April 13 - Very Important Date

Very Important Date

This Day In History

1742

George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

1796

The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.

1870

Metropolitan Museum of Art incorporated, opening to the public in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue.

1902

James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

1943

The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.

1958

American Van Cliburn wins the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

1960

The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

1964

At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field^*.

1970

An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.

1974

Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

1997

Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

Famous Birthdays

1506

Peter Faber, French Jesuit theologian (d. 1546)

1570

Guy Fawkes, English Catholic conspirator (d. 1606)

1715

John Hanson, President of the United States in Congress Assembled (d. 1783)

1743

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)

1771

Richard Trevithick, English engineer and inventor (d. 1833)

1866

Butch Cassidy, American outlaw (d. 1908)

1889

Herbert Osborne Yardley, American cryptographer (d. 1958)

1892

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1973)

1899

Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and Scrabble inventor (d. 1993)

1906

Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1989)

1919

Howard Keel, American actor, singer, and president of the Screen Actors Guild (d. 2004)

1931

Jon Stone, co-creator of Sesame Street (d. 1997)

1939

Paul Sorvino, American actor

1950

Ron Perlman, American actor

1951

Peter Davison, English actor

1952

Erick Avari, British-Indian actor

1963

Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player1976

Jonathan Brandis, American actor (d. 2003)

1983

Hunter Pence, American baseball player

* - And not, as most people assume, for his comic tour-de-force in 1992's Sneakers.