TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

May 13, 1917

Three shepherd children, Lucia de Jesus dos Santos and two of her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, 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. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1607

English colonists arrived by ship at the site of what became the Jamestown settlement in Virginia.

1846

The United States declared that a state of war already existed with Mexico.

1918

The first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, were issued to the public.

1935

T.E. Lawrence, who earned international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, was critically injured in a motorcycle accident in Dorset, England; he died six days later.

1940

In his first speech as British prime minister, Winston Churchill told Parliament, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

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.

1967

A vault fire at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Culver City, California, destroyed hundreds of the studio’s early films. The Scott McKenzie single “San Francisco” was released.