1293 John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in December 1292. On February 13, 1293, Robert Winchelsey was elected as his successor. Winchelsey left England for Rome on April 1, 1293 to be consecrated by the Pope, only to find that there wasn't one. Celestine V eventually performed the ceremony at Aquila on September 12, 1294.
1542 Henry VIII of England's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was much younger than him. While the elderly king was spending much of his time ill in bed, Catherine surrounded herself with amorous admirers. After her steamy letter to a lover, Thomas Culpeper, found it's way to the king, she was imprisoned at Syon House in Isleworth. Despite Thomas divulging nothing, even under torture, Catherine was beheaded on the grounds of adultery on February 13, 1542.
1816 On February 13, 1816 a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and destroyed part of the building. Following the fire, on the orders of Bourbon monarch King Ferdinand IV, the opera house was rebuilt within ten months. It was rebuilt as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium, 33.5m wide and 30m high.
1867 Work began on the covering of the Senne on February 13, 1867, burying the polluted main waterway in Brussels, Belgium, to allow urban renewal in the center of the city. The series of boulevards created by the project were progressively opened to traffic from 1871 to 1873. The work is one of the defining events in the history of Brussels.
1867 Johann Strauss wrote over 400 waltzes, most notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (better known to the English-speaking world as "The Blue Danube"). Written to celebrate the River Danube that flows through Vienna, it was premiered as a choral piece on February 13, 1867 at a concert of the Vienna Men's Choral Association. Strauss adapted it into a purely orchestral version for the World's Fair in Paris that same year, and it this form that it is best known today.
1883 On February 13, 1883, the German opera composer Richard Wagner died of a heart attack in the Palazzo Vendramin on the Grand Canal. Wagner had a history of health issues, including heart problems, and his health had been deteriorating in the years leading up to his death. Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, premiered in 1882, and he did not live to see its widespread success.
1917 Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle. A Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer, she had relationships with both German and French officers during World War I and was the archetype of the seductive female spy. On February 13, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris. After being put on trial Mata Hari was found guilty of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers.
1542 Henry VIII of England's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was much younger than him. While the elderly king was spending much of his time ill in bed, Catherine surrounded herself with amorous admirers. After her steamy letter to a lover, Thomas Culpeper, found it's way to the king, she was imprisoned at Syon House in Isleworth. Despite Thomas divulging nothing, even under torture, Catherine was beheaded on the grounds of adultery on February 13, 1542.
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| Buccleuch version of portrait miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger |
1816 On February 13, 1816 a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and destroyed part of the building. Following the fire, on the orders of Bourbon monarch King Ferdinand IV, the opera house was rebuilt within ten months. It was rebuilt as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium, 33.5m wide and 30m high.
1867 Work began on the covering of the Senne on February 13, 1867, burying the polluted main waterway in Brussels, Belgium, to allow urban renewal in the center of the city. The series of boulevards created by the project were progressively opened to traffic from 1871 to 1873. The work is one of the defining events in the history of Brussels.
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| Place Royale/Koningsplein, late 19th century |
1867 Johann Strauss wrote over 400 waltzes, most notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (better known to the English-speaking world as "The Blue Danube"). Written to celebrate the River Danube that flows through Vienna, it was premiered as a choral piece on February 13, 1867 at a concert of the Vienna Men's Choral Association. Strauss adapted it into a purely orchestral version for the World's Fair in Paris that same year, and it this form that it is best known today.
1883 On February 13, 1883, the German opera composer Richard Wagner died of a heart attack in the Palazzo Vendramin on the Grand Canal. Wagner had a history of health issues, including heart problems, and his health had been deteriorating in the years leading up to his death. Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, premiered in 1882, and he did not live to see its widespread success.
1898 Oscar Wilde wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol whilst
incarcerated there for homosexual offences. The finished poem was published by
Leonard Smithers on February 13, 1898 under the name C.3.3., which stood for
cell block C, landing 3, cell 3.
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| Wilde's cell in Reading Gaol as it appears today |
1917 Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle. A Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer, she had relationships with both German and French officers during World War I and was the archetype of the seductive female spy. On February 13, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris. After being put on trial Mata Hari was found guilty of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers.
1923 Charles "Chuck" Yeager was born February 13, 1923 to farming parents in Myra, West Virginia. In 1946 he became the first pilot to fly faster than sound when he flew a Bell X-1 rocket research aircraft to a level-flight speed of 670 mph (1,080 kms per hr).
1923 The New York Renaissance was the first all-black professional basketball team. Established February 13, 1923, the Rens won 88 consecutive games, a mark that has never been matched by a professional basketball team. The team was founded by Robert L. "Bob" Douglas. Nicknamed the "Father of Black Professional Basketball", Douglas owned and coached the Rens from 1923 to 1949, guiding them to a 2,318-381 record.
1931 New Delhi was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. The foundation stone of the city was laid by George V, Emperor of India during the Delhi Durbar of 1911.
The construction of the Indian Parliament House took six years. The opening ceremony was performed on January 18, 1927 by the then Governor-General of India, Lord Irwin. Its design is said to be inspired by the circular Chausath Yogini Temple, dated to 1323 AD.
1923 The New York Renaissance was the first all-black professional basketball team. Established February 13, 1923, the Rens won 88 consecutive games, a mark that has never been matched by a professional basketball team. The team was founded by Robert L. "Bob" Douglas. Nicknamed the "Father of Black Professional Basketball", Douglas owned and coached the Rens from 1923 to 1949, guiding them to a 2,318-381 record.
1931 New Delhi was designed by British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker. The foundation stone of the city was laid by George V, Emperor of India during the Delhi Durbar of 1911.
The construction of the Indian Parliament House took six years. The opening ceremony was performed on January 18, 1927 by the then Governor-General of India, Lord Irwin. Its design is said to be inspired by the circular Chausath Yogini Temple, dated to 1323 AD.
1944 Politician and television personality Jerry Springer was born on February 13, 1944, in Highgate Underground station in London, which was being used as a bomb shelter. His family sought refuge there during the air raids on the city.
1946 Since 2012, February 13 has been celebrated by Unesco as World Radio Day. The date was chosen as United Nations Radio was launched on February 13, 1946. United Nations Radio serves as the official radio service of the United Nations, providing news, information, and programming related to the work and activities of the UN across the globe.
1955 Four of the Dead Sea Scrolls were offered up for sale in an advertisement in the 1st June 1954, Wall Street Journal. They were purchased by Israelis Professor Mazar and the son of Professor Sukenik, Yigael Yadin, for $250,000 on February 13, 1955, and brought to Jerusalem.
1960 African American college students staged the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville on February 13, 1960. The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted until May 1960, were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville. The campaign, coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and Nashville Christian Leadership Council, was notable for its early success and emphasis on disciplined nonviolence.
1970 Black Sabbath's self-titled debut LP was released on February 13, 1970. It was arguably the first heavy metal album. William Burroughs is credited with coining the phrase, 'heavy metal.' He used it in his 1961 novel The Soft Machine, describing his character Uranian Willy as "the Heavy Metal Kid."
1981 On February 13, 1981, 11-year-old Donna Griffiths of Pershore, England, caught a cold and started sneezing. She carried on sneezing about every 30 seconds and surpassed the previous duration record of 194 days on July 26, 1981. It was estimated that she sneezed a million times in the first 365 days. Donna finally achieved her first sneeze-free day on September 16, 1983, 978 days later. It's still the world sneezing record.
2000 Peanuts, the syndicated comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, featuring Charlie Brown and his pet Snoopy, was first published in nine newspapers on October 2, 1950. The last original Peanuts comic strip (see below) appeared in newspapers on February 13, 2000, one day after Charles M. Schulz died. With 17,897 strips published in all, Peanuts was arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.
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| Last Peanuts comic strip Wikipedia |
2004 The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced on February 13, 2004, the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallized carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy In The Sky In Diamonds."
2009 Unix time is a system for describing a point in time, defined as an approximation of the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), on January 1, 1970. At 23:31:30 on February 13, 2009 the Unix system time number reached 1234567890 seconds. Parties and other celebrations were held around the world, among various technical subcultures, to celebrate 1234567890 day.
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| Dobri Dobrev in 2006 |
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