History of 13 May
1911 – The New York Giants set a major league baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the game against St. Louis.
1912 – Royal Flying Corps was established in England.
1913 – Igor Sikorsky flew the first four-engine aircraft.
1917 – Near Fatima, Portugal, three peasant children reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.
1918 – The first airmail postage stamps were issued with airplanes on them. The denominations were 6, 16, and 24 cents.
1927 – “Black Friday” occurred in Germany.
1940 – Winston Churchill made his first speech as the prime minister of Britain.
1949 – The first gas turbine to pump natural gas was installed in Wilmar, AR.
1954 – U.S. President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.
1958 – French troops took control of Algiers.
1958 – U.S. Vice President Nixon’s limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
1967 – Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run.
1968 – Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.
1975 – Hailstones the size of tennis balls hit Waterville, TN.
1982 – The Chicago Cubs became the first major league baseball team to win 8,000 games.
1985 – Tony Perez became the oldest major league baseball player to hit a grand slam home run at the age of 42 and 11 months.
1985 – A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group’s headquarters. Eleven people died in the fire that resulted.
1998 – India did a second round of nuclear tests. The first round had been done 2 days earlier. Within hours the U.S. and Japan imposed tough economic sanctions. India claimed that the tests were necessary to maintain India’s national security.
1999 – In Moscow, the impeachment of Russian President Boris Yeltsin began.
2003 – The U.S. government unveiled a newly designed version of the $20 bill. It was the first to be colorized in an effort to stop counterfeiters.
2005 – Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan; Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates.
2006 – São Paulo violence: Rebellions occur in several prisons in Brazil.
2011 – Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others.
2012 – Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
2013 – Kermit Gosnell, a U.S. abortion physician, is found guilty in Pennsylvania of three counts of murder of newborn infants, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and various other charges. In total, more than 100 babies were killed at Gosnell’s abortion clinic.
2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.
2018 – Nine people die after the suicide bombing of three Indonesian churches in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Luciana Berger, English politician
- 1981 – Nicolas Jeanjean, French rugby player
- 1981 – Sunny Leone, Canadian American actress, model, and pornstar
- 1981 – Michael Mantenuto, American actor, college ice hockey player, and a non-commissioned officer of the United States Army (d. 2017)
- 1981 – Shaun Phillips, American football player
- 1981 – Ryan Piers Williams, American actor and film director
- 1982 – Albert Crusat, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Larry Fonacier, Filipino basketball player
- 1982 – Oguchi Onyewu, American soccer player
- 1983 – Natalie Cassidy, English actress and singer
- 1983 – Anita Görbicz, Hungarian handball player
- 1983 – Johnny Hoogerland, Dutch cyclist
- 1983 – Grégory Lemarchal, French singer
- 1983 – Jacob Reynolds, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Yaya Touré, Ivorian footballer
- 1984 – J. B. Cox, American baseball player
- 1984 – Benny Dayal, Indian singer
- 1984 – Dawn Harper, American hurdler
- 1984 – Caroline Rotich, Kenyan runner
- 1985 – Javier Balboa, Spanish-Equatoguinean footballer
- 1985 – Jaroslav Halák, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1985 – David Hernandez, American baseball player
- 1985 – Carolina Luján, Argentine chess player
- 1985 – Iwan Rheon, Welsh actor and singer
- 1985 – Travis Zajac, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Lena Dunham, American actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1986 – Eun-Hee Ji, South Korean golfer
- 1986 – Robert Pattinson, English actor
- 1986 – Alexander Rybak, Belarusian-Norwegian singer-songwriter, violinist, and actor
- 1986 – Scott Sutter, English footballer
- 1986 – Nino Schurter, Swiss cyclist
- 1986 – Kris Versteeg, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Antonio Adán, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Hugo Becker, French actor
- 1987 – Matt Doyle, American actor, and singer
- 1987 – Laura Izibor, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1987 – Candice King, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1987 – Sandro Mareco, Argentine chess player
- 1987 – Hunter Parrish, American actor, and singer
- 1987 – Marianne Vos, Dutch cyclist
- 1987 – Charlotte Wessels, Dutch singer-songwriter
- 1987 – Bobby Shuttleworth, American soccer player
- 1988 – Paulo Avelino, Filipino actor, and singer
- 1988 – Didier Cohen, Australian DJ, producer, and media personality
- 1988 – Casey Donovan, Australian singer-songwriter
- 1989 – P. K. Subban, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Mychal Givens, American baseball player
- 1991 – Anders Fannemel, Norwegian ski jumper
- 1992 – Bill Arnold, American ice hockey player
- 1992 – Willson Contreras, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1992 – Josh Papalii, New Zealand-Australian rugby league player
- 1992 – Georgina García Pérez, a Spanish tennis player
- 1993 – Stefan Kraft, Austrian ski jumper
- 1993 – Debby Ryan, American actress and singer
- 1993 – Romelu Lukaku, Belgian footballer
- 1993 – Siim-Tanel Sammelselg, Estonian ski jumper
- 1994 – Łukasz Moneta, Polish footballer
- 1997 – Reimis Smith, Australian rugby league player