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On this day in history - April 13

What Happened On This Day – April 13

  • 1997 Tiger Woods becomes the youngest ever golfer to win the Masters Tournament

    The then 21-year old sportsman was also the first person of African heritage to win a major golf title. Tiger Woods is considered one of the most successful golfers of all time.

  • 1970 An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, leaving the spacecraft crippled

    The emergency prompted Jack Swigert's famous quote “Houston, we've had a problem”. The crew managed to return to Earth safely.

  • 1970 Mikis Theodorakis is freed

    The Greek composer and politician was interned in the concentration camp of Oropos by the right-wing military junta. The solidarity movement demanding his release included Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, and Harry Belafonte.

  • 1960 The world's first satellite navigation system is launched

    Transit 1B was primarily used by the U.S. Navy to update the navigation systems aboard their Polaris submarines.

  • 1919 British troops massacre around 400 unarmed civilians in India

    Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, in his own words “to punish the Indians for disobedience.” The Indian independence movement grew considerably after the Amritsar massacre.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
April 13

  • 1963 Garry Kasparov

    Russian chess player

  • 1949 Christopher Hitchens

    English/American journalist, author

  • 1924 Stanley Donen

    American director, choreographer

  • 1906 Samuel Beckett

    Irish/French author, playwright, director, Nobel Prize laureate

  • 1743 Thomas Jefferson

    American politician, 3rd President of the United States

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
April 13

  • 2009 Harry Kalas

    American sportscaster

  • 1954 Angus Lewis Macdonald

    Canadian politician

  • 1938 Grey Owl

    English/Canadian environmentalist, author

  • 1882 Bruno Bauer

    German historian, philosopher

  • 1868 Tewodros II

    of Ethiopia