13 April History
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.