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Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated

Born on This Day

Robert Louis Stevenson

1850 - 1894

British author of classic 19th-century novels such as "Treasure Island" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Whoopi Goldberg

1955 -

EGOT-winning comedian and actor best known for her roles in "Ghost" and "Sister Act."

Jimmy Kimmel

1967 -

Comedian and long-time host of ABC's late-night talk show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Robert Louis StevensonBettmann Archive

Whoopi GoldbergBruce Glikas/WireImage

Jimmy KimmelWireImage

1927

NOV13

The Holland Tunnel connecting Manhattan to Jersey City opens at midnight to thousands of cars waiting to drive through the world’s longest underwater vehicular tunnel. Earlier that day, some 20,000 pedestrians walked the entire 9,250-foot length.

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 November 13th

Patriots take Montreal

On November 13, 1775, Continental Army Brigadier General Richard Montgomery takes Montreal, Canada, without opposition. Montgomery’s victory owed its success in part to Ethan Allen’s disorganized defeat at the hand of British General and Canadian Royal Governor Guy Carleton at Montreal on September 24, 1775. Allen’s misguided and undermanned attack on Montreal led to his […]

General George McClellan snubs President Lincoln

On November 13, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln pays a late night visit to General George McClellan, who Lincoln had recently named general in chief of the Union army. The general retired to his chambers before speaking with the president. This was the most famous example of McClellan’s cavalier disregard for the president’s authority. Lincoln had […]

Ballinger-Pinchot scandal erupts

The Ballinger-Pinchot scandal erupts when Colliers magazine accuses Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of shady dealings in Alaskan coal lands. It is, in essence, a conflict rooted in contrasting ideas about how to best use and conserve western natural resources. Ballinger was an appointee of President William Taft, the man who had succeeded the […]

Indiana Textbook Commission member charges that Robin Hood is communist

In an example of the lengths to which the “Red Scare” in America is going, Mrs. Thomas J. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission calls for the removal of references to the book Robin Hood from textbooks used by the state’s schools. Mrs. White claimed that there was “a communist directive in education now to […]

The Amityville murders

On the tragic evening of November 13, 1974, a young man shoots and kills his entire family with a 35-caliber Marlin rifle as his parents, two brothers and two sisters apparently sleep. The gruesome murder of the DeFeo family shakes up the sleepy Long Island town of Amityville—and leads to decades of horror storytelling. Ronald […]

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Karen Silkwood dies in mysterious one-car crash

On November 13, 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood is killed in a car accident near Crescent, Oklahoma, north of Oklahoma City. Silkwood worked as a technician at a plutonium plant operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation, and had been critical of the plant’s health and safety procedures. In September, she had complained to the Atomic Energy Commission […]

Darryl Dawkins breaks his first backboard

On November 13, 1979, in the middle of a game at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins leaps over Kansas City Kings forward Bill Robinzine and slam-dunks the basketball, shattering the glass backboard. The result, according to people who were at the game, was a sound like a bomb going […]

Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts in Colombia, burying more than 23,000

On the evening of November 13, 1985, around 9 p.m., the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia violently erupts. Within two to three hours, a fast-moving flow of mud, ice, rocks and lava called a lahar travels more than 60 miles, burying towns. It would kill more than 23,000 people, injure upward of 5,000 and […]

ISIL stages series of terrorist attacks in Paris, culminating in massacre at Bataclan theater

On November 13, 2015, a cell of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant commits a string of terrorist attacks across Paris, killing 131 and injuring over 400. It was the deadliest day in France since World War II, as well as the deadliest operation ISIL has carried out in Europe to date. 2015 […]

Kim Ng named first female MLB general manager

On November 13, 2020, veteran front-office official Kim Ng breaks several glass ceilings simultaneously when she is named General Manager of the Miami Marlins. Ng is the first woman and first person of East Asian descent to lead a Major League Baseball front office, as well as the first female GM in the history of […]

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