February 13 facts for kids

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 – 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, author 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

• 1978 - Philippe Jaroussky, French tenor
• 1979 – Rafael Marquez, Mexican footballer
• 1979 - Rachel Reeves, English politician
• 1979 – Mena Suvari, American actress
• 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)
• 1787 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (b. 1717)
• 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)
• 1991 - Arno Breker, German sculptor (b. 1900)
• 1992 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)

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