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more events on April 13
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1979
The world’s longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours.
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1976
The U.S. Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.
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1970
An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.
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1964
Sidney Poitier becomes the first black individual to win an Oscar for best actor.
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1961
The U.N. General Assembly condemns South Africa because of apartheid.
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1960
The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth’s orbit.
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1945
Vienna falls to Soviet troops.
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1943
Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.
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1941
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1939
Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, Nobel laureate.
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1933
The first flight over Mount Everest is completed by Lord Clydesdale.
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1922
John Gerard Braine, British novelist (Room at the Top).
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1919
British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.
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1909
Eudora Welty, Southern writer (Delta Wedding, The Optimist’s Daughter).
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1906
Samuel Beckett, playwright, Nobel Prize winner (Waiting for Godot).