Today is Monday, April 13, the 103rd day of 2009. There are 262 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On April 13, 1743, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born in Shadwell, Va.
ON THIS DATE
In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. (The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.)
In 1742, Handel’s “Messiah” was first performed publicly in Dublin, Ireland.
In 1909, author Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Miss.
In 1958, American pianist Van Cliburn, 23, won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for “Lilies of the Field.”
In 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)
In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in the first recorded papal visit of its kind to a Jewish house of worship.
In 1999, right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in the lethal injection of a Lou Gehrig’s disease patient. (Kevorkian ended up serving eight years.)
In 2004, Barry Bonds hit his 661st homer, passing Willie Mays to take sole possession of third place on baseball’s career list.
In 2008, A construction worker’s bid to curse the New York Yankees by planting a Boston Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled when the home team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot.
Associated Press
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