February 13th - This Date in History.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Events:C/P.
1322 – The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th-13th.
1462 – Treaty of Westminster is finalised between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
1503 – Disfida di Barletta – famous challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
1542 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
1572 – Elizabeth I of England issues a proclamation which revokes all commissions on account of the frauds which they had fostered.
1575 – Henry III of France is crowned at Rheims, marrying Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont on the same day.
1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1660 – With the death of Swedish King Charles X Gustav, the Swedish government can start to seek peace with Sweden's enemies in the Second Northern War – something that Charles X Gustav had refused. As his son and successor on the throne, Charles XI, is only four years old, a regency takes over the ruling of Sweden until 1672.
1668 – Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.
1689 – William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
1692 – Massacre of Glencoe: About 78 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.
1739 – Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1861 – In Gaeta the capitulation of the fortress decreeing the end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is signed.
1867 – Work begins on the covering of the Zenne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
1880 – Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
1881 – The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.
1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
1920 – The Negro National League is formed.
1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital of India.
1934 – The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
1935 – A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the "high-water mark" of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences.
1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game
1955 – Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
1961 – A 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
1971 – Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
1978 – Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1982 – RÃo Negro massacre in Guatemala.
1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
2000 – The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies.
2001 – An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
2004 – The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election.
2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
2009 – At 23:31:30 UTC the Unix system time (time t) number reaches 1234567890 seconds.
2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more.
2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.
2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Today's Canadian Headline...
1937 CANADIAN PRINCE VALIANT
New York City - Halifax native Harold Foster 1892-1982 publishes his first Prince Valiant comic strip, calling his original creation 'an illustrated historical novel.' Famed for its superb medieval detail, the strip was Foster's masterpiece, and he would write and illustrate it for the next 42 years; he had already drawn the Tarzan strip from 1929-1937.
1988
Calgary Alberta - Calgary plays host to over 1,800 athletes from 57 countries as the 15th Winter Olympics opening ceremonies take place in Olympic Plaza.
1995 Montreal Quebec - Lucienne Robillard elected for the Liberals as the Party wins 3 bye-elections, keeping two seats in Ottawa and Montreal, winning one from the Bloc Quebecois. The new standings: Liberal 177, BQ 53, Reform 52, NDP 9, PC 2, Ind 2.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - Health Minister Perrin Beatty announces $75-100,000 in compensation for each victim of the drug thalidomide born between 1959 and 1961.
1990 Montreal Quebec - Bombardier proposes $5.3 billion high speed rail link between Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto; based on French TGF (Très Grande Vitesse) train
1985 Montreal Quebec - Denis Lortie found guilty of first-degree murder of 3 Quebec National Assembly workers in his machine gun attack of May, 1984; the Canadian Armed Forces corporal sprayed the chamber with bullets before being calmed.
1981 Ottawa Ontario - Parliamentary committee recommends 65 amendments to original constitutional package.
1974 Quebec - Quebec Court of Appeals denies Indian-Inuit coalition permanent injunction against James Bay power; courts awaiting the outcome of earlier appeal
1973 Quebec Quebec - Gendron Royal Commission on the French Language recommends making French official language of Quebec; Gendron Report
1972 Sapporo, Japan - The 11th Winter Olympic games close at Sapporo; Canada fails to take home a Gold Medal.
1971 Toronto Ontario - William Grenville Davis 1929- chosen Ontario Progressive Conservative leader, succeeding John Robarts.
1969 Montreal Quebec - Terrorist bomb explodes at Montreal and Canadian Stock Exchanges, injuring 27.
1965 Quebec Quebec - Quebec Liquor Board Employees end 70-day strike.
1963 St. Catharines Ontario - John Parmenter Robarts 1917-1982 charters Brock University in St. Catharines; scheduled to open in 1964
1954 Toronto Ontario - Agnes Macphail dies at age 63. A former country school teacher in Grey County, she became Canada's first woman MP in the 1921 federal election, and held her seat until she was defeated in 1940, and became an Ontario MPP. She was a champion of the rights of farmers, women and prisoners was Canada's first woman delegate to the League of Nations.
1947 Leduc Alberta - Vern 'Dry Hole' Hunter strikes oil near Leduc, sparking a new Alberta oil boom; Toronto Stock Exchange lists 40 new Western Canadian oil and gas companies
1907 Portage la Prairie Manitoba - Portage la Prairie incorporated as a city.
1900 Fredericton New Brunswick - Founding of first chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE); women's patriotic and philanthropic organization.
1900 Fredericton New Brunswick - New Brunswick provincial legislature opens first under Confederation.
1841 Kingston Ontario - William Draper & Charles Odgen form Draper-Ogden Ministry until Sept. 1842; two Attorneys General; Robert Baldwin accepts seat on Executive Council.
1833 Toronto Ontario - British American Assurance Company incorporated at York; first insurance company in Ontario
1759 Halifax Nova Scotia - First use of secret ballot in Canada in Nova Scotia Assembly; first legislature in British territory to permit secret voting.
1641 New York USA - Iroquois Confederacy of the Long House formally declares war against New France; still resent Champlain's treaty with the Hurons and Algonquins.
1641 Port Royal Nova Scotia - Charles de St-Etienne de La Tour 1593-1666 ordered to return to France due to pressure from d'Aulnay; his commission revoked ten days later; he disobeys and stays in Acadia.
In World Events...
1990 Soweto South Africa- Nelson Mandela given hero's welcome on return to black township of Soweto; urges moderation to end apartheid.
1984 USSR - Konstantin Chernenko becomes Soviet Premier on death of Yuri Andropov.
1974 USSR - Alexander Solzhenitsyn stripped of Soviet citizenship and deported; Nobel Prize-winning author of the Gulag Archipelago.
1959 USA - First Barbie Doll goes on sale.
1945 Dresden Germany - Allied planes start fire-bombing of Dresden; over 50,000 die as city completely destroyed.
1914 New York City - Founding of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP).
1858 Tanzania - Richard Burton and John Speke the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika.
1692 Glencoe Scotland - John Campbell, heading an English force, leads a massacre of the Macdonald clan.
1689 London England - William of Orange and his wife, Mary, daughter of James II, declared joint sovereigns of Great Britain and Ireland; Parliament adopts Bill of Rights.
1668 Lisbon Portugal - Spain signs the Treaty of Lisbon, recognizing the independence of Portugal.
1542 London England - Catherine Howard executed for adultery; fifth wife of Henry VIII.
End of C/P.