TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, May 13.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
English colonists arrived by ship at the site of what became the Jamestown settlement in Virginia (the colonists went ashore the next day).
ON THIS DATE
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 Metrogoldwyn-mayer 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 (Meh’-met Ah’-lee Ah’-juh).
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 (Poo’-tihn) would sign a treaty to shrink their countries’ nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.
Ten years ago: Two suicide bombers attacked paramilitary police recruits heading home after months of training in northwest Pakistan, killing 87 people in what the Pakistan Taliban called revenge for the U.S. slaying of Osama bin Laden.
Five years ago: The Obama administration issued a directive requiring public schools to permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity. President Barack Obama hosted a state dinner honoring the leaders of Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Norway, following a multilateral summit that Obama used to laud the Nordic states as model global citizens on climate change, security, humanitarian efforts and economic equality.
One year ago: President Donald Trump urged governors to work to reopen schools that were closed because of the coronavirus; he took issue with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s caution against moving too quickly in returning students to class.