TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, APRIL 13, the 103rd day of 2018. There are 262 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots.
In 1613, Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, was captured by English Capt. Samuel Argall in the Virginia Colony.
In 1742, “Messiah,” the oratorio by George Frideric Handel featuring the “Hallelujah” chorus, had its first public performance in Dublin, Ireland.
In 1743, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born in Shadwell in the Virginia Colony.
In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, Fort Sumter in South Carolina fell to Confederate forces.
In 1953, “Casino Royale,” Ian Fleming’s first book as well as the first James Bond novel, was published in London by Jonathan Cape Ltd.
In 1958, Van Cliburn of the United States won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition for piano in Moscow; Russian Valery Klimov won the violin competition. In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.”
In 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)
In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in the first recorded papal visit of its kind to a Jewish house of worship.
In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city’s century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie director Stanley Donen is 94. Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is 85. Actor Lyle Waggoner is 83. Actor Paul Sorvino is 79. Rhythm-and-blues singer Lester Chambers is 78. MovieTV composer Bill Conti is 76. Rock musician Jack Casady is 74. Singer Al Green is 72. Actors Ron Perlman and William Sadler are 68. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 55. Actor Ricky Schroder is 48. Rock singer Aaron Lewis (Staind) is 46. Actor Bokeem Woodbine is 45. Singer Lou Bega is 43. Actress Allison Williams is 30. Actress Hannah Marks is 25.