Skip to main content

The Colfax Massacre

Born on This Day

Al Green

1946 -

Soul and gospel singer who scored with mainstream 1970s hits like "Let's Stay Together" and "I'm Still in Love With You."

Eudora Welty

1909 - 2001

Master of the short story who captured the manners and foibles of small-town Mississippi in the 20th century.

Samuel Beckett

1906 - 1989

Nobel-winning Irish playwright famed for experimental and philosophical dramas like "Waiting for Godot."

Al GreenGetty Images

Eudora WeltyGetty Images

Samuel BeckettGetty Images

1976

APR13

The US reintroduces the discontinued and never-popular $2 bill to mark the nation’s bicentennial. The bill carries a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, born on April 13, 1743.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on April 13th

Hail storm kills 1,000 English troops in France

On so-called “Black Monday” in 1360, a hail storm kills an estimated 1,000 English soldiers in Chartres, France. The storm and the devastation it caused also played a part in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. The Hundred Years’ War began in 1337; by 1359, King Edward III of England was actively attempting […]

Handel’s “Messiah” premieres in Dublin

George Frideric Handel’s Messiah oratorio receives its world premiere on April 13, 1742—in the decidedly secular context of a concert hall in Dublin, Ireland. Nowadays, the performance of Handel’s Messiah oratorio at Christmas time is a tradition almost as deeply entrenched as decorating trees and hanging stockings. In churches and concert halls around the world, the most […]

Thomas Jefferson is born

Future President Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s preeminent political theorist, is born on April 13, 1743. Historian and biographer Joseph Ellis has called Jefferson, who had a monumental role in shaping American politics, the American sphinx for his enigmatic character. Since his terms in office, presidents and politicians from […]

Union forces surrender at Fort Sumter

After a 33-hour bombardment by Confederate cannons, Union forces surrender Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. The first engagement of the war ended in Rebel victory. The surrender concluded a standoff that began with South Carolina’s secession from the Union on December 20, 1860. When President Abraham Lincoln sent word to Charleston in early […]

Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City

On April 13, 1870 the Metropolitan Museum of Art is officially incorporated in New York City. The brainchild of American expatriates in Paris and a number of wealthy New Yorkers, the Met would not put on an exhibition until 1872, but it quickly blossomed into one of the world’s premier repositories of fine art, a […]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

British and Gurkha troops massacre hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar Massacre

In Amritsar, India’s holy city of the Sikh religion, British and Gurkha troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh, a city park. Most of those killed were Indian nationalists meeting to protest the British government’s forced conscription of Indian soldiers and the heavy war tax imposed against the Indian people. […]

First nonstop flight from Europe to North America

German pilot Hermann Köhl, Irish aviator James Fitzmaurice and Baron Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, the expedition’s financier, complete the first Europe-to-North-America transatlantic flight, taking off from Ireland and landing safely on a small Canadian island. The prevailing winds in the North Atlantic blow from North America towards Europe, hastening Eastbound airplanes on their way […]

Japan and USSR sign nonaggression pact

During World War II, representatives from the Soviet Union and Japan sign a five-year neutrality agreement. Although traditional enemies, the nonaggression pact allowed both nations to free up large numbers of troops occupying disputed territory in Manchuria and Outer Mongolia to be used for more pressing purposes. The Soviet-Japanese pact came nearly two years after […]

Nazis trap more than 1,000 concentration camp prisoners in a burning barn in Gardelegen massacre

On April 13, 1945, as the Allies cross the Rhine river and push into German territory, a contingent of German soldiers, Hitler Youth and local police transport 4,000 prisoners from the Dora-Mittelblau concentration camp and its satellites to the Gardelegen area. More than 1,000 of these were forced into a large barn, which was set […]

Sidney Poitier becomes first African American to win Best Actor Oscar

On April 13, 1964, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role as a construction worker who helps build a chapel in Lilies of the Field (1963). Poitier was born in 1927, while his parents were visiting the United States from the Bahamas, where his […]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes

On April 13, 1970, disaster strikes 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blows up on Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission. Astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise had left Earth two days before for the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon but were forced to […]

Fans toss candy bars onto field, disrupting MLB game

On April 13, 1978, opening day at Yankee Stadium, the New York Yankees give away thousands of Reggie! bars to fans, who naturally toss them onto the field after star outfielder Reggie Jackson homers in his first at-bat. The grounds crew cleans up the goodies, delaying the game for five minutes. When he played for […]

Serial killer Christopher Wilder dies by suicide

Christopher Wilder dies after a month-long crime spree involving at least 11 young women who have disappeared or been killed. Police in New Hampshire attempted to apprehend Wilder, who was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List, but Wilder apparently shot himself to death in a scuffle with state troopers to avoid capture. Australian-born Wilder […]

Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament for the first time

On April 12, 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods wins the prestigious Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes in Augusta, Georgia. It was Woods’ first victory in one of golf’s four major championships.

Former MLB All-star Mark “The Bird” Fidrych dies in truck accident

On April 13, 2009, former Major League Baseball all-star pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych is found dead at the age of 54 following an accident at his Massachusetts farm involving a Mack truck he was working on. Fidrych, the 1976 American League Rookie of the Year, suffocated when his clothes got tangled in the truck’s […]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

U.S. military drops “Mother of All Bombs” on ISIS tunnel complex

On April 13, 2017, American forces in Afghanistan drop one of the largest non-nuclear weapons ever used by the U.S. military. The “Mother of All Bombs” hits an Islamic State tunnel complex with power equal to 11 tons of explosives. More than 90 Islamic State militants died in the bombing. The strike was the first time […]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement