May 13
It’s Frog Jumping Day and Leprechaun Day and National Apple Pie Day
ON THIS DAY…
1568 At the Battle of Langside the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother
1607 Jamestown, Virginia is founded; it is the first permanent English settlement in America
1637 The table knife was created by Cardinal Richelieu in France – until this time, daggers were used to cut meat, as well as to pick one’s teeth; Richelieu had the points rounded off all of the knives to be used at his table
1648 Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck
1787 Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia
1846 President James Polk signs a declaration of war on Mexico two months after fighting begins
1861 Britain declared its neutrality in the American Civil War
1865 In far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee’s surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory
1871 The Law of Guarantees in Italy declares the Popes person inviolable and allows him possession of the Vatican
1873 Ludwig M. Wolf patented the sewing machine lamp holder
1880 In Menlo Park, NJ Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway
1884 The Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) was founded
1888 Slavery was abolished in Brazil; some 4 million slaves had been imported, the most of any nation in the western hemisphere
1890 Nikola Tesla was issued a patent for an electric generator
1908 The three-day Conference of Governors opened at the White House, called by President Theodore Roosevelt to consider the problems of conservation; it was attended by the governors of the states and territories, the members of the Supreme Court and the Cabinet, scientists, and various national leaders
1912 The Royal Flying Corps was established in England; it was the predecessor of the Royal Air Force
1913 Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft
1917 Three peasant children claim to see the Blessed Virgin Mary above a holmoak tree in Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal
1918 The first US airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced; on some of the initial stamps, the airplane was printed upside down, making them collectors items
1927 ‘Black Friday’ in Germany, signalling the collapse of its economic structure
1939 The first commercial FM radio station in the US is launched in Bloomfield, CT; the station later became WDRC-FM
1940 In his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
1940 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the Nazi invasion in the Netherlands to Britain; Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety
1941 Martin Bormann, is named head of the Nazi Party Chancellery in Germany, following Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess’ mysterious flight to Scotland
1943 German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces
1949 The first gas turbine to pump natural gas was installed at Wilmar, AR by the Mississippi River Fuel Corp
1950 Diner’s Club issued its first credit cards
1955 Elvis Presley’s performance at Jacksonville, FL, became the first Presley show at which a riot ensued
1958 Velcro’s trade mark is registered
1968 Talks between North Vietnamese and American negotiators begin in Paris aimed at ending the Vietnam War
1970 The Beatles film Let it Be premiered in New York
1979 The French comedy La Cage aux Follesopened in US movie theaters
1981 John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca; the shots hit the popes hand and penetrated his abdomen
1991 Apple released Macintosh System 7.0
1992 Three American astronauts from th US space shuttle Endeavour, walk simultaneously in space for the first time – retrieving and repairing the Intelsat-6 satellite – in a walk lasting almost 8 and a half hours
1992 The final episode of the Night Court airs on NBC-TV
2004 The last episode of Frasier airs on NBC-TV
BORN:
1842 Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist W. S. Gilbert, including the still-popular H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado
1857 Sir Ronald Ross, bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria
1907 Dame Daphne du Maurier, novelist, playwright and short story writer (Rebecca, “The Birds”, “Don’t Look Back”)
1914 Joe Louis, known as “The Brown Bomber”, he is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxing champions who has ever lived; he held the title for over 11 years, recording 25 successful defenses of the title
1923 Beatrice Arthur, two-time Emmy Award-winning actress (Maude, The Golden Girls, Caesar’s Hour, The Star Wars Holiday Special)
1927 Herbert Ross, producer-director-choreographer (Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Owl and the Pussycat, Funny Lady, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Footloose)
1937 Roger Zelazny, writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels; he won the Nebula award three times and the Hugo award six times
1939 Harvey Keitel, actor (Taxi Driver, Saturn 3, The Last Temptation of Christ, Thelma & Louise, Bugsy, Reservoir Dogs)
1941 Ritchie Valens, singer, songwriter and guitarist (“Come On, Let’s Go”, “Donna”, “La Bamba”)
1944 Armistead Maupin, writer best known for his Tales of the City series of novels
1946 Tim Pigott-Smith, actor (Holby Blue, V for Vendetta, Johnny English, The Remains of the Day, The Jewel in the Crown, Doctor Who)
1946 Marv Wolfman, comic book writer who is best known for lengthy runs on Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics
1947 Stephen R. Donaldson, fantasy, science fiction and mystery novelist (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, Mordant’s Need)
1949 Zoë Wanamaker, actress (My Family, Prime Suspect 1, Love Hurts, Gormenghast, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Doctor Who)
1950 Stevie Wonder (Steveland Morris Hardaway), singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer; Wonder has recorded more than thirty top ten hits, won twenty-five Grammy Awards (a record for a solo artist), plus one for lifetime achievement, won an Academy Award for Best Song and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame
1952 David Byrne, Grammy Award-winning musician, songwriter and artist (Talking Heads); won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su on The Last Emperor
1957 Alan Ball, director, Academy Award-winning screenwriter (American Beauty, Six Feet Under, Grace Under Fire)
1964 Stephen Colbert, actor, comedian and three-time Emmy Award-winning writer (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report)
1977 Samantha Morton, actress (The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Pandaemonium, Minority Report, The Libertine, Elizabeth: The Golden Age)
DIED:
1835 John Nash, architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London, dies at 83
1930 Fridtjof Nansen, explorer, oceanographer, statesman, and humanitarian who led a number of expeditions to the Arctic and oceanographic expeditions in the North Atlantic; for his relief work after World War I he was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize for Peace, dies at 68
1961 Gary Cooper, two-time Academy Award-winning actor (High Noon,Sergeant York), dies at 60
1973 Dan Blocker, actor (Bonanza, Come Blow Your Horn, Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County), dies at 43
1975 Bob Wills, Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by many music authorities one of the fathers of Western swing, dies at 70
1984 Stanislaw M. Ulam, mathematician who played a major role in the development of the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos; he solved the problem of how to initiate fusion in the hydrogen bomb by suggesting that compression was essential to explosion and that shock waves from a fission bomb could produce the compression needed, dies at 75
1985 Leatrice Joy, silent film actress (The Window Dresser’s Dream, The Handy Man, The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, The Ten Commandments), dies at 91
2000 Paul Bartel, actor-writer-director (Eating Raoul, Cannonball!, Grand Theft Auto, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City, Hamlet), dies at 61
2001 Jason Miller, character actor (Rudy, The Exorcist, Toy Soldiers, Monsignor), diest at 62