February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 319 days remaining, 320 in
leap years.
- 1130 - Innocent II is voted Pope
- 1542 - Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
- 1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
- 1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation
- 1689 - William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England
- 1692 - Massacre of Glencoe
- 1866 - Jesse James robs his first bank
- 1880 - Thomas Edison becomes the first person to observe the Edison Effect.
- 1894 - Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector[?]
- 1914 - Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
- 1920 - The National Negro Baseball League is formed.
- 1924 - King Tut's tomb is opened
- 1935 - A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Richard Hauptmann[?] guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby boy.
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces capture Budapest, Hungary from the Nazis.
- 1945 - World War II: The British Air Force[?] bombs Dresden, Germany.
- 1955 - Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
- 1960 - Nuclear testing: France tests its first atomic bomb.
- 1971 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
- 1984 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1988 - 1988 Winter Olympic Games[?] open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- 1990 - German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
- 1991 - Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad killing hundreds of Iraqis. Iraqi officials claim that the bunker was a bomb shelter but United States military intelligence identified it as a military facility.
- 1997 - Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery .
- 2000 - The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers a day after Charles M. Schulz died.
- 2001 - An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
- 2002 - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood.
- 1682 - Giovanni Battista Piazzetta[?], painter (+ 1754)
- 1873 - Feodor Chaliapin[?], operatic bass (+ 1938)
- 1885 - Bess Truman[?], First Lady, wife of President Harry S Truman
- 1892 - Grant Wood, painter (+ 1942)
- 1903 - Georges Simenon, thriller writer (+ 1989)
- 1910 - William Bradford Shockley, physicist, social commentator
- 1919 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, musician (+ 1991)
- 1923 - Chuck Yeager, pilot
- 1930 - Ernst Fuchs[?], painter and graphic artist
- 1933 - Kim Novak, actress
- 1934 - George Segal[?], actor
- 1938 - Oliver Reed[?], actor (+ 1999)
- 1941 - Sigmar Polke[?], painter
- 1942 - Peter Tork, musician and actor
- 1944 - Jerry Springer, television host
- 1950 - Peter Gabriel, musician
- 1958 - Pernilla August[?], actress
- 1961 - Henry Rollins, musician
- 1974 - Robbie Williams, Pop singer
See Also: February 12 -
February 14 -
January 13 -
March 13 - more
historical anniversaries
February 12 - February 14 - January 13 - March 13 - more historical anniversaries