February 13

2024 Calendar

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

Events

Up to 1900

1322 - The central tower of Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England, falls.
1462 - The Treaty of Westminster is finalized between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
1503 - Disfida di Barletta: A tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights takes place near Barletta.
1542 – Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
1575 - Henry III of France is crowned King.
1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the inquisition.
1660 - Charles XI of Sweden becomes King at the age of 4 years, meaning that a regent rules Sweden until 1672.
1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent country.
1689 - William III and Mary II are crowned King and Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland.
1692 – At least thirty members of the MacDonald Clan are massacred in Glencoe, Scotland.
1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Persian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of Mughal Emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1857 - British passenger steamer Tempest disappears in the North Atlantic Ocean after leaving New York City, with 150 people on board.
1858 - Searching for the source of the Nile, Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke become the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika.
1861 - Francis II of the Two Sicilies surrenders at Gaeta to the army of Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy.
1880 - Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
1881 - The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.

1901 – 2000

1918 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes Guangdong province, China.
1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital city of India.
1934 - Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
1935 - Bruno Hauptmann is found guilty of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of Charles Lindbergh.
1944 - Norwegian passenger ship Irma is torpedoed near Kristiansund, killing 61 people. It is revealed after the Second World War that it was a torpedo from the Norwegian Navy that hit the ship.
1945 – The Royal Air Force bombs the German city of Dresden in World War II.
1945 - World War II: The Siege of Budapest ends with the unconditional surrender of the German and Hungarian armies to the Red Army.
1951 - Korean War: The Battle of Chipyong-ni begins.
1955 – Israel gains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
1960 - France becomes the fourth country to own nuclear weapons.
1961 - A 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California.
1971 - South Vietnamese troops invade Laos, with American support.
1978 - A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing 2 refuse collectors and a police officer.
1980 - The 1980 Winter Olympics begin in Lake Placid, New York. The games became best known for the Miracle on Ice hockey game on February 22.
1981 - A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1982 - The Rio Negro massacre occurs in Guatemala.
1983 - A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
1984 – Konstantin Chernenko becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1988 – The Winter Olympic Games open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Like in 1976, Canada hosts the Olympics without winning a gold medal (They do, however, win a record 14 gold medals when they host the games in Vancouver in 2010).
1990 - Agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to re-unite Germany.
1991 – US bombers hit Baghdad in the Gulf War.
1996 - English pop music group Take That announces that it is splitting. The band re-forms in 2005.
2000 – The last Peanuts comic strip is printed in newspapers, a day after the death of Charles Schulz.

From 2001

2001 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 400 people.
2004 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the Universe's largest-known diamond, white dwarf.
2007 - Taiwan's Opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as Chairman of the Kuomintang Party.
2008 – Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
2010 - A bomb attack in Pune, Maharashtra, India, kills 17 people.
2011 – After the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the army suspends the constitution, and announces that it will remain in power until elections later in the year.
2012 - The European Space Agency's Vega rocket is launched from French Guiana.
2014 - Prime Minister of Italy Enrico Letta announces his intention to resign, less than ten months into the job, after instabilities in his coalition government.
2014 - Belgium's parliament votes to extend its euthanasia law to terminally-ill children, becoming the first country to allow euthanasia for people of all ages.
2017 - Kim Jong-nam (older half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un) is murdered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.

Births

Up to 1900

1457 - Mary of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1482)
1480 - Girolamo Aleandro, Italian cardinal (d. 1542)
1539 - Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine (d. 1582)
1599 - Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667)
1683 – Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Italian painter (d. 1754)
1721 - John Reid, Scottish general (d. 1807)
1728 - John Hunter, Scottish anatomist (d. 1793)
1734 - Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, French explorer and naval officer (d. 1797)
1766 - Thomas Balthus, English economist (d. 1834)
1768 - Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Marshal of France (d. 1835)
1769 - Ivan Krylov, Russian writer (d. 1844)
1805 – Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician (d. 1859)
1831 - John Aaron Rawlins, 29th United States Secretary of War (d. 1869)
1834 - Heinrich Caro, German chemist (d. 1910)
1835 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Islamic religious leader (d. 1908)
1837 - Valentin Zubiaurre, Spanish composer (d. 1914)
1849 – Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician, father of Winston Churchill (d. 1895)
1849 - Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt, German impostor, Captain of Köpenick (d. 1922)
1855 – Paul Deschanel, President of France (d. 1922)
1866 - Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
1867 - Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (d. 1903)
1870 - Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
1873 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (d. 1938)
1876 - Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player (d. 1933)
1879 - Sarojini Naidu, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1949)
1880 - Dimitrie Gusti, Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian and philosopher (d. 1955)
1883 - Hal Chase, American baseball player (d. 1947)
1884 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete, inventor and businessman (d. 1961)
1885 - George Fitzmaurice, American-French director (d. 1940)
1885 – Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)
1888 – Georgios Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
1891 – Grant Wood, American painter (d. 1942)
1892 - Robert H. Jackson, 57th United States Attorney General (d. 1954)

1901 – 1950

1901 - Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist (d. 1976)
1901 - Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scottish writer (d. 1935)
1902 - Harold Lasswell, American political scientist (d. 1978)
1903 - Georgy Beriev, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1979)
1903 – Georges Simenon, Belgian writer (d. 1989)
1906 - Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1994)
1909 - Mario Casariego y Acevedo, Guatemalan cardinal (d. 1983)
1910 – William Shockley, British-American physicist (d. 1989)
1911 - Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani Urdu poet (d. 1984)
1911 - Jean Muir, American actress (d. 1996)
1913 - Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia (d. 1982)
1915 – Aung San, Burmese revolutionary, nationalist, general, and politician (d. 1947)
1915 - lyle Bettger, American actor (d. 2003)
1916 – John Reed, British singer of Gilbert and Sullivan (d. 2010)
1918 - Patty Berg, American golfer (d. 2006)
1919 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991)
1919 - Eddie Robinson, American football coach (d. 2007)
1921 - Jeanne Demessieux, French organist, pianist and composer (d. 1968)
1922 - Francis Pym, British politician
1922 - Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (d. 2014)
1923 – Chuck Yeager, American pilot
1923 - Michael Anthony Bilandic, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002)
1923 - James Abdnor, American politician (d. 2012)
1925 - Stuart Wagstaff, English-Australian entertainer (d. 2015)
1928 - Gerald Regan, 19th Premier of Nova Scotia
1929 – Omar Torrijos, President of Panama (d. 1981)
1930 - Ernst Fuchs, Austrian painter, sculptor and illustrator (d. 2015)
1930 - Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, writer and academic
1932 - Barbara Shelley, English actress
1932 - Sarah Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
1933 – Paul Biya, President of Cameroon
1933 – Kim Novak, American actress
1933 - Peter L. Pond, American activist and philanthropist (d. 2000)
1933 - Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer
1934 - George Segal, American actor
1937 - Rupiah Banda, former President of Zambia
1937 - Sigmund Jaehn, German cosmonaut
1938 – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
1939 - Valery Rozhdestvensky, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (d. 2011)
1939 - Beate Klarsfeld, German activist
1940 - Bram Peper, Dutch sociologist and politician, former Mayor of Rotterdam
1941 – Sigmar Polke, German painter (d. 2010)
1941 - Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor
1942 - Katsuaki Watanabe, CEO of Toyota
1942 – Peter Tork, American musician (Member of The Monkees)
1942 - Carol Lynley, American actress
1944 – Jerry Springer, American television host
1944 – Stockard Channing, American actress
1944 - Bo Svenson, American actor
1945 - Wallis Grahn, Swedish actress (d. 2018)
1945 - King Floyd, American musician (d. 2006)
1945 - Simon Schama, British historian
1945 - Marian Dawkins, British biologist
1946 – Artur Jorge, Portuguese football coach
1947 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball coach
1947 - Kevin Bloody Wilson, Australian comedian, singer-songwriter and guitarist
1948 - Kitten Natividad, Mexican-American actress and dancer
1949 - Peter Kern, Austrian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer (d. 2015)
1950 – Peter Gabriel, English musician
1950 - Bob Daisley, Australian musician

1951 – 1975

1952 - Freddy Maertens, Belgian cyclist
1956 - Liam Brady, Irish footballer
1956 - Peter Hook, English musician
1956 - Princess Alia bint Al Hussein of Jordan
1958 - Pernilla August, Swedish actress
1958 - Tip Tipping, English actor and stuntman (d. 1993)
1959 - Gaston Gingras, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 – Pierluigi Collina, Italian football referee
1960 - Pia Sundhage, Swedish soccer player and coach
1960 - Artur Yusupov, Russian-German chess player
1961 - Marc Crawford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 - Henry Rollins, American singer, actor and writer
1961 - Richard Tyson, American actor
1962 - Anibal Acevedo Vila, former Governor of Puerto Rico
1962 - Hugh Dennis, English actor and comedian
1964 - Stephen Bowen, American engineer, captain and astronaut
1964 - Ylva Johansson, Swedish politician
1965 - Peter O'Neill, 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
1967 - Stanimir Stoilov, Bulgarian footballer
1967 - Johnny Tapia, American boxer (d. 2012)
1968 - Daisuke Ikeda, Japanese professional wrestler
1968 – Niamh Kavanagh, Irish singer
1969 - Joyce DiDonato, American mezzo-soprano
1970 - Elmer Bennett, American basketball player
1970 - Karoline Krüger, Norwegian singer-songwriter and pianist
1971 – Mats Sundin, Swedish ice hockey player
1971 - Todd Williams, American baseball player
1974 – Robbie Williams, English singer
1974 - Ana Patricia Rojo, Mexican actress
1975 – Ben Collins, English racing driver
1975 - Tony Dalton, American-born actor

From 1976

1976 - Suzanne Maddock, British actress
1978 - Philippe Jaroussky, French tenor
1979 – Rafael Marquez, Mexican footballer
1979 - Rachel Reeves, English politician
1979 – Mena Suvari, American actress
1979 - Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian mass murderer (2011 Norway attacks)
1980 – Sebastian Kehl, German footballer
1981 - Sam Burley, American athlete
1981 - Liam Miller, Irish footballer (d. 2018)
1983 - Anna Watkins, British rower
1984 - Eveli Saue, Estonian orienteer and athlete
1985 - Hedwiges Maduro, Dutch footballer
1985 – Alexandros Tziolis, Greek footballer
1986 – Jamie Murray, Scottish tennis player
1987 – Eljero Elia, Dutch footballer
1988 - Aston Merrygold, British singer (JLS)
1989 - Carly McKillip, Canadian singer and actress
1989 - Rodrigo Possebon, Brazilian footballer
1990 - Gyaincain Norbu, 11th Panchen Lama
1990 - Mamadou Sakho, French footballer
1993 - Alex Sawyer, British actor, director and singer
1994 - Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer
1995 - Ayame Koike, Japanese actress

Deaths

Up to 1900

721 - Chilperic II (b. 672)
858 – Kenneth I of Scotland
1130 - Pope Honorius II
1141 - Bela II of Hungary (b. 1110)
1199 - Stefan Nemanja, Serbian Grand Prince (b. 1113)
1219 - Minamoto no Sanetomo, Japanese shogun (b. 1192)
1332 - Andronik II Palaiologus, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 1250)
1539 - Isabella d'Este, Italian Renaissance figure (b. 1474)
1542 – Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII of England (b. 1521)
1571 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian artist (b. 1500)
1592 - Jacopo Bassano, Italian painter (b. 1510)
1600 - Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (b. 1538)
1608 - Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian Prince (b. 1526)
1660 – Charles X, King of Sweden (b. 1622)
1662 – Elizabeth of Bohemia (b. 1596)
1693 - Johann Kaspar Kerli, German organist and composer (b. 1627)
1728 - Cotton Mather, American Puritan minister (b. 1663)
1741 - Johann Joseph Fux, Austrian composer (b. 1660)
1787 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (b. 1717)
1787 - Roger Joseph Boscovich, Croat-Italian physicist (b. 1711)
1813 - Samuel Ashe, Governor of North Carolina (b. 1725)
1837 - Mariano Jose de Larra, Spanish journalist and writer (b. 1809)
1883 – Richard Wagner, German composer (b. 1813)
1888 - Jean-Baptiste Lamy, French-American archbishop (b. 1814)
1889 - Joao Mauricio Wanderley, Brazilian magistrate and politician (b. 1815)

1901 – 2000

1905 - Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter (b. 1844)
1906 - Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
1909 - Hugo Egmont Horring, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1842)
1916 - Carlos Antonio Mendoza, 3rd President of Panama (b. 1856)
1934 - Jozsef Pusztai, Slovenian-Hungarian writer (b. 1864)
1942 - Epitacio Pessoa, President of Brazil (b. 1865)
1943 - Neyyire Neyir, Turkish actress (b. 1902)
1954 - Agnes MacPhail, Canadian politician (b. 1890)
1956 - Jan Lukasiewicz, Polish mathematician (b. 1878)
1958 – Dame Christabel Pankhurst, British suffragette (b. 1880)
1958 - Georges Rouault, French painter (b. 1871)
1964 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist (b. 1902)
1968 - Mae Marsh, American actress (b. 1895)
1974 - Ustad Amir Khan, Indian classical singer (b. 1912)
1975 - Andre Beaufre, French general (b. 1902)
1976 - Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian military leader (b. 1938)
1976 - Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (b. 1904)
1980 – Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician (b. 1905)
1982 - Zeng Jinlian, tallest woman ever (b. 1964)
1988 - John Curulewski, American guitarist (Styx) (b. 1950)
1991 - Arno Breker, German sculptor (b. 1900)
1992 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)
1993 - Willoughby Gray, British actor (b. 1916)

From 2001

2002 – Waylon Jennings, American musician (b. 1937)
2004 - Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen politician (b. 1952)
2005 – Maurice Trintignant, French racing driver (b. 1917)
2006 – Peter Frederick Strawson, British philosopher (b. 1919)
2007 - Johanna Sallstrom, Swedish actress (b. 1974)
2008 – Kon Ichikawa, Japanese movie director and producer (b. 1915)
2008 – Henri Salvador, French singer and guitarist (b. 1917)
2010 – John Reed, British singer of Gilbert and Sullivan (b. 1916)
2011 – Inese Jaunzeme, Latvian javelin thrower (b. 1932)
2013 - Pieter Kooijmans, Dutch politician (b. 1933)
2014 - Balu Mahendra, Indian moviemaker and screenwriter (b. 1939)
2014 - Richard Moller Nielsen, Danish footballer and coach (b. 1937)
2014 - Piero D'Inzeo, Italian equestrian show jumper (b. 1923)
2014 - Ralph Waite, American actor (b. 1928)
2015 - Kesava Reddy, Indian writer (b. 1946)
2015 - Stan Chambers, American journalist (b. 1923)
2016 - Antonin Scalia, United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1936)
2016 - O. N. V. Kurup, Indian poet, lyricist and politician (b. 1931)
2016 - Trifon Ivanov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1965)
2016 - Christopher Zeeman, British mathematician (b. 1925)
2017 - Sara Coward, British actress (b. 1948)
2017 - Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of Kim Jong-un (b. 1971)
2017 - Jan Grabowski, Polish speedway rider (b. 1950)
2017 - Lucky Pulpit, American-trained racehorse (b. 2001)
2017 - E-dubble, American rapper (b. 1982)
2017 - Harold Denton, American public servant (b. 1936)
2017 - Bruce Lansbury, English-American television producer (b. 1930)
2017 - Seijun Suzuki, Japanese director, screenwriter and actor (b. 1923)
2018 - Joseph Bonnel, French footballer (b. 1939)
2018 - Dobri Dobrev, Bulgarian ascetic and philanthropist (b. 1914)
2018 - Tito Francona, American baseball player (b. 1933)
2018 - Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark (b. 1934)
2018 - Josefina Samper, Spanish communist and feminist (b. 1927)

Observances

World Radio Day