Today is Saturday, August 13, the 227th day of 2016. There are 139 days left in the year.
654 ― St Eugene I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1519 ― Magellan’s 5 ship set sail to circumnavigate the Earth
1743 ― Earliest recorded prize fighting rules formulated
1790 ― Robert Gray’s Columbia, completes 1st American around world voyage
1792 ― Mobs in Paris attack the palace of Louis XVI
1809 ― Ecuador declares independence from Spain (National Day)
1821 ― Missouri admitted as 24th US state
1827 ― Race riots in Cincinnati (1,000 blacks leave for Canada)
1831 ― Former slave Nat Turner led violent insurrection against slavery
1833 ― Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200
1835 ― Mob of whites & oxen pulled black school to a swamp out of Canaan NH
1846 ― Congress charters the “nation’s attic,” the Smithsonian Institution
1856 ― Hurricane washes away 2-300 revelers at Last Island, Louisiana
1861 ― Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri
1866 ― Transatlantic cable laid ― Former Pres Buchanan communicates over it to Queen Victoria
1885 ― Leo Daft opens America’s 1st coml operated electric streetcar (Balt)
1887 ― Excursion train crashes killing 101. (Chatsworth, Illinois)
1888 ― NY Giant pitcher Tim Keefe sets a 19 game win streak record
1893 ― Chinese deported from SF under Exclusion Act
1900 ― 1st Davis Cup Tennis Tournament (Mass) US beats England
1901 ― Chic White Sox Frank Isbell strands record 11 teammate base runners
1907 ― Prince Scipone Borchesi wins Peking to Paris, 7,500 mile auto rally
1911 ― Parliament Act reduces power of House of Lords
1913 ― 2nd Balkan War ends, Treaty of Bucharest, Bulgaria loses
1919 ― Ukranian National Army massacres 25 Jews in Podolia Ukrane
1921 ― FDR stricken with polio at summer home on Canadian Is of Campobello
1938 ― 119’F (48’C), Pendleton, Oregon (state record)
1944 ― Boston Brave Red Barrett throws only 58 pitches to beat Reds 2-0
1944 ― Race riots in Athens Alabama
1945 ― Japan announces willingness to surrender to Allies provided the status of Emperor Hirohito remained unchanged
1948 ― ABC enters network TV at 7 PM (WJZ, NY)
1948 ― Allen Funt’s “Candid Camera” TV debut on ABC
1949 ― Natl Military Establishment renamed Dept of Defense
1954 ― Sir Gordon Richards retires as a jockey with record 4,870 wins
1960 ― Discoverer 13 launched into orbit; returned 1st object from space
1961 ― England applies for membership in the European Common Market
1965 ― Joe Engle in X-15 reaches 82 km
1966 ― 1st lunar orbiter launched by US
1966 ― Daylight meteor seen from Utah to Canada. Only known case of a meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere & leaving it again
1973 ― 1st BART train travels thru transbay tube to Montgomery St Station
1975 ― David Frost purchases exclusive rights to interview Nixon
1977 ― Phillies & Expos play a doubleheader that ends at 3:23 AM
1977 ― Postal employee David Berkowitz arrested in Yonkers, NY, accused of being “Son of Sam” the 44 caliber killer
1979 ― Wings release “Getting Closer” & “Baby’s Request”
1980 ― Allen, the most powerful hurricane in Caribbean hits Brownsville, Tx
1980 ― Jack Nicklaus wins PGA Championship for 5th time
1981 ― Coca-Cola Bottling Co agrees to pump $34 million into black business
1981 ― Pete Rose tops Stan Musial’s NL record 3,630 hits
1981 ― The Richard Nixon Museum in San Clemente closes
1984 ― Mary Decker trips on heel of Zola Budd during 3,000m Olympic run
1985 ― Michael Jackson buys ATV Music (every Beatle songs) for $47 million
1985 ― Uno Lindstron of Sweden, juggles a soccer ball 13.11 miles
1986 ― Billy Martin day, Yanks retire #1
1987 ― Flight Readiness Firing of Discovery’s main engines is successful
1988 ― UN estimates Asia’s population hit 3 billion
1990 ― US’s Magellan spacecraft lands on Venus
1991 ― NFL sportscaster Paul Maquire suffers a heart attack at 53