13 April History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1598    -    The Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots.
  • 1775    -    Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.
  • 1861    -    After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.
  • 1865    -    Union forces under Gen. Sherman begin their devastating march through Georgia.
  • 1902    -    J.C. Penny opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
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  • 1919    -    British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.
  • 1933    -    The first flight over Mount Everest is completed by Lord Clydesdale.
  • 1941    -    German troops capture Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
  • 1943    -    Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.
  • 1945    -    Vienna falls to Soviet troops.
  • 1960    -    The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth's orbit.
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  • 1961    -    The U.N. General Assembly condemns South Africa because of apartheid.
  • 1964    -    Sidney Poitier becomes the first black to win an Oscar for best actor.
  • 1970    -    An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.
  • 1976    -    The U.S. Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.
  • 1979    -    The world's longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours.

  • 13 April Birthdays

  • 1721    -    John Hanson, first U.S. President under the Articles of Confederation.
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  • 1732    -    Frederick Lord North, British prime minister (1770-82).
  • 1743    -    Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States (1801-09)
  • 1852    -    Frank W. Woolworth, American retailer.
  • 1866    -    Butch Cassidy [Robert LeRoy Parker], American outlaw and leader of the Wild Bunch.
  • 1899    -    Alfred Butts, inventor of the board game Scrabble.
  • 1906    -    Samuel Beckett, playwright, Nobel Prize winner (Waiting for Godot).
  • 1909    -    Eudora Welty, Southern writer (Delta Wedding, The Optimist's Daughter).
  • 1922    -    John Gerard Braine, British novelist (Room at the Top).
  • 1939    -    Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, Nobel laureate.