Today In History
On The Way To Today... April 13th
1059 - Pope Nicholas II issued a decree on the election of popes,
declaring that only cardinals would be allowed to elect them.
1742 - The first public performance of George Frideric Handel's
Messiah took place in Dublin, Ireland. By far Handel's most highly
esteemed work, his oratorio was hailed as a musical triumph. Messiah
is divided into three parts representing Christ's birth, death, and
resurrection. Handel's Messiah is still an extremely popular
classical composition:
1796 - The first known elephant to come to the United States arrived
from Bengal, India. It entered the United States through New York
City.
1808 - William Henry Lane, known as "Juda," perfected the tap dance.
1829 - The English Parliament granted freedom of religion to
Catholics.
1848 - Sicily declared its independence from Naples.
1849 - The Hungarian Republic was proclaimed.
1861 - After 34 hours of bombardment, Union forces at Ft. Sumter,
off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to the
Confederates.
1902 - JC Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1919 - The Amritsar massacre took place when British troops shot
nearly 380 of Gandhi's followers.
1932 - The German government banned the Nazi paramilitary groups the
SS and SA.
1935 - London to Australia airline service was introduced by
Imperial Airways and Qantas.
starring with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour opened at
Paramount Theatre in New York City.
1945 - Vienna, the first foreign capital to be occupied by Hitler,
was liberated by the Russians under Fedor Tolbukhin.
1957 - Elvis Presley's All Shook Up rocketed to the Number 1 spot on
Billboard's record charts on this date, remaining in the top spot
for 8 weeks.
1958 - Van Cliburn from Kilgore, Texas, won 1st prize in the Soviet
Russia.
1959 - A Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics for voting for
Communists.
1961 - On Broadway, "Carnival" opened at the Imperial Theatre in New
York City, starring Anna Maria Alberghetti. It ran for 719
performances.
1964 - Sidney Poitier became the first male black to win a Best
Actor Oscar for his engaging performance in Lilies of the Field on
this date. Poitier unwittingly became the symbol of black pride
accomplishment in films, and found it, at times, a difficult crown
to wear.
1967 - Random House published Ira Levin's controversial novel
Rosemary's Baby. The best-selling novel was about satanic
worshippers and how they involved an innocent woman to bear the
child of Satan. The novel was later adapted into a successful film,
with ingenue actress Mia Farrow cast in the role of Rosemary. The
Catholic Church condemned the film, which contained a disturbing
rape scene with the Devil. During its filming, her husband, Frank
Sinatra, filed for divorce.
running musical, "Grease," closed, earning $8 million.
1981 - Janet Cook won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, but
later said her prize-winning story in "The Washington Post" was
fake. She said she made up the story and passed it off as true. Her
"Village Voice".
1982 - United States Secretary of State Alexander Haig returned to
Washington after failed attempts in London and Buenos Aires to
settle the Falkland Islands dispute diplomatically.
1985 - After 60 years on radio, "The Grand Ole Opry", a staple from
Nashville, Tennessee, came to television. The Nashville Network
aired the country music jamboree to 22-million homes in the United
States.
1985 - We Are the World, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel
Ritchie and performed by USA for Africa, shot up to Number 1 on
Billboard's record charts and stayed there for 4 weeks.
1986 - Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters Tournament with a 9 under
par 279.
1990 - The Soviet Union admitted for the first time that it was
responsible for the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish officers at
Katyn, Poland.
1996 - The Brussels conference of aid donors for Bosnia ended with a
pledge to donate 1.23 billion dollars to rebuild the country.
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