November 22

September 13

1541 Three years after the Geneva Council banned John Calvin from the city the religious leader returned on September 13, 1541. On returning to Geneva, Calvin began his first sermon with the chapter and verse of the Bible where he had left three years earlier.

Portrait of Young John Calvin from the collection of the Library of Geneva.

1584 San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace was finished on September 13, 1584. The grim monastic palace lies at the the foot of Mt. Abantos about 45 kms (28 mi) northwest of Madrid in Spain. It is considered to be one of Europe's greatest architectural monuments.

1598 King Philip II died in ulcerous agony of cancer at El Escorial, near Madrid, on September 13, 1598. Under Philip II, Spain reached the peak of its power and became the richest and most powerful nation on the planet. However, in spite of the huge quantities of gold and silver flowing into his coffers from the American mines, his country was unable to afford the loss of the Spanish Netherlands and the cost of his overseas adventurism.

1759 Major General James Wolfe was killed on September 13, 1759 during his victorious expedition against Quebec as a result of injuries from three musketeers. Wolfe's part in the taking of Quebec earned him lasting fame back home in Britain. 

The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West

1766 Samuel Wilson, the source of the personification of the United States was born on September 13, 1766. During the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson, a meat-packer from Troy, New York was shipping meat to the government, which was stamped "U.S. Beef." Soldiers fighting in the war with Great Britain began to call this beef Uncle Sam's beef. This begun the association between the "U.S." stamp and the name, 'Uncle Sam.'

1807 The premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Mass in C major, Op. 86 took place on September 13, 1807, at the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria. The mass was commissioned by Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy, a member of the Hungarian nobility and a patron of the arts, for the annual name day celebration of his wife, Princess Maria Josepha Hermenegild. Prince Nikolaus Esterházy expressed his displeasure saying it was, "unbearably ridiculous and detestable." 

1826 The first rhinoceros to be exhibited in the U.S. was shown at Peale's Museum and Gallery of the Fine Arts in New York City on September 13, 1826. The rhinoceros drew large crowds of curious visitors to the museum. This exhibition was part of a broader trend in the 19th century of showcasing exotic animals from around the world in museums and traveling shows.

1874 The Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was born in Vienna on September 13, 1874. Almost entirely self-taught as a composer, Schoenberg modeled his early work on the German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Gradually Schoenberg’s music changed. It became so chromatic that it was no longer in any key at all. When Schoenberg conducted the Vienna Concert Society in a concert of expressionist music on March 31, 1913, it so shocked the audience that they began to riot.

Schoenberg

1887 Theodore Jr. Roosevelt was born to Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Carow on September 13, 1887, He  was known for his World War II service. Despite having a heart condition and arthritis that forced him to use a cane, he led the first wave of landings at Utah Beach on D-Day, becoming the only general to land with his soldiers that day, for which he received the Medal of Honor.

1888 The Reverend Hannibal Goodwin was an Episcopal priest at the House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey. He was motivated to search for a non-breakable, and clear substance on which he could place the images he utilized in his Biblical teachings. He received a patent for his celluloid photographic film on September 13, 1888. Goodwin's transparent, flexible roll film was used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, an early machine for viewing animation.


1899 69-year-old Henry Hale Bliss was the first person killed by a motor vehicle accident in the US. On September 13, 1899 he was disembarking from a streetcar at West 74th Street and Central Park West in New York City, when an electric-powered taxicab struck him. Arthur Smith, the driver of the taxicab, was arrested and charged with manslaughter but was acquitted on the grounds that it was unintentional.

1902 Harry Jackson was the first person to be convicted of a crime in the UK based on fingerprint evidence. He was arrested for stealing billiard balls from a shop in Birmingham, England. The police found his thumbprint on a window sill near the crime scene, and he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison.

1916 Children's novelist and short story writer Roald Dahl was born to Norwegian parents, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales on September 13, 1916. Dahl was named after the polar explorer Roald Amundsen, a national hero in Norway at the time. Posted to America in 1942, to work at the British Embassy during World War II, his stint at the British Embassy helped him realize his talent for writing. He discovered this skill while penning propaganda for American newspapers.


1922 In 1922 there were a series of riots in New York over whether it was acceptable to wear a straw hat after September 15th. It originated as a brawl on September 13, 1922 when a group of youths started removing and stomping hats worn by factory workers. The fights escalated and spread to the beating of men wearing straw hats past the unofficial date that was deemed socially acceptable, September 15. The riots lasted eight days, and led to many arrests and some injuries.

1928 Flying ace Douglas Bader took his first flight with his instructor Flying Officer W. J. Pearson in an Avro 504 on September 13, 1928. After just 11 hours and 15 minutes of flight time, he flew his first solo, five months later. Despite losing both legs in a stunt accident, he won 227 victories as a fighter pilot in World War II.

1940 King George VI of the UK and his Queen won admiration during the Second World War as they stayed at Buckingham Palace during the most intense months of the blitz. On September 13, 1940, the King and Queen narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were present. George VI remained there during the remainder of the war, becoming a symbol of resistance and 'fighting spirit'.


1948 Margaret Chase Smith of Maine became the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, when she defeated Democratic opponent and was elected United States senator on September 13, 1948.

1956 The IBM 305 RAMAC was the first commercial computer that used a moving-head hard disk drive (magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage. The first hard disk unit was shipped September 13, 1956. An IBM RAMAC 305 computer was used during the 1960 Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley USA. It was the first time an electronic data processing system was provided for the Games.

1965 American television meteorologist Dick Goddard joined the weather team at WJW-TV, the Fox Broadcasting Company-affiliated television station in Cleveland, Ohio in 1965. He gave his first televised weather forecast on September 13, 1965 and would spend the rest of his career there. He finally retired in 2016 and is certified by The Guinness Book of World Records as having had the longest career of any weather forecaster.

1980 Hercules, a trained grizzly bear, disappeared on a Scottish island while being filmed for a Kleenex television advert. He was finally recaptured on the Isle of North Uist, about 20 miles away after 24 days on the run on September 13, 1980. 


1985 Super Mario Bros, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System on September 13, 1985, established game play concepts and elements prevalent in nearly every Super Mario game since. Super Mario Bros was so popular that at the end of 1985, Japan's highest-selling book was a strategy guide on how to beat the game.

1987 It takes about 63,000 trees to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of The New York Times. The greatest ever strain on paperboys is thought to have been the 1,612-page Sunday edition of The New York Times of September 13, 1987, which weighed 12lb.

1988 Forecasters reported that Hurricane Gilbert's barometric pressure measured 26.13 on September 13, 1988. It was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere until Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The hurricane brought widespread destruction to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.


1991 Kurt Cobain, along with Nirvana bandmates Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic were kicked out of a Nevermind release party for starting a food fight. The date was Friday September 13, 1991. The band was known for their anti-establishment attitude and their willingness to push the boundaries of good taste. The food fight was a fitting way for Nirvana to celebrate the release of their landmark album, which would go on to become one of the most successful albums of all time.

2002 The first known use of the word selfie in print appeared in an Australian internet forum on September 13, 2002. Australian student Nathan Hope posted a picture of his split lip after a drunken party stating. “Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."

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