What Happened On
It Takes Balls
February 13, 1971
U.S. Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew hits three spectators with golf balls during the Bob Hope Desert Classic. On his first drive, he sliced hitting a man and his wife with the same ball. After apologizing, he hit his next shot into the gallery striking a woman in the ankle, sending her to the hospital for x-rays.
The previous year at the same tournament, he hit teammate Doug Sanders in the back of the head.
Mata Hari Captured
February 13, 1917
Mata Hari is captured in France during World War I. She was sentenced to death as a German spy. During her execution she refused a blindfold and blew a kiss to her firing squad.
Col. B.J.D. Irwin
Col. B.J.D. Irwin
First Action to Earn a U.S. Medal of Honor
February 13, 1861
Col. B.J.D. Irwin leads his troops against the Apache Indians in Arizona, for which he was honored in 1894.
The U.S. Army accused Apache Chief Cochise of kidnapping a 12-year-old boy. When he denied the charges, Second Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom took Cochise, his brother, and his nephews hostage; however, Cochise managed to escape. Cochise then captured a group of Americans and negotiated to exchange them for his family members. When the army refused, Cochise killed his hostages. The army responded by killing Cochise's brother and nephews. Bascom then led an army mission of 60 men after Cochise to rescue the boy, but soon found themselves besieged by Cochise and themselves in need of rescue. Irwin was sent on the rescue mission with only 14 men. He was able to trick Cochise into thinking he had a much larger army, causing Cochise and his men to flee thus saving Bascom and his men.
It was later discovered that the boy had not been kidnapped by Cochise, but by a different Apache group. The boy went on to live with the Apaches, becoming an Apache warrior and later joined the U.S. Army's Apache scouts.
These events are considered the beginning of U.S. and Apache Indian wars.
French Explode Their First Atomic Bomb
February 13, 1960
The French explode a plutonium fission device, becoming the fourth atomic power after the U.S., USSR, and the U.K. The bomb had a yield of 70 kilotons.
Lindbergh Kidnapping
February 13, 1935
Bruno Hauptmann is found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's 20-month-old son. Hauptmann was arrested for the crime in September 1934 after using one of the ransom money bills at a gas station. $14,600 of the $50,000 of ransom money was found in his garage. Hauptmann claimed the money was left with him by his former business partner who returned to Germany, where he died March 29, 1934. A search of Hauptmann's home found further evidence linked to the crime.
Hauptmann was found guilty of first degree murder and executed by electric chair in 1936. He claimed his innocence to the end, and turned down a last-minute offer to commute his sentence to life-without-parole in exchange for a confession.
Rube Foster
Rube Foster
Negro National League
February 13, 1920
The first successful Negro baseball league is formed by a group of team owners at a Kansas City YMCA. It existed until 1931. The league was led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants.
First Magazine Published in America
February 13, 1741
The American Magazine, published by Andrew Bradford and edited by John Webbe.
Birthdays
Peter Tork (Peter Halsten Thorkelson)
Born February 13, 1942 d. 2019
American singer, musician, actor. Keyboardist and bass guitarist for "The Monkees." Music: Last Train to Clarksville (1966) and I'm a Believer (1966). TV: The Monkees (1966-68).
Susan Oliver as Vina/Orion Slave Girl
Susan Oliver as Vina/Orion Slave Girl
Susan Oliver (Charlotte Gercke)
Born February 13, 1932 d. 1990
American actress, director, aviator. Oliver played green-skinned Vina in the original Star Trek pilot The Cage (1964). Due to the raciness of the scene, it was not used; however, two years later, Oliver's performance was used in the two-part episode The Menagerie (1966) as the green-skinned Orion Slave Girl.
An accomplished pilot, she was the fourth woman to fly a single-engine aircraft solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the second to do it from New York City (1967), and one of the first women to pilot a Learjet. TV: Peyton Place (1966, Susan Howard) and Days of Our Lives (1975-76).
Chuck Yeager
Born February 13, 1923 d. 2020
American test pilot, flying ace. He was the first person to break the sound barrier during level flight (1947).
(left to right) Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain
(left to right) Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain
William Shockley
Born February 13, 1910 d. 1989
American Nobel-winning physicist. He and his team, which included John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain of Bell Laboratories, invented the transistor. The transistor was a solid-state replacement for the larger more fragile vacuum tube. His team's work in semiconductors won them the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics. He moved and started his company in Palo Alto, California to be closer to his ailing mother. His company and its offshoots turned that area into what is now known as Silicon Valley. His beliefs in eugenics and the intellectual inferiority of the African race marred his standing in the scientific community.
American Gothic, by Grant Wood, 1930
American Gothic, by Grant Wood, 1930
Grant Wood
Born February 13, 1891 d. 1942
American artist. Known for his paintings of the rural American Midwest. Paintings: American Gothic (1930). The models for American Gothic were his sister and his dentist.
Randy Moss
Born February 13, 1977
American football wide-receiver. Quote: "It was a once-in-a-lifetime catch that only happens every so often."
Peter Gabriel
Born February 13, 1950
English rock singer. Music: Shock the Monkey (1982). He co-founded and starred with Genesis (1967-75).
Stockard Channing (Susan Stockard)
Born February 13, 1944
American actress. Film: The Fortune (1975) and Grease (1978).
Carol Lynley (Carole Ann Jones)
Born February 13, 1942 d. 2019
American actress, child model. Film: Return to Peyton Place (1961, Allison MacKenzie) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972, the ship's singer. Her character performed the Oscar-winning song "The Morning After", however, it was dubbed by Renee Armand).
At age 15, she appeared on the cover of Life magazine.
Oliver Reed
Born February 13, 1938 d. 1999
English actor. He died during the filming of Gladiator. Even though the film was completed using CGI and a mannequin, he was posthumously nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. Film: Oliver! (1968), The Three Musketeers (1974, Athos), Tommy (1975, Frank - "Tommy doesn't know what day it is. He doesn't know who Jesus was or what praying is."), Gladiator (2000).
George Segal
Born February 13, 1934 d. 2021
American actor. Film: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Oscar nomination). TV: Just Shoot Me! (1997-2003, Jack Gallo) and The Goldbergs (2013-21, Albert "Pops" Solomon).
Kim Novak (Marilyn Pauline Novak)
Born February 13, 1933
American actress. Film: Vertigo (1958).
Tennessee Ernie Ford (Ernest Jennings Ford)
Born February 13, 1919 d. 1991
American Grammy-winning country singer. Music: Ballad of Davy Crockett (1955) and Sixteen Tons (1955, #1).
Patty Berg
Born February 13, 1918 d. 2006
American Hall of Fame golfer. She won the first U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship (1946), and was founder and first president of The Ladies Professional Golf Assn. (1950). Her 15 major title wins is the all-time record for most major wins by a female golfer.
Bud Blake (Julian W. Blake)
Born February 13, 1918 d. 2005
American cartoonist. Creator of Tiger.
Bess Truman
Born February 13, 1885 d. 1982
American First Lady, wife of U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
Alexander VII
Born February 13, 1599 d. 1667
Italian religious leader, 237th Pope (1655-67).
Deaths
Left to right: Jacinta Marto, Lúcia dos Santos, and Francisco Marto
Left to right: Jacinta Marto, Lúcia dos Santos, and Francisco Marto
Sister Lúcia dos Santos (Lúcia de Jesus Rosa Santos)
Died February 13, 2005 b. 1907
Roman Catholic Carmelite nun. She claimed that at the age of ten she and her two cousins, Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto, saw and were spoken to by the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal (1917) in what became known as the Our Lady of Fatima visions. Both of her cousins died several years after the sighting in the Great Influenza Epidemic.
Waylon Jennings
Died February 13, 2002 b. 1937
American Grammy-winning Country Music Hall of Fame singer. He was supposed to be on the plane that crashed in 1959 and killed Buddy Holly in what became known as the Day the Music Died. But, he had offered his seat to J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson who had the flu and didn't want to ride the cold bus. He had jokingly commented to Holly before the flight, "I hope your ol' plane crashes", a comment that he regretted the rest of his life.
Music: Turn the Page (1985) Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, and the theme song for TV's The Dukes of Hazzard (he also narrated the show).
Antonin Scalia
Died February 13, 2016 b. 1936
U.S. Supreme Court justice (1986-2016). Scalia on abortion, "The States may, if they wish, permit abortion on demand, but the Constitution does not require them to do so."
The Waltons (Waite on left)
The Waltons (Waite on left)
Ralph Waite
Died February 13, 2014 b. 1928
American actor. TV: The Waltons (1972-81, patriarch John Walton) and NCIS (2008-15, father of Leroy Jethro Gibbs).
Dick Weber
Died February 13, 2005 b. 1929
American bowler, 4-time All-Star Tournament winner (1962-63, 65-66), 3-time Bowler of the Year (1961, 63, 65). He and Earl Anthony are widely credited for having increased bowling's popularity in the United States.
Martin Balsam
Died February 13, 1996 b. 1919
American Oscar-winning actor. Film: Psycho (1960, Det. Milton Arbogast). TV: Archie Bunker's Place (1979-83, Archie's partner Murray Klein).
Zeng Jinlian
Died February 13, 1982 b. 1964
Chinese giant, world's tallest woman (8 ft. 1 3/4 in.).
David Janssen (David Harold Meyer)
Died February 13, 1980 b. 1931
American actor. TV: The Fugitive (1963-67, Dr. Richard Kimble).
First Camels Imported to the U.S. for Commercial Purposes - And the Legend of the Red Ghost
David Dixon Porter
Died February 13, 1891 b. 1813
American admiral. In 1856 he became the first person to import camels in the U.S. for commercial purposes.
Porter brought over a shipload of 33 camels from Turkey in February. They were unloaded in Texas the following May, but by then there were 34 camels as one had died and two were born and survived the trip.
Congress had appropriated $30,000 for the camel acquisition to be used in experiments to determine their suitability for use in the military.
In 1883, one of the camels from the military that ended up in the wild is believed to have inspired the Arizonan stories of the Red Ghost, a large, red camel, with a bleached human skeleton riding on its back. Tales of the Red Ghost spread throughout Arizona and grew taller each time the stories were told, with the Red Ghost being 30-feet (9 m) tall and killing and eating a grizzly bear. The sightings continued for 10 years until 1893 when a farmer saw the Red Ghost with its skeleton rider on his land and shot and killed it. The identity of the skeleton has never been determined.
Richard Wagner
Died February 13, 1883 b. 1813
German opera composer. Music: Ring cycle (1876) and Lohengrin (1850).
Honorius II (Lamberto Scannabecchi)
Died February 13, 1130 b. 1060
religious leader, 163rd Pope (1124-30).