneider composer, dies at 74
1868 Theodorus [Kasa] emperor of Abyssinia, commits suicide
1873 Carlo Coccia composer, dies at 90
1886 Karoly Thern composer, dies at 68
1903 Derk J A Haspels Dutch actor, dies at 65
1904 Vasili Vereshtshagin Russian painter (War & Peace), dies
1910 William Orchardson British painter, dies
1928 Luis Iruarrizaga Aguirre composer, dies at 36
1932 Johannes T de Visser 1st Dutch minister of Education, dies at 75 [or 14th]
1936 Demertzis Greek premier, dies
1941 Annie Jump Cannon US astronomer (Henry Draper catalogues), dies at 77
1942 Henk Sneevliet leader of Dutch RSAP/Spartacus, executed at 58
1944 Cecile Chaminade composer, dies at 86
1944 Paul Hazard French literature historian, dies at 65
1946 William Henry Bell composer, dies at 72
1949 C V France dies at 80
1952 [Rosalie] Julia Cuypers Flemish actress (Adelaarsjong), dies at 79
1959 Eduard A van Beinum Dutch musician/conductor, dies at 57
1959 Rigardus "Rijn" Rijnhout Giant of Rotterdam (2.375 meters tall), dies at 38
1967 Luis Somoza Debayle President of Nicaragua (1956-63), dies at 44
1973 Alexandre A M Stols publisher/typographer (Schoone Book), dies at 73
1974 Stanley Smith actor (Honey, King of Jazz, Soup to Nuts), dies at 71
1975 Larry Parks actor (Jazz Singer), dies at 60
1975 N'garta Tombalbaye President Chad, dies
1978 Paul McGrath actor (The Witness, No Time for Love), dies at 74
1984 Christopher Wilder FBI's "most wanted man", accidentally kills self
1986 Stephen Stucker actor (Trading Places, Airplane), dies
1990 Luis Trenker dies at 97
1990 Ronald Ibbs dies
1992 Brian Oulton dies at 84
1992 Wallace Stegner novelist (Pulitzer 1972), dies at 84
1992 Walter Stuart Surridge cricketeer (Captain of Surrey), dies at 74
1993 Barry Karas dies of leukemia at 49
1993 Henny Budie Dutch director/producer (Sterrenslag), dies
1993 Max Tripels Dutch attorney/MP, dies at 72
1994 Donald Benjamin Harden archaeologist, dies at 92
1994 Nikolai Afanassyevich Kryuchkov actor (Telegram), dies at 83
1994 P J Engels Dutch MP (KVP), dies at 70
1994 Robert O van Gennep Dutch publisher (Guevara, Mandèl), dies at 56
1994 Rudolf Hrusinsky Czechoslovakia, actor (Short Cut, Golden Eels), dies at 72
1994 Taleb Ali al-Suheil Iran sheik, murdered in Lebanon at 64
1995 Edward Firth Henderson arabist, dies at 77
1995 Lawrence Allan Laurie Scott script writer, dies at 87
1996 Denis Sargan econometrician, dies at 71
1996 George Mackey Brown poet, dies at 74
1996 James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke criminal, dies at 64
1997 Ann Craft researcher/writer, dies at 53
1997 George Wald scientist (Nobel Prize, vitamin A in retina), dies at 80

1777 British attack at Bound Brook, New Jersey

In the early morning hours of April 13, 1777, General Lord Charles Cornwallis leads 4,000 British troops and Hessian mercenaries in a surprise attack on a small garrison of American troops in the village of Bound Brook in central New Jersey.

Cornwallis’ decision to launch the four-column attack at daybreak caught American Major General Benjamin Lincoln and the Continental Army completely by surprise; they were unable to launch a counterattack. Surprised and outnumbered, Lincoln ordered his men to retreat and was able to escape along with most of his 500 troops; his losses totaled 60 men killed or taken prisoner. The British also captured several cannons and nearly all of Lincoln’s artillery detachment, which they took with them, returning to their camp at New Brunswick.

Hessian mercenaries were critical to the British victory. Hessian Johann Ewald, captain of the elite Lieb Jaeger Korps, developed the successful four-column strategy at Cornwallis’ request; his diary is the major source of information regarding the ensuing battle. Ewald was so respected by his colonial counterparts that General Henry Knox invited Ewald to West Point after Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown. Ewald would eventually publish eight books on military strategy, including a “Treatise on Partisan Warfare,” published in 1785, which earned the praise of Prussia’s Frederick the Great.

Since the British chose not to stay in Bound Brook, the Continental Army re-occupied the village under Major General Nathanael Greene. Ultimately, though, General George Washington decided that it would be easier to defend Bound Brook from a loftier vantage point, moving troops to the Watchung Mountains of north-central New Jersey.
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1861 Fort Sumter surrenders

After a thirty-three hour bombardment by Confederate cannon, Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor surrenders. The first engagement of the war ended in Rebel victory.

The surrender concluded a standoff that began with South Carolina's secession from the Union on December 20, 1860. When President Lincoln sent word to Charleston in early April that he planned to send food to the beleaguered garrison, the Confederates took action. They opened fire on Sumter in the predawn of April 12. Over the next day, nearly 4,000 rounds were hurled toward the black silhouette of Fort Sumter.

Inside Sumter was its commander, Major Robert Anderson, 9 officers, 68 enlisted men, 8 musicians, and 43 construction workers who were still putting the finishing touches on the fort. Captain Abner Doubleday, the man often inaccurately credited with inventing the game of baseball, returned fire nearly two hours after the barrage began. By the morning of April 13, the garrison in Sumter was in dire straits. The soldiers had sustained only minor injuries, but they could not hold out much longer. The fort was badly damaged, and the Confederate's shots were becoming more precise. Around noon, the flagstaff was shot away. Louis Wigfall, a former U.S. senator from Texas, rowed out without permission to see if the garrison was trying to surrender. Anderson decided that further resistance was futile, and he ran a white flag up a makeshift flagpole.

The first engagement of the war was over, and the only casualty had been a Confederate horse. The Union force was allowed to leave for the north; before leaving, the soldiers fired a 100-gun salute. During the salute, one soldier was killed and another mortally wounded by a prematurely exploding cartridge. The Civil War had officially begun.
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1918 Germans capture Helsinki, Finland

As part of Germany’s support of Finland and its newly declared parliamentary government, German troops wrest control of Helsingfors (Helsinki) from the Red Guard, an army of Finnish supporters of the Russian Bolsheviks, on April 13, 1918.

Finland, under Russian control since 1809, took the opportunity of the upheaval in Russia in 1917 (including the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in March and the rise to power of Vladimir Lenin and his radical socialist followers, the Bolsheviks, in November) to declare its independence in December of that year. Almost immediately, however, conflict broke out within Finland between radical socialists—supporters of the Bolsheviks in Russia—and anti-socialists within the government. In late January 1918, the radical socialist Red Guard launched a rebellion, terrorizing and killing civilians in their attempt to spark a Bolshevik-style revolution. A bitter struggle ensued as the Whites (as government troops were known) under the command of Baron Karl Gustav Mannerheim sought to drive the Reds out of Finland.

On April 3, 1918, German troops sent by Kaiser Wilhelm I landed in Finland to aid Mannerheim’s White army. Ten days later, the Germans captured Helsinki alongside Mannerheim and his force of 16,000 men; they did the same in Viborg by the end of the month. A major victory by the Germans and the White Finns at Lahti on May 7 ended the Finnish civil war.

Germany’s close ties with the nascent Finnish government reached a new level in October 1918, when conservative forces in Finland decided to establish monarchal rule in the country, giving the throne to Frederick, a German prince, in the waning weeks of World War I. By the time the Central Powers appealed for an armistice one month later, however, Kaiser Wilhelm himself had abdicated and it seemed certain that the victorious Allies would not look kindly upon a German prince on the Finnish throne. Frederick abdicated on December 14. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919, recognized Finland’s hard-won independence; that July, the Finnish parliament adopted a new republican constitution, and Kaarlo J. Stahlberg, a liberal, was elected as the country’s first president.
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1939 USS Astoria attempts pre-war reconnaissance

On this day, the USS Astoria arrives in Japan under the command of Richard Kelly Turner in an attempt to photograph the Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Turner, whose motto was "If you don't have losses, you're not doing enough," saw the cruiser Astoria through many assignments, from assessing Japanese naval strength before U.S. entry in the war, to returning the ashes of a Japanese ambassador to Japan, to the amphibious assault at Guadalcanal. The Astoria was unfortunately sunk, along with the Quincy and the Vincennes, during Operation Watchtower, the landing of 16,000 troops on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, in August 1942.
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1945 Hitler bluffs from bunker as Russians advance and atrocities continue

On this day in 1945, Adolf Hitler proclaims from his underground bunker that deliverance was at hand from encroaching Russian troops--Berlin would remain German. A "mighty artillery is waiting to greet the enemy," proclaims Der Fuhrer. This as Germans loyal to the Nazi creed continue the mass slaughter of Jews.

As Hitler attempted to inflate his troops' morale, German soldiers, Hitler Youth, and local police chased 5,000 to 6,000 Jewish prisoners into a large barn, setting it on fire, in hopes of concealing the evidence of their monstrous war crimes as the end of the Reich quickly became a reality. As the Jewish victims attempted to burrow their way out of the blazing barn, Germans surrounding the conflagration shot them. "Several thousand people were burned alive," reported one survivor. The tragic irony is that President Roosevelt, had he lived, intended to give an address at the annual Jefferson Day dinner in Washington, D.C., on that very day, proclaiming his desire for "an end to the beginnings of all wars--yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman, and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments."
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1966 SCLC passes resolution about South Vietnam

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) adopts a resolution urging that the United States "desist from aiding the military junta against the Buddhists, Catholics, and students, whose efforts to democratize their government are more in consonance with our traditions than the policy of the military oligarchy." This resolution, which had little real impact on administration policies, indicated the growing dissatisfaction among many segments of the American population with President Lyndon B. Johnson's handling of the war in Vietnam.

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., had helped establish the SCLC in 1957 to coordinate civil rights protests in the South. King began to speak out against the American involvement in Vietnam in July 1965, and he became increasingly identified with the antiwar movement. He argued that the war diverted money and attention from domestic programs created to aid the black poor. The SCLC resolution was one of the first public pronouncements by King and his followers against U.S. policy in Vietnam, but successive protests by King rapidly alienated President Johnson.
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1972 North Vietnamese launch major attack on An Loc

Three North Vietnamese divisions attack An Loc with infantry, tanks, heavy artillery and rockets, taking half the city after a day of close combat. An Loc, the capital of Binh Long Province, was located 65 miles northwest of Saigon.

This attack was the southernmost thrust of the three-pronged Nguyen Hue Offensive (later more commonly known as the "Easter Offensive"), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the knockout blow that would win the war for the communists. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to An Loc in the south, were Quang Tri in the north, and Kontum in the Central Highlands. Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders in each case were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where the South Vietnamese abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught.

In Binh Long, the North Vietnamese forces crossed into South Vietnam from Cambodia to strike first at Loc Ninh on April 5, then quickly encircled An Loc, holding it under siege for almost three months while they made repeated attempts to take the city. The defenders suffered heavy casualties, including 2,300 dead or missing, but with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower, they managed to hold An Loc against vastly superior odds until the siege was lifted on June 18. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam throughout the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders, even retaking Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.