April 13



Events

Up to 1900 
 1111 – Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned.
 1204 – Constantinople falls to the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
 1598 – Henry V of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing religious freedom for Huguenots. The edict is repealed in 1685.
 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah has its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
 1749 - A cyclone off Southeast India sinks British ships HMS Pembroke and HMS Namur, killing 850 people. Only 14 survive.
 1777 - American Revolutionary War; American forces are ambushed and defeated  in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.
 1796 - The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.
 1829 – Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom are granted the right to vote and are allowed to sit in parliament.
 1849 – Hungary becomes a Republic.
 1861 – American Civil War: Fort Sumter, South Carolina, surrenders to Confederate forces.
 1868 - The Abyssynian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Maqdala.
 1870 - New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
 1873 - The Colfax Massacre, in which over 60 African Americans are murdered, takes place in Colfax, Louisiana.

1901  2000 
 1904 – The Russian battleship Petropavlovsk of the Russian Pacific Fleet hits a Japanese mine and sinks. The painter Vasily Vereshchagin is among those who are killed in the incident.
 1909 - The Turkish military reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
 1919 - Establishment of the Provisional Government of Korea.
 1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops gun down at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India. 1,200 are injured.
 1934 – While still under construction, the railway bridge in Saratov, Russia, collapses, killing 150 people.
 1941 – The USSR and Japan sign a pact of neutrality.
 1943 – The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC.
 1943 - World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyn massacre is announced. This causes a rift between the Polish Government-in-exile (based in London) and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
 1944 – The USSR and New Zealand establish diplomatic relations.
 1945 - World War II: German troops kill over 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
 1945 - World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna.
 1948 - Hadassah medical convoy massacre: In an ambush, 79 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital and a British soldier are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarra near Jerusalem.
 1960 - The US launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
 1964 – Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American to win a Best Actor Oscar.
 1970 – Houston, we've had a problem: An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, causing major damage, and putting the crew at risk. They safely return to Earth.
 1972 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China instead of the Republic of China.
 1975 – At least 17 people are killed in a gun battle between Palestinian Guerrillas and Christian militants in Beirut.
 1984 – India annexes territory beyond the Line of Control.
 1986 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first Pope to visit a Jewish place of worship when he visits a synagogue in Rome.
 1987 – Portugal agrees to return Macau to China's control in 1999.
 1992 – In the United Kingdom, the leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, announces his resignation.
 1992 – Chicago is flooded.
 1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the US Masters tournament.

From 2001 
 2002 – Armenian anti-government protests are violently crushed.
 2003 – The National Library in Baghdad is set on fire, with many historical documents being lost.
 2013 - Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum is officially re-opened after a decade-long restoration.
 2014 - A bus crash in Veracruz, Mexico, kills 36 people.
 2017 - The United States drops its biggest-ever non-nuclear bomb in eastern Afghanistan.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1506 - Peter Faber, French theologian (d. 1546)
 1519 – Catherine of Medici, Queen of France (d. 1589)
 1570 – Guy Fawkes, English conspirator (d. 1606)
 1573 - Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1625)
 1593 - Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Stratford, English politician (d. 1641)
 1732 – Frederick North, Lord North, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1792)
 1735 - Isaac Low, American merchant and politician (d. 1791)
 1743 – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)
 1747 - Louis II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793)
 1771 – Richard Trevithick, Cornish engineer (d. 1833)
 1780 - Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer (d. 1868)
 1784 - Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)
 1802 - Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist (d. 1884)
 1808 – Antonio Meucci, Italian inventor (d. 1889)
 1816 - Sterndale Bennett, English composer, pianist and conductor (d. 1875)
 1825 – Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1868)
 1832 - Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorean writer (d. 1889)
 1850 - Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, Irish astronomer (d. 1917)
 1852 - Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman (d. 1919)
 1860 - James Ensor, Belgian painter (d. 1949)
 1864 - Bertha Zuckerkandl, Austrian writer and journalist (d. 1945)
 1866 – Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (d. 1908)
 1872 – Jan Szczepanik, Polish chemist and inventor (d. 1926)
 1872 - John Cameron, Scottish footballer (d. 1935)
 1873 - John W. Davis, American politician (d. 1955)
 1875 - Ray Lyman Wilbur, American doctor, academic and politician (d. 1949)
 1885 - Georg Lukacs, Hungarian philosopher and critic (d. 1971)
 1890 - Frank Murphy, 56th United States Attorney General (d. 1949)
 1891 - Nella Larsen, American author (d. 1964)
 1891 – Robert Scholl, German politician (d. 1973)
 1892 – Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1973)
 1894 – Arthur Fadden, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1973)
 1897 - Werner Voss, German pilot (d. 1917)
 1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and inventor of Scrabble (d. 1993)
 1899 - Alfred Schütz, Austrian philosopher (d. 1959)
 1900 - Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer (d. 1976)

1901  1950 
 1906 – Samuel Beckett, Irish playwright (d. 1989)
 1906 – Gabriel Ramanantsoa, President of Madagascar (d. 1979)
 1907 - Harold Stassen, American politician, 25th Governor of Minnesota (d. 2001)
 1909 - Stanislaw Ulam, Ukrainian-American mathematician (d. 1984)
 1911 - Ico Hitrec, Croatian footballer (d. 1946)
 1917 - Bill Clements, American politician, 42nd Governor of Texas (d. 2011)
 1919 - Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American activist, founder of American Atheists (d. 1995)
 1919 – Howard Keel, American actor (d. 2004)
 1920 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (d. 1982)
 1920 – Liam Cosgrave, Irish Taoiseach (d. 2017)
 1920 - Claude Cheysson, French politician (d. 2012)
 1921 - Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Dutch-Swiss businessman (d. 2002)
 1921 - Dona Ivone Lara, Brazilian singer and composer (d. 2018)
 1922 - John Braine, English novelist (d. 1986)
 1922 – Julius Nyerere, 1st President of Tanzania (d. 1999)
 1923 – Don Adams, American actor (d. 2005)
 1924 - Stanley Donen, American director and choreographer (d. 2019)
 1925 - Michael Halliday, English-Australian linguist (d. 2018)
 1926 - John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English aristocrat and businessman (d. 2014)
 1927 - Maurice Ronet, French actor and director (d. 1983)
 1928 – Alan Clark, English politician (d. 1999)
 1929 - Marilynn Smith, American golfer (d. 2019)
 1930 - Sergiu Nicolaescu, Romanian director, screenwriter and politician (d. 2013)
 1931 - Robert Enrico, French director and screenwriter (d. 2001)
 1931 - Jon Stone, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1997)
 1932 - Orlando Letelier, Chilean-American economist, politician and educator (d. 1976)
 1934 - John Muckler, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and manager
 1937 - Berge Furre, Norwegian politician, historian and theologian (d. 2016)
 1939 – Seamus Heaney, Irish writer (d. 2013)
 1939 – Paul Sorvino, American actor
 1940 – J. M. G. Le Clézio, French writer
 1940 – Max Mosley, English racing executive
 1940 - Jim McNab, Scottish footballer (d. 2006)
 1941 – Michael Stuart Brown, American geneticist
 1941 - Margaret Price, Welsh soprano (d. 2011)
 1942 - Bill Conti, American composer and conductor
 1946 – Al Green, American singer
 1948 - Juan Taverna, Argentine footballer (d. 2014)
 1949 – Christopher Hitchens, British journalist, writer and critic (d. 2011)
 1950 – Ron Perlman, American actor

1951  1975 
 1951 – Peter Davison, British actor
 1951 – Joachim Streich, East German footballer
 1951 - Kaci Kullmann Five, Norwegian politician (d. 2017)
 1951 – Max Weinberg, American drummer
 1951 - Peabo Bryson, American singer
 1953 – Stephen Byers, British politician
 1953 - Brigitte Macron, French teacher, wife of Emmanuel Macron
 1955 - Ole von Beust, German politician, former Mayor of Hamburg
 1960 – Rudi Völler, German footballer
 1962 - Edivaldo Martins Fonseca, Brazilian footballer (d. 1993)
 1962 – Hillel Slovak, Israeli-born guitarist (d. 1988)
 1963 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player
 1964 – Caroline Rhea, Canadian actress
 1964 – Andy Goram, Scottish footballer
 1964 - John Swinney, Scottish politician
 1964 - Davis Love III, American golfer
 1966 – Ali Boumnijel, Tunisian footballer
 1968 - Margrethe Vestager, Danish politician
 1970 - Rick Schroder, American actor and director
 1972 – Mariusz Czerkawski, Polish ice hockey player
 1974 – David Zdrilic, Australian footballer
 1974 - Marta Jandova, Czech singer

From 1976 
 1976 - Valentina Cervi, Italian actress
 1976 - Yoo Ji-tae, South Korean actor and director
 1978 – Carles Puyol, Spanish-Catalan footballer
 1978 - James Jordan, English dancer and choreographer
 1979 – Meghann Shaugnessy, American tennis player
 1979 - Tony Lundon, Irish singer-songwriter, producer and dancer (Liberty X)
 1980 - Quentin Richardson, American basketball player
 1980 - Jason Maguire, Irish jockey
 1980 - Alan Melikdjanian, Latvian-American actor, director and producer
 1981 - Gemma Doyle, Scottish politician
 1981 - Courtney Peldon, American actress
 1983 – Nicole Cooke, Welsh road racing cyclist
 1983 – Schalk Burger, South African rugby player
 1983 - Claudio Bravo, Chilean footballer
 1983 - Heidi Anderson, American voice actress
 1984 - Anders Lindegaard, Danish footballer
 1985 - Anna Jennings-Edquist, Australian actress, director and producer
 1987 - Brandon Hardesty, American actor
 1987 - Allison Weiss, American singer-songwriter
 1988 - Petteri Kopponen, Finnish basketball player
 1988 – Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
 1989 - Nastassia Mionchyk-Ivanova, Belarussian long jumper
 1990 - Alyssa Mendonsa, Indian singer
 1992 - George North, Welsh rugby player
 1993 - Hannah Marks, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 548 - Ly Nam De, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 503)
 814 - Krum, Bulgarian ruler
 1093 – Prince Vsevolod of Kiev (b. 1030)
 1138 - Simon I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1076)
 1592 - Bartolomeo Ammannati, Italian architect and sculptor (b. 1511)
 1605 – Tsar Boris Godunov of Russia (b. 1551)
 1794 - Nicolas Chamfort, French playwright (b. 1741)
 1853 – Leopold Gmelin, German chemist (b. 1788)
 1853 - James Iredell, Jr., American politician, 23rd Governor of North Carolina (b. 1788)
 1868 – Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1818)
 1880 - Robert Fortune, Scottish botanist (b. 1813)
 1882 - Bruno Bauer, German historian and philosopher (b. 1809)

1901  2000 
 1904 – Vasily Vereshchagin, Russian painter (b. 1842)
 1904 – Stepan Makarov, Russian naval commander (b. 1849)
 1911 - John McLane, Scottish-American politician, 50th Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1852)
 1911 - George Washington Glick, American politician, 9th Governor of Kansas (b. 1827)
 1912 – Ishikawa Takuboku, Japanese writer (b. 1886)
 1918 – Lavr Georgevich Kornilov, Russian general (b. 1870)
 1927 – Georg Voigt, German politician (b. 1866)
 1936 - Konstantinos Demertzis, 129th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1876)
 1938 – Grey Owl, English-Canadian conservationist (b. 1888)
 1941 - Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)
 1942 - Anton Uesson, Estonian engineer and politician (b. 1879)
 1945 - Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (b. 1874)
 1954 - Samuel Jones, American high jumper (b. 1880)
 1954 - Angus Lewis Macdonald, Canadian politician, 12th Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1890)
 1956 – Emil Nolde, German painter (b. 1867)
 1962 - Culbert Olson, American politician, 29th Governor of California (b. 1876)
 1966 – Georges Duhamel, French writer (b. 1884)
 1966 - Abdul Salam Arif, 2nd President of Iraq (b. 1921)
 1972 – Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval, Icelandic painter (b. 1885)
 1975 – Larry Parks, American actor (b. 1914)
 1975 - François Tombalbaye, 1st President of Chad (b. 1918)
 1981 – Prince Asaka Yasuhiko of Japan (b. 1887)
 1984 – Richard Hurndall, British actor (b. 1910)
 1999 - Ortvin Sarapu, New Zealand chess player (b. 1924)
 1999 – Willi Stoph, East German politician (b. 1914)
 2000 – Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (b. 1916)

From 2001 
 2002 – Desmond Titterington, Northern Irish racing driver (b. 1928)
 2004 - Caron Keating, English-Irish television host (b. 1962)
 2006 – Muriel Spark, Scottish writer (b. 1918)
 2008 – Mark Speight, English children's television presenter (b. 1965) (body found on this date)
 2008 – John Archibald Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (b. 1911)
 2011 – Buster Martin, French-British marathon runner (b. 1906 or 1913)
 2013 - Lin Yang-kang, Chinese-Taiwanese politician (b. 1927)
 2014 - Ernesto Laclau, Argentine political theorist (b. 1935)
 2014 - Peter Drummond-Murray of Mastrick, Scottish herald and banker (b. 1929)
 2015 - Ronnie Carroll, Northern Irish singer and politician (b. 1934)
 2015 - Thelma Coyne Long, Australian tennis player (b. 1918)
 2015 - Herb Trimpe, American comic book artist (b. 1939)
 2015 - Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, novelist and writer (b. 1940)
 2015 - Günter Grass, German novelist (b. 1927)
 2015 - Orma Slack, Canadian supercentenarian (b. 1903)
 2016 - Mariano Mores, Argentine tango composer and pianist (b. 1918)
 2016 - Manouchehr Sotodeh, Iranian geographer (b. 1913)
 2016 - Gareth Thomas, Welsh actor (b. 1945)
 2016 - Ray Thornton, American attorney and politician (b. 1928)
 2016 - Nera White, American basketball player (b. 1935)
 2017 - Fred Goldsmith, Australian football player (b. 1932)
 2017 - David Mwiraria, Kenyan politician (b. 1938)
 2017 - Dan Rooney, American football executive and diplomat (b. 1932)
 2017 - K. S. Chandrasekharan, Indian-Swiss mathematician (b. 1920)
 2018 - Art Bell, American author and radio host (b. 1945)
 2018 - Joy Laville, English-Mexican sculptor, painter and potter (b. 1923)
 2018 - Milos Forman, Czech-American film director and screenwriter (b. 1932)
 2019 - Francisca Aguirre, Spanish poet (b. 1930)
 2019 - Tony Buzan, English author (b. 1942)
 2019 - Neus Catala, Spanish Resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor (b. 1915)
 2019 - Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist (b. 1925)
 2019 - Norio Kaifu, Japanese astronomer (b. 1943)
 2019 - D. Babu Paul, Indian civil servant (b. 1941)
 2019 - Paul Raymond, English musician (b. 1945)
 2019 - S. K. Shivakumar, Indian rocket scientist (b. 1953)
 2019 - Lydia Wideman, Finnish cross-country skier (b. 1920)
 2019 - Yvette Williams, New Zealand athlete (b. 1929)

Observances 
 Songkan (Laos)
 Songkran (Thailand)
 Cambodian New Year
 Thomas Jefferson's birthday (United States)

Days of the year