DAY IN HISTORY

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Today is the 134th day of 2020 and the 56th day of spring.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his “blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech to the British House of Commons as Germany’s conquest of France began.

In 1943, the German Afrika Korps surrendered to Allied forces in North Africa.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and critically injured by would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

In 1985, two blocks of Philadelphia were destroyed by fire after police dropped an incendiary device on the headquarters of MOVE, a black liberation group.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Pope Pius IX (1792-1878); Joe Louis (1914-1981), boxer; Bea Arthur (19222009), actress; Harvey Keitel (1939- ), actor; Ritchie Valens (19411959), singer-songwriter; Stevie Wonder (1950- ), singer-songwriter/pianist; Stephen Colbert (1964- ),

TV personality; Darius Rucker (1966- ), singersongwriter; Barry Zito (1978- ), baseball player; Lena Dunham (1986- ), actress; Robert Pattinson (1986- ), actor.

TODAY’S FACT: Mehmet Ali Agca returned to the Vatican on Dec. 27, 2014, to lay flowers at the tomb of Pope John Paul II, the man he had attempted to assassinate 33 years earlier. His request to meet Pope Francis was denied.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1995, Alison Hargreaves of Great Britain became the first woman to scale

Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen or the help of Sherpas.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “There’s an old saying about those who forget history. I don’t remember it, but it’s good.” — Stephen Colbert

TODAY’S NUMBER: 154,908 — total salary (in British pounds) of the British prime minister in 2019 (around $192,751). The salary of the president of the United States is $400,000.

TODAY’S MOON:

Between full moon (May 7) and last quarter moon (May 14).