12 History Lessons + 6 Births & 5 Deaths for April 13, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1598 – The Edict of Nantes is signed by King Henry IV of France, granting religious freedom to Huguenots.
- 1742 – George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah premieres in Dublin, Ireland.
- 1829 – The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics through the Catholic Emancipation Act.
- 1849 – Hungary declares independence from Austria during the Hungarian Revolution.
- 1861 – Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces, marking the first official victory of the Civil War.
- 1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
- 1902 – James Cash Penney opens his first retail store in Wyoming (later JCPenney).
- 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. on Thomas Jefferson’s 200th birthday.
- 1964 – Sidney Poitier becomes the first Black actor to win the Best Actor Oscar (Lilies of the Field).
- 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, endangering the mission.
- 1997 – Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament by a record margin, becoming the youngest champion at age 21.
- 2017 – U.S. military drops the “MOAB,” its most powerful non-nuclear bomb, in Afghanistan.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1940 – Al Green, soul singer and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer (Let’s Stay Together) (85)
- 1951 – Peabo Bryson, Grammy-winning R&B singer (A Whole New World) (74)
- 1961 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess grandmaster and former world champion (64)
- 1965 – Dana Barron, actress (National Lampoon’s Vacation) (60)
- 1970 – Rick Schroder, actor (Silver Spoons, NYPD Blue) (55)
- 1975 – Lou Bega, pop singer known for Mambo No. 5 (50)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1901 – William Ernest Henley, British poet (Invictus) (53)
- 1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer and stellar classification pioneer (77)
- 1945 – Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (70)
- 1966 – Abdul Salam Arif, President of Iraq (45)
- 2005 – Johnnie Cochran, American attorney famous for defending O.J. Simpson (67)
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