TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, the 134th day of 2020. There are 232 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1940, in his first speech as British prime minister, Winston Churchill told Parliament, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
In 1568, forces loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots were defeated by troops under her half-brother and Regent of Scotland, the Earl of Moray, in the Battle of Langside, thwarting Mary’s attempt to regain power almost a year after she was forced to abdicate.
In 1607, English colonists arrived by ship at the site of what became the Jamestown settlement in Virginia (the colonists went ashore the next day).
In 1914, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis was born in Lafayette, Alabama.
In 1916, one of Yiddish literature’s most famous authors, Sholem Aleichem, died in New York at age 57.
In 1917, three shepherd children reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary near Fatima, Portugal; it was the first of six such apparitions that the children claimed to have witnessed.
In 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamp, costing 24 cents and featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, was publicly issued. (On some of the stamps, the “Jenny” was printed upside down, making them collector’s items.)
In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, were spat upon and their limousine battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 1972, 118 people died after fire broke out at the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan.
In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and
seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped a bomb onto the group’s row house, igniting a fire that killed 11 people and destroyed 61 homes.
In 1992, the Falun Gong movement had its beginnings in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated federal appeals Judge Stephen G. Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun; Breyer went on to win Senate confirmation.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Buck Taylor is 82. Actor Harvey Keitel is 81. Author Charles Baxter is 73. Actress Zoe Wanamaker is 72. Actor Franklyn Ajaye is 71. Singer Stevie Wonder is 70. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich is 68. Actress Leslie Winston is 64. Producerwriter Alan Ball is 63. Basketball Hallof-Famer Dennis Rodman is 59. “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, rock musician John Richardson (The Gin Blossoms) and actor Tom Verica are 56. Singer Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 54. Actress Susan Floyd is 52. Contemporary Christian musician Andy Williams (Casting Crowns) is 48. Actor Brian Geraghty is 45. Actress Samantha Morton and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., are 43. Former NBA player Mike Bibby is 42. Rock musician Mickey Madden (Maroon 5) is 41. Actor Iwan Rheon is 35. Actress-writer-director Lena Dunham and actor Robert Pattinson are 34. Actress Candice Accola King and actor Hunter Parrish are 33. Folk-rock musician Wylie Gelber (Dawes) and NHL defenseman P.K. Subban are 32. Actress Debby Ryan is 27.