Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

February 13

1971
Vice-Pres. Spiro Agnew hits three spectators with a golf balls during the Bob Hope Desert Classic.

1960
The French explode their first atomic bomb: They become the fourth atomic power by exploding a plutonium fission device.

1935
Lindbergh kidnapping: Bruno Hauptmann is found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's 20-month-old son, for which he was later executed.

1917
World War I: Mata Hari is captured in France. She was sentenced to death as a German spy. During her execution she refused a blind fold and blew a kiss to her firing squad.

1861
First action to earn a U.S. Medal of Honor: Col. B.J.D. Irwin leads his troops against the Apache Indians in Arizona, for which he was honored in 1894.

1741
First magazine published in America, the American Magazine, published by Andrew Bradford and edited by John Webbe.

1635
First public school in American opens, the Boston Latin School.

1950
Peter Gabriel, English rock singer. Music: Shock the Monkey (1982). He co-founded and starred with Genesis (1966-75).

1944
Stockard Channing (Susan Stockard), American actress. Film: The Fortune (1975) and Grease (1978).

1944
Peter Tork (Peter Torkelson), American singer, actor, one of "The Monkees." Music: Last Train to Clarksville (1966) and I'm a Believer (1966).

1938
Oliver Reed, English actor. Film: The Three Musketeers (1974, Athos).

1934
George Segal, American actor. Film: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Oscar nomination).

1933
Kim Novak (Marilyn Pauline Novak), American actress. Film: Vertigo (1958).

1923
Chuck Yeager, American pilot, first person to break the sound barrier during level flight (1947).

1919     d. 1991
Tennessee Ernie Ford (Ernest Jennings Ford), American Grammy-winning country singer. Music: Ballad of Davy Crockett (1955) and Sixteen Tons (1955, #1).

1918
Patty Berg, golfer, won the first U.S. Women's Open golf championship (1946), founder and first president of The Ladies Professional Golf Assn. (1951).

1918
Bud Blake (Julian W. Blake), American cartoonist, created Tiger.

1892     d. 1942
Grant Wood, American artist, American Gothic.

1885     d. 1982
Bess Truman, American first lady, wife of Pres. Harry S. Truman.

1599     d. 1667
Alexander VII, Italian religious leader, 237th Pope (1655-67).

2005     b. 1907
Sister Lucy dos Santos (Lúcia de Jesus Rosa Santos), Roman Catholic Carmelite nun. She claims that at the age of ten she saw and was spoken to by the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal (1917).

2005     b. 1929
Dick Weber, American bowler, 4-time All-Star Tournament winner (1962-63, 65-66), 3-time Bowler of the Year (1961, 63, 65).

1982     b. 1964
Zeng Jinlian, Chinese giant, world's tallest woman (8 ft. 1 3/4 in.). (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1980     b. 1930
David Janssen (David Harold Meyer), American actor. TV: The Fugitive (Dr. Richard Kimble). He won the 1930 Sears, Roebuck title of Prettiest Baby.

1891     b. 1813
David Dixon Porter, American admiral. In 1856 he became the first person to import camels in the U.S. for commercial purposes.

1883     b. 1813
Richard Wagner, German opera composer, the Ring cycle (1876).

1818     b. 1752
George Rogers Clark, military leader of the American Revolution.

1130     b. ????
Honorius II, religious leader, 163rd Pope (1124-30).

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