Today in History

  • Sunday, January 12, 2014 6:48pm
  • Life

Today is Monday, Jan. 13, the 13th day of 2014. There are 352 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight:

On Jan. 13, 1864, American songwriter Stephen Foster, who’d written such classics as “Swanee River,” “Oh! Susanna,” “Camptown Races” and “My Old Kentucky Home” died in poverty in a New York hospital at age 37.

On this date:

In 1898, Emile Zola’s famous defense of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, “J’accuse,” was published in Paris.

In 1941, a new law went into effect granting Puerto Ricans U.S. birthright citizenship. Novelist and poet James Joyce died in Zurich, Switzerland, less than a month before his 59th birthday.

In 1945, during World War II, Soviet forces began a huge, successful offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.

In 1964, Roman Catholic Bishop Karol Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II) was appointed Archbishop of Krakow, Poland, by Pope Paul VI.

In 1978, former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey died in Waverly, Minn., at age 66.

In 1982, an Air Florida 737 crashed into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge after taking off during a snowstorm, killing 78 people; five people survived.

Associated Press

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