Today in History – August 13 in History
What happened on this day in history – August 13 in History around the world
1521 | Cortes captures the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, and sets it on fire. | |
1630 | Emperor Ferdinand II dismisses Albert Eusebius van Wallenstein, his most capable general. | |
1680 | War starts when the Spanish are expelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Indians under Chief Pope. | |
1704 | The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeat the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. | |
1787 | The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia. | |
1862 | Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. | |
1881 | The first African-American nursing school opens at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. | |
1889 | The first coin-operated telephone is patented by William Gray. | |
1892 | The first issue of the Afro American newspaper is published in Baltimore, Maryland. | |
1898 | Manila, the capital of the Philippines, falls to the U.S. Army. | |
1910 | British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for her care of British soldiers during the Crimean War, dies. | |
1932 | Adolf Hitler refuses to serve as Franz Von Papen’s vice chancellor. | |
1948 | During the Berlin Airlift, the weather over Berlin becomes so stormy that American planes have their most difficult day landing supplies. They deem it ‘Black Friday.’ | |
1961 | Construction begins on Berlin Wall during the night. | |
1963 | A 17 year-old Buddhist monk burns himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam. | |
1978 | Bomb attack in Beirut during Second Lebanese Civil War kills more than 150 people. | |
1989 | The wreckage of a plane that carried U.S. congressman Mickey Leland and others on a humanitarian mission is found on a mountain side in Ethiopia; there are no survivors. | |
1993 | US Court of Appeals rules Congress must save all emails. | |
Born on August 13 | ||
1655 | Johann Christoph Denner, inventor of the clarinet. | |
1818 | Lucy Stone, woman’s rights activist, founder of Woman’s Journal. | |
1860 | Phoebe Anne Moses, later known as Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter and entertainer. | |
1899 | Alfred Hitchcock, director of over 50 films including Rebecca, Rear Window, Psycho and North by Northwest. | |
1902 | Felix Wankel, inventory of the rotary engine which bears his name. | |
1912 | Ben Hogan, American golfer. | |
1916 | Daniel Schorr, radio and television correspondent. | |
1926 | Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary leader and president. | |
1930 | Don Ho, Hawaii’s best-known musician and singer (“Tiny Bubbles”). | |
1933 | Jocelyn Elders, first African American US Surgeon General (Sept 1993–Dec 1994). | |
1940 | Ann Armstrong Daily, founder of Children’s Hospice international. | |
1942 | Robert Lee Stewart, US Army brigadier general and astronaut. | |
1951 | Dan Fogelberg, multiple-platinum singer-songwriter. | |
1952 | Herb Ritts, photographer who revolutionized fashion photography in the 1980s and created many iconic photos of celebrities. |