13 August

582     Maurice becomes Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

1099   Pope Paschal II succeeds Pope Urban II as the 160th pope.

1382   Eleanor of Aragon (died), Queen of Castile (born 1358)

1521    After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés capture Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquer the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

1553    Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland as a heretic.

1624    The French king Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister

1625    Rasmus Bartholin (born), Danish physician, mathematician, and physicist (died 1698)

1666    William Wotton (born), English linguist and scholar (died 1727)

1700   Heinrich von Brühl (born), German politician (died 1763)

1721    Jacques Lelong (died), French bibliographer (born 1665)

1749    Johann Elias Schlegel (died), German poet and critic (born 1719)

1790    William Wentworth (born), Australian journalist, explorer, and politician (died 1872)

1814    Anders Jonas Ångström (born), Swedish physicist (died 1874)

1818    Lucy Stone (born), American activist (died 1893)

1819    Sir George Stokes (born), 1st Baronet, Irish-English mathematician and physicist (died 1903)

1826   René Laennec (died), French physician, invented the stethoscope (born 1781)

1831    Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believes is a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.

1860   Annie Oakley (born), American target shooter (died 1926)

1863   Eugène Delacroix (died), French painter (born 1798)

1866   Giovanni Agnelli (born), Italian businessman, founded Fiat S.p.A (died 1945)

1879    John Ireland (born), English composer (died 1962)

1888   John Logie Baird (born), Scottish engineer, invented the television (died 1946)

1895    Bert Lahr (born), American actor and singer (died 1967)

1898   Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.

1899   Alfred Hitchcock (born), English-American director and producer (died 1980)

1902   Felix Wankel (born), German engineer (died 1988)

1906   The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged.

1910    Florence Nightingale (died), Italian-English nurse (born 1820)

1912    Ben Hogan (born), American golfer (died 1997)

1912    Jules Massenet (died), French composer (born 1842)

1913    First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.

1913    Fred Davis (born), English snooker player (died 1998)

1917    Eduard Buchner (died), German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1860)

1918    Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.

1918    Frederick Sanger (born), English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)

1918    Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.

1919    George Shearing (born), English-American pianist (died 2011)

1919    Rex Humbard (born), American evangelist and television host (died 2007)

1920   Neville Brand (born), American actor (died 1992)

1926    Fidel Castro (born), Cuban lawyer and politician, 15th President of Cuba

1930   Don Ho (born), American singer and ukulele player (died 2007)

1933    Joycelyn Elders (born), American admiral and physician, 15th Surgeon General of the United States

1935    Mudcat Grant (born), American baseball player

1942    Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the “Development of Substitute Materials” project, better known as the Manhattan Project.

1942    Walt Disney’s 5th full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters.

1946    H. G. Wells (died), English journalist and author (born 1866)

1948   Scott Powell (born), American singer (Sha Na Na)

1951    Dan Fogelberg (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2007)

1952    Hughie Thomasson (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Outlaws and Lynyrd Skynyrd) (died 2007)

1958    Otto Witte (died), German acrobat (born 1868)

1960   The Central African Republic declares independence from France.

1961    East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants’ attempts to escape to the West.

1963    Valerie Plame (born), American CIA agent and author

1969    Midori Ito (born), Japanese figure skater

1969    The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York, New York. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.

1972    Kevin Plank (born), American businessman, founded Under Armour

1975    Joe Perry (born), English snooker player

1982   Joe Tex (died), American singer-songwriter (born 1933)

1986   Helen Mack (died), American actress and singer (born 1913)

1986   Way Bandy (died), American make-up artist (born 1941)

1989   Tim Richmond (died), American race car driver (born 1955)

1995    Alison Hargreaves (died), English mountaineer (born 1963)

1995    Mickey Mantle (died), American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1931)

1995    Rob Slater (died), American mountaineer (born 1960)

2004   Julia Child (died), American chef (born 1912)

2007   Brooke Astor (died), American philanthropist (born 1902)

2009   Les Paul (died), American guitarist and songwriter (born 1915)

2012   Helen Gurley Brown (died), American journalist and author (born 1922)

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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