May 13 in History
609 — Pope Boniface IV turns the Roman Pantheon, given to him by Emperor Phocas, into a Christian church. Commissioned during the reign of Augustus (27BC-14AD), twice destroyed by fire and rebuilt 114AD-126AD, it is one of the bestpreserved ancient Roman buildings.
1787 — Arthur Phillip sets sail from England, with the first 775 convicts (of about 162 000 between 1788 and 1868) to be sent to Australia.
1857 — Dr Ronald Ross, who proves malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, is born in Almora, India. 1842 — Composer Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, is born in London.
1913 — The first four-engine aircraft, the S-21, is flown by its designer Igor Sikorsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 1940 — Sikorsky, now living in the US, makes the first free flight in his VS-300, the world’s first fully functional helicopter.
1914 — Joe Louis, 1937-49 world heavyweight boxing champion, is born in Lafayette, Alabama. 1916 — Sholem Aleichem, 57, Yiddish writer (born in Pereyaslav, Russian Empire), dies in NYC. His “Tevye the Dairyman”, a series of stories about Jewish life in Eastern Europe (published 18941914), inspires “Fiddler on the Roof”.
1922 — Bea Arthur, actress (“Golden Girls”), is born in NYC.
1924 — Harry Schwarz, lawyer, politician, SA Ambassador to the US (1991-95), is born in Cologne, Germany.
1931 — Jim Jones, leader of the religious cult Peoples Temple, is born in Crete, Indiana.
1937 — Trevor Graham Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio to communicate information about Aids to the people of Africa, is born in London. 1935 — Luciano Benetton, co-founder of the Benetton clothing line, is born in Treviso, Italy. 1940 — Queen Wilhelmina arrives in England following the German invasion of the Netherlands. 1941 — Ritchie Valens, singer (“Donna”, “La Bamba”), is born in Los Angeles.
1972 — In Osaka, Japan, 118 die and 81 are injured in a nightclub atop a seven-storey department store when a fire sweeps through the building. 1981 — Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded in St Peter’s Square, Vatican City.
1984 — Gnégnéri Yaya Touré, Ivory Coast soccer player (100 caps), is born in Bouaké.
2013 — Belize authorities say a construction company has essentially destroyed the Nohmul complex, one of the country’s largest Mayan pyramids dating back at least 2 300 years, to extract crushed rock for a road-building project.