What happened today
1865
Famous birthdays
1919
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on February 13
-
1984
Konstantin Chernenko is selected to succeed Yuri Andropov as Party General Secretary in the Soviet Union.
-
1972
Enemy attacks in Vietnam decline for the third day as the United States continues its intensive bombing strategy.
-
1970
General Motors is reportedly redesigning automobiles to run on unleaded fuel.
-
1968
The United States sends 10,500 more combat troops to Vietnam.
-
1953
The Pope asks the United States to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
-
1951
At the Battle of Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contain the Chinese forces’ offensive in a two-day battle.
-
1949
A mob burns a radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.“
-
1945
The Royal Air Force Bomber Command devastates the German city of Dresden with night raids by 873 heavy bombers. The attacks are joined by 521 American heavy bombers flying daylight raids.
-
1936
First social security checks are put in the mail.
-
1933
Kim Novak, actress.
-
1923
Charles “Chuck” Yeager, American test pilot, the first man to break the sound barrier.
-
1922
Harold “Hal” Moore Jr., US Army lieutenant general, author; led 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment at 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley; his best-known book, co-authored with combat journalist Joe Galloway, is “We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young,” an account of that battle.
-
1920
The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, is established by Rube Foster.
-
1919
Tennessee Ernie Ford, country and gospel singer.
-
1914
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is founded.