TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, MAY 13, the 133rd day of 2021. There are 232 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date 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 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 1914, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis was born in Lafayette, Alabama. 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 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 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 1961, actor Gary Cooper died in Los Angeles six days after turning 60. In 1967, a vault fire at Metro-GoldwynMayer in Culver City, California, destroyed hundreds of the studio’s early films. 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 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. In 2002, President George W. Bush announced that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign a treaty to shrink their countries’ nuclear arsenals by two-thirds. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Buck Taylor is 83. Actor Harvey Keitel is 82. Author Charles Baxter is 74. Actor Zoe Wanamaker is 73. Actor Franklyn Ajaye is 72. Singer Stevie Wonder is 71. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich is 69. Actor Leslie Winston is 65. Producerwriter Alan Ball is 64. Basketball Hallof-Famer Dennis Rodman is 60. “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, rock musician John Richardson (The Gin Blossoms) and actor Tom Verica are 57. Singer Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 55. Actor Susan Floyd is 53. Actor Brian Geraghty is 46. Actor Samantha Morton and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., are 44. Former NBA player Mike Bibby is 43. Rock musician Mickey Madden (Maroon 5) is 42. Actor Iwan Rheon is 36. Actor-writer-director Lena Dunham and actor Robert Pattinson are 35. Actors Candice Accola King and Hunter Parrish are 34. Folk-rock musician Wylie Gelber (Dawes) and NHL defenseman P.K. Subban are 33. Actor Debby Ryan is 28.