TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, MAY 13, the 133rd day of 2022. There are 232 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
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 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 1972, 118 people died after fire broke out at the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan.
In 1973, in tennis’ first so-called “Battle of the Sexes,” Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 in Ramona, California. (Billie Jean King soundly defeated Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in September.)
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.
In 2019, Doris Day, the sunny blond film star and singer who appeared in comedic roles opposite Rock Hudson and Cary Grant in the 1950s and 1960s, died at her California home at the age of 97.
In 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ coronavirus stay-at-home order, ruling that his administration had overstepped its authority by extending the order for another month.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Buck Taylor is 84. Actor Harvey Keitel is 83. Author Charles Baxter is 75. Actor Zoe Wanamaker is 74. Actor Franklyn Ajaye is 73. Singer Stevie Wonder is 72. Actor Leslie Winston is 66. Producer-writer Alan Ball is 65. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Dennis Rodman is 61. “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, rock musician John Richardson and actor Tom Verica are 58. Actor Susan Floyd is 54. Actor Brian Geraghty is 47. Former NBA player Mike Bibby is 44. Rock musician Mickey Madden (Maroon 5) is 43. Actor Iwan Rheon is 37. Actor-writer-director Lena Dunham and actor Robert Pattinson are 36. Actors Candice Accola King and Hunter Parrish are 35. Folk-rock musician Wylie Gelber (Dawes) and NHL defenseman P.K. Subban are 34. Actor Debby Ryan is 29.