On this day...

1601 John Lancaster leads first East India Company voyage from London
1635 Oldest US public institution, Boston Latin School, founded
1678 Tycho Brahe first sketches "Tychonic system" of solar system
1689 British Parliament adopts Bill of Rights
1741 Andrew Bedford publishes first American magazine (The American Magazine)
1795 First state university in US opens, University of North Carolina
1799 First US law regulating insurance, passed by Massachusetts
1809 French take Saragossa, Spain after a long siege
1832 First appearance of cholera (London)
1837 Riot in NY over high price of flour
1861 First military action to result in Congressional Medal of Honor, Arizona: Colonel Bernard Irwin attacks & defeats hostile Chiricahua Indians
1866 Jesse James holds up his first bank, Liberty, Missouri
1886 Painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversy over use of male nudes in a coed art class
1895 Moving picture projector patented
1914 American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) forms in NYC
1920 National Negro Baseball League organized
1935 First US surgical operation for relief of angina pectoris, Cleveland
1937 "Prince Valiant" comic strip appears; known for historical detail
1937 Maribel Vinson wins her 9th US figure skating championship
1937 NFL Boston Redskins move to Washington
1945 Fire-bombing of Dresden begins; 50,000 die
1945 USSR captures Budapest, after 49-day battle with Germany
1955 Israel acquires 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls
1957 Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizes in New Orleans
1959 Barbie doll goes on sale
1959 Miro Cardon, premier of Cuba, resigns
1960 France explodes its first atomic bomb, in Algerian desert
1976 Dorothy Hamill wins Olympic figure-skating gold, Innsbruck, Austria
1977 Eric Heiden is first American to win world speed skating championship
1979 Washington State's Hood Canal Bridge breaks up in windstorm
1981 Longest sentence published by NY Times-1286 words
1983 World Boxing Council becomes first to cut boxing from 15 to 12 rounds
1984 Konstantin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as USSR leader
1989 Salvadoran army attacks Encuentros hospital, rapes, kills patients
1990 Larry Bird (Celtics) ends NBA free throw streak of 71 games
1990 US, England, and France give Germany the OK to reunify

Birthdays which occurred on February 13th:

1682 Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Venice, painter (Fortune Teller)
1764 Talleyrand, France, Napoleon's foreign minister
1805 Peter Dirichlet, Germany, number theorist
1849 Lord Randolph Churchill, England, politician, Winston's father
1852 Johan Dreyer, Danish astronomer
1861 Uchimura Kanzo, Tokyo, religious writer (How I Became a Christian)
1870 Leopold Godowsky, Lithuania, virtuoso pianist/composer
1883 Harold "Hal" Chase, baseball player/manager
1885 Bess Truman, First Lady (1945-52)
1887 Alvin York, famed US WWI soldier (Sergeant York)
1892 Grant Wood, artist (American Gothic)
1892 Robert Houghwout Jackson, Supreme Court justice (1941-54)
1902 Blair Moody, New Haven CT, (Sen-Mich)
1903 Georges Simenon, Belgium, mystery writer (Snow Was Black)
1910 William B. Shockley, London, US physicist (Nobel 1956)
1912 Jose de Capriles, US, fencer (Olympic-1936, 48, 52)
1914 George Kleinsinger, San Bernardino, CA, composed "Tubby the Tuba"
1915 Lyle Betther, Philly, actor (Harry-Grand Jury, Lone Ranger)
1916 James Griffith, LA Calif., actor (Sheriff of Cochise)
1917 Polly Rose, actress (Myrtle-Love That Jill)
1918 Patty Berg, Minn, golfer (1943, 1955 AP Sports Woman of the Year)
1919 Eddie Robinson, winningest college football coach (Grambling)
1919 Joan Edwards, NYC, singer (Joan Edwards Show)
1919 Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bristol TN, country singer/actor
1923 Chuck Yeagar, first man to break the sound barrier
1930 Dotty McGuire, Middletown Oh, singer (McGuire Sisters)
1934 George Segal, actor (Carbon Copy, Fun with Dick & Jane)
1937 Susan Oliver, NYC, actress (Ann-Peyton Place)
1938 Oliver Reed, England, actor (Big Sleep)
1941 Bo Svenson, Goteborg Sweden, actor (North Dallas 40, Walking Tall)
1942 Carol Lynley, NYC, actress (Night Stalker, Fantasy Island, Immortal)
1944 Peter Tork, Washington DC, singer/actor (Monkees)
1944 Stockard Channing, NYC, actress (Grease)
1950 Peter Gabriel, British rocker (Genesis and solo career)
1951 David Naughton, Hartford CT, actor (My Sister Sam, Seperate Vacations)
1952 Ed Gagliardi, bassist (Foreigner)
1953 Sharon Wyatt, Lebanon Tenn, actress (Tiffany-General Hospital)
1955 Scott Smith, rocker (Loverboy)
1958 Mark Fox, congas/percussionist (Haircut 100-Nobody's Fool)
1960 Michael Craig, rock bassist (Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me)
1961 Les Warner, rocker (Cult-Fire Woman)
1966 Freedom Williams, rock vocalist (C&C Music Factory-Everbody Dance Now)

Deaths which occurred on February 13th:

1542 Katherine Howard, Fifth wife of Henry VIII, is beheaded
1602 Alexander Nowell, English churchman, dean of St Paul's
1882 Henry Highland Garnet, diplomat, dies at 66 in Monrovia, Liberia
1883 Richard Wagner, composer, dies at 69 in Venice
1960 Delmar G. Roos, designer of the Jeep, dies at 79
1963 Harry Steers, bowling hall of famer
1965 Jerry Burke, pianist (Lawrence Welk Show)
1976 General Murtala Mohammed, head of Nigeria, killed during a coup
1980 David Janssen, actor (Fugitive, Harry O), dies at 49
1982 Zeng Jinlian, Hunan China, grew to 8'1" (tallest woman) dies at 17
1983 Marian Nixon, actress, dies of cancer at 78