Today in history

On May 13, 1607,

the English colony at Jamestown, Va., was settled.

In 1842

composer Arthur Sullivan, who collaborated with William Gilbert in writing 14 comic operas, was born in London.

In 1846

Congress declared a state of war between the U.S. and Mexico.

In 1914

Joe Louis, later a world heavyweight boxing champion, was born in Lafayette, Ala.

In 1917

three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.

In 1918

the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. On some of the stamps, the airplane was printed upsidedown, making them collector’s items.

In 1926

Bernice Frankel, who would become actress Bea Arthur, was born in New York.

In 1939

actor Harvey Keitel was born in New York.

In 1940,

in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

In 1950

singer Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Mich.

In 1954

President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act. Also in 1954 the musical, “The Pajama Game,” opened on Broadway.

In 1958

Vice President Richard Nixon’s limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1981

Pope John Paul II was seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.

In 1985

a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group’s headquarters; 11 people died in the resulting fire.