History of Today in India – 13 February

Explore the history of today 13 February in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 13 February 2026, 04:24 AM

📜 Important Events on 13 February in World History

• 13 Feb 2021: Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial. Read more
• 13 Feb 2021: A major winter storm causes blackouts and kills at least 82 people in Texas and northern Mexico. Read more
• 13 Feb 2017: Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Read more
• 13 Feb 2012: The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Read more
• 13 Feb 2011: For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. Read more
• 13 Feb 2010: A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more. Read more
• 13 Feb 2008: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. Read more
• 13 Feb 2007: Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. Read more
• 13 Feb 2004: The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Read more
• 13 Feb 2001: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 315. Read more
• 13 Feb 1996: The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre). Read more
• 13 Feb 1991: Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed. Read more
• 13 Feb 1984: Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Read more
• 13 Feb 1983: A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people. Read more
• 13 Feb 1981: A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky. Read more
• 13 Feb 1979: An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) long section of the Hood Canal Bridge. Read more
• 13 Feb 1978: Hilton bombing: A bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman. Read more
• 13 Feb 1975: Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York. Read more
• 13 Feb 1967: American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain. Read more
• 13 Feb 1961: An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. Read more
• 13 Feb 1955: Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls. Read more
• 13 Feb 1955: Twenty-nine people are killed when Sabena Flight 503 crashes into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy. Read more
• 13 Feb 1954: Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game. Read more
• 13 Feb 1951: Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the "high-water mark" of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences. Read more
• 13 Feb 1945: World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army. Read more
• 13 Feb 1945: World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. Read more
• 13 Feb 1935: A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh. Read more
• 13 Feb 1931: The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi. Read more
• 13 Feb 1920: The Negro National League is formed. Read more
• 13 Feb 1914: Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members. Read more
• 13 Feb 1913: The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiates a period of almost four decades of independence. Read more
• 13 Feb 1880: Thomas Edison observes thermionic emission. Read more
• 13 Feb 1867: Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards. Read more
• 13 Feb 1861: Italian unification: The Siege of Gaeta ends with the capitulation of the defending fortress, effectively bringing an end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Read more
• 13 Feb 1849: The delegation headed by Metropolitan bishop Andrei Șaguna hands out to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria the General Petition of Romanian leaders in Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina, which demands that the Romanian nation be recognized. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 13 February in World History

• 13 Feb 2005: Sergio Mestre, Spanish footballer Sergio Mestre Sánchez is a Spanish footballer currently playing as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid Castilla. Read more
• 13 Feb 2003: Raúl Asencio, Spanish footballer Raúl Asencio del Rosario is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for La Liga club Real Madrid. Read more
• 13 Feb 2002: Jaden Ivey, American basketball player Jaden Edward Dhananjay Ivey is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Purdue Boilermakers. Read more
• 13 Feb 2002: Sophia Lillis, American actress Sophia Lillis is an American actress. She gained prominence for her roles as Beverly Marsh in the horror films It (2017) and It: Chapter Two (2019) and as a teenager with telekinesis in the Netflix drama series I Am Not Okay with This (2020). Read more
• 13 Feb 2001: Kaapo Kakko, Finnish ice hockey player Kaapo Ville Olavi Kakko is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League (NHL). Kakko was selected second overall by the New York Rangers in the 2019 NHL entry draft, and played the first five and a half years of his NHL career with them. Kakko plays right wing, but also has experience playing at centre. He made his professional debut playing with TPS of the Finnish Liiga. Read more
• 13 Feb 2000: Vitinha, Portuguese footballer Vítor Machado Ferreira, known as Vitinha, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Portugal national team. Considered one of the best midfielders in the world, he is known for his ball control, work rate and playmaking abilities. Read more
• 13 Feb 1995: Kendall Fuller, American football player Kendall Christopher Fuller is an American professional football cornerback. He played college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies and was selected by the Washington Redskins in the third round of the 2016 NFL draft. Fuller also played for the Kansas City Chiefs, recording a game-sealing interception in Super Bowl LIV. Read more
• 13 Feb 1995: Georges-Kévin Nkoudou, French-Cameroonian footballer Georges-Kévin Nkoudou Mbida is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Saudi First Division League club Al-Diriyah. Born in France, he plays for the Cameroon national team. Read more
• 13 Feb 1994: Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer Memphis Depay, commonly known simply as Memphis, is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for Corinthians in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A and the Netherlands national team. He is the all-time top scorer for the national team with 55 goals. In addition to his football career, Memphis is also a musical artist, amassing over 113 million combined streams and views on Spotify and YouTube. Read more
• 13 Feb 1992: Keith Appling, American basketball player Keith Damon Appling is an American former basketball player and convicted murderer. After going undrafted in the 2014 NBA draft, Appling appeared sporadically for the Orlando Magic before being waived in 2016. He played college basketball for Michigan State University. Read more
• 13 Feb 1991: Eliaquim Mangala, French footballer Eliaquim Hans Mangala is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Oriente Petrolero. Read more
• 13 Feb 1991: Vianney, French singer Vianney Bureau, better known by the mononym Vianney, is a French singer-songwriter. At 24 years old he won the award for performing artist of the year at the "Victoires de la musique 2016" one year after having been named in the up and coming category of the "Victoires de la musique 2015". His debut album Idées blanches was certified platinum. His second album was released on 25 November 2016 and was certified double platinum. Read more
• 13 Feb 1991: Luke Voit, American baseball player Louis Linwood Voit III is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, and Milwaukee Brewers. Read more
• 13 Feb 1990: Nathan Eovaldi, American baseball player Nathan Edward Eovaldi is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Boston Red Sox. Read more
• 13 Feb 1990: Mamadou Sakho, French footballer Mamadou Sakho is a French former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Read more
• 13 Feb 1989: Rodrigo Possebon, Brazilian footballer Rodrigo Pereira Possebon is a professional football executive and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the current director of football of Athletico Paranaense. Read more
• 13 Feb 1988: Ryan Goins, American baseball player Ryan Matthew Goins is an American former professional baseball second baseman and shortstop who currently serves as an infield instructor for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals, and Chicago White Sox. Read more
• 13 Feb 1988: Dave Rudden, Irish author Dave Rudden is an Irish writer of young adult fiction, juvenile fantasy and science fiction, best known for his Knights of the Borrowed Dark trilogy and stories from the Doctor Who universe. He is based in Dublin. Read more
• 13 Feb 1987: Eljero Elia, Dutch footballer Eljero George Rinaldo Elia is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a winger. Read more
• 13 Feb 1986: Luke Moore, English footballer Luke Isaac Moore is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He represented England at England U21 level. He is the younger brother of former professional footballer Stefan Moore and uncle to current Aston Villa youth team player Kobei Moore. Read more
• 13 Feb 1986: Aqib Talib, American football player Aqib Talib is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks, earning unanimous All-American honors. He was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft. Talib also played for the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Rams, winning Super Bowl 50 with Denver. In 2020, he made his debut as an analyst for the NFL on Fox. Read more
• 13 Feb 1985: Somdev Devvarman, Indian tennis player Somdev Kishore Devvarman is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is known for being one of the few collegiate player to have made three consecutive finals at the NCAA, winning back-to-back finals in his junior and senior years at the University of Virginia. Only three other players have matched that record since 1950. His 44–1 win–loss record in 2008 at the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship was the best record since 1971. Read more
• 13 Feb 1985: J. R. Giddens, American basketball player Justin Ray "J. R." Giddens is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected to the 2003 McDonald's All-American team, then initially played for the University of Kansas but transferred to the University of New Mexico following his sophomore season. He was selected with the 30th overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, and played for various professional teams until 2019. Giddens is the former head coach of the women's basketball team at Northern New Mexico College. Read more
• 13 Feb 1985: Kwak Ji-min, South Korean actress Kwak Ji-min, birth name Kwak Sun-hee (곽선희), is a South Korean actress. She is best known overseas for her leading role in the Kim Ki-duk film Samaritan Girl, for which she won Best New Actress at the 2004 Busan Film Critics Awards. Read more
• 13 Feb 1985: Al Montoya, American ice hockey player Álvaro Silva Montoya is a Cuban-American former professional ice hockey goaltender who played a total of nine seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Arizona Coyotes, New York Islanders, Winnipeg Jets, Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens, and Edmonton Oilers. He was selected in the first round, sixth overall, by the New York Rangers in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft after a three-year collegiate career with the University of Michigan. Montoya is the first Cuban-American to play in the NHL. Read more
• 13 Feb 1984: Hinkelien Schreuder, Dutch swimmer Hinkelien Schreuder is a former butterfly, freestyle and backstroke swimmer from The Netherlands, who also competed in the medley events. Schreuder won the Olympic gold medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and a silver in the same event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is a former world record holder in the 100 m individual medley, and former European record holder in the 50 m butterfly short course. Read more
• 13 Feb 1983: Mike Nickeas, Canadian baseball player Michael James Nickeas is a former professional baseball catcher. Nickeas played four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays. Nickeas also represented Great Britain internationally. Read more
• 13 Feb 1983: Anna Watkins, English rower Anna Rose Watkins is a British rower. Read more
• 13 Feb 1982: Even Helte Hermansen, Norwegian guitarist and composer Even Helte Hermansen is a Norwegian guitarist, known from several orchestras playing experimental jazz. Read more
• 13 Feb 1982: Michael Turner, American football player Michael Turner is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Northern Illinois Huskies, earning second-team All-American honors in 2003. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the fifth round of the 2004 NFL draft, and also played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons. He was a two-time All-Pro and a two-time Pro Bowl selection with the Falcons. Read more
• 13 Feb 1981: Luisão, Brazilian footballer Ânderson Luís da Silva, known as Luisão, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a centre back. Read more
• 13 Feb 1981: Luke Ridnour, American basketball player Lukas Robin Ridnour is an American former professional basketball player who played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. Read more
• 13 Feb 1980: Carlos Cotto, Puerto Rican-American wrestler and boxer Carlos Omar Cotto Cruz is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and boxer. As a wrestler, he perform under the alias of El Chicano and has performed mostly for the International Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Council. While performing for the first, Cotto became the only person to win all eligible championships, later becoming a Universal Heavyweight Champion in the second. Locally, he has held the main title of a promotion nine times. Abroad, Cotto has worked for AAA in 2010 and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 2016. Read more
• 13 Feb 1979: Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, officially Far Skaldigrimmr Rauskjoldr av Northriki and formerly Fjotolf Hansen, is a Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist and mass murderer. He perpetrated the 2011 Norway attacks. First, he killed eight people by detonating a van bomb at Regjeringskvartalet in Oslo. Two hours later, he carried out a mass shooting on the island of Utøya, killing 69 participants at a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp, 33 of whom were under the age of 18. Read more
• 13 Feb 1979: Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer Rafael Márquez Álvarez is a Mexican football coach and former player who played as a defender. He is currently the assistant coach of the Mexico national team. Nicknamed El Káiser, he is regarded as the best defender in Mexico's history and one of the best Mexican players of all time. Read more
• 13 Feb 1979: Rachel Reeves, English economist and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Jane Reeves is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West and Pudsey, formerly Leeds West, since 2010. She held various shadow ministerial and shadow cabinet portfolios between 2010 and 2015 and from 2020 to 2024. Read more
• 13 Feb 1979: Mena Suvari, American actress and fashion designer Mena Alexandra Suvari is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model. Read more
• 13 Feb 1978: Niklas Bäckström, Finnish ice hockey player Niklas Oskar Bäckström is a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender and current goaltending coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He played ten seasons for the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames in the National Hockey League (NHL), during which he won both the William M. Jennings Trophy and Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award. He also has won both Urpo Ylönen trophy and Jari Kurri trophy twice. Bäckström is a Swedish-speaking Finn, but also speaks Finnish. Read more
• 13 Feb 1978: Philippe Jaroussky, French singer Philippe Jaroussky is a French countertenor. He began his musical career with the violin, winning an award at the Versailles conservatory, and then took up the piano before turning to singing. Read more
• 13 Feb 1978: Cory Murphy, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Cory Murphy is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He is currently a player development coach for the Seattle Kraken. Read more
• 13 Feb 1977: Randy Moss, American football player and coach Randy Gene Moss is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, and San Francisco 49ers. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wide receivers of all time and one of the greatest players in NFL history, he holds the NFL single-season touchdown reception record, as well as the NFL single-season touchdown reception record for a rookie. Read more
• 13 Feb 1976: Jörg Bergmeister, German race car driver Jörg Bergmeister is a former racing driver from Germany and an ambassador of Porsche. Read more
• 13 Feb 1976: Feist, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Leslie Feist, known mononymously as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. Read more
• 13 Feb 1975: Ben Collins, English race car driver Benjamin Lievesley Immi Collins is a British racing driver from Bristol. He has competed in motor racing since 1994 in many categories, from Formula Three and Indy Lights to sportscars, GT racing and stock cars. Read more
• 13 Feb 1975: Katie Hopkins, English media personality and columnist Katie Olivia Hopkins is an English media personality, far-right political commentator, and former columnist and businesswoman. She was a contestant on the third series of the reality show The Apprentice in 2007; following further appearances in the media, she became a columnist for British national newspapers, including The Sun and MailOnline. In 2015, Hopkins appeared on the fifteenth series of the reality show Celebrity Big Brother, where she finished as runner-up, and hosted her own talk show, If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World. The following year she became a presenter for the talk radio station LBC. Read more
• 13 Feb 1974: Fonzworth Bentley, American rapper and actor Derek Watkins, known professionally as Fonzworth Bentley, is an American rapper, actor, television presenter, and author. He is perhaps best known for being Sean Combs' former personal valet and assistant, as first seen in Making the Band 2, and was the host of MTV's From G's to Gents. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Read more
• 13 Feb 1974: Robbie Williams, English singer-songwriter Robert Peter Williams is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, Life thru a Lens, was released in 1997, and included his best-selling single "Angels". His second album, I've Been Expecting You, featured the songs "Millennium" and "She's the One", his first and second number one singles. His discography includes seven UK No. 1 singles, and all but one of his 14 studio albums have reached No. 1 in the UK. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the UK, with two of them in the top 60, and he gained a Guinness World Record in 2006 for selling 1.6 million tickets in a single day during his Close Encounters Tour. Read more
• 13 Feb 1972: Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuanian discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna is a Lithuanian former discus thrower and politician. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds. Read more
• 13 Feb 1972: Juha Ylönen, Finnish ice hockey player Juha Petteri Ylönen is a Finnish former professional ice hockey centre. He was selected by the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the fifth round, 91st overall, of the 1991 NHL entry draft. He played for the Phoenix Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Ottawa Senators in the NHL. In international play, he won a bronze medal with Finland's national team at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. His son, Jesse, is also an NHL player. Read more
• 13 Feb 1971: Sonia Evans, English singer-songwriter Sonia Evans, known mononymously as Sonia, is an English pop singer from Liverpool. She had a 1989 UK number one hit with "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" and became the first female UK artist to achieve five top 20 hit singles from one album.. She represented the United Kingdom in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished second with the song "Better the Devil You Know". Read more
• 13 Feb 1971: Mats Sundin, Swedish ice hockey player Mats Johan Sundin is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL), retiring in 2009. Originally drafted first overall in 1989, Sundin played his first four seasons in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques. He was then traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994, where he played the majority of his career, serving 11 seasons as team captain. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Sundin was the longest-serving non-North American-born captain in NHL history. Sundin last played for the Vancouver Canucks in the 2008–09 season before announcing his retirement on 30 September 2009. He appeared in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 10 of his 18 seasons. Read more
• 13 Feb 1971: Todd Williams, American baseball player Todd Michael Williams is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He attended East Syracuse-Minoa High School graduating in 1989. He then attended Onondaga Community College before signing a professional baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers of the Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1991. Over the course of his professional career Williams played for 10 different organizations,
  including all or parts of eight seasons in the Major Leagues. He is a retired 18-year professional baseball player, with eight years of Major League Baseball experience. Williams was also a member of the USA Baseball team three separate years, with the highlight of winning a Gold Medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia. Read more
• 13 Feb 1970: Elmer Bennett, American basketball player Elmer James Bennett is an American former professional basketball player. At a height of 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m), he played at the point guard position. Read more
• 13 Feb 1970: Karoline Krüger, Norwegian singer-songwriter and pianist Karoline Krüger is a Norwegian singer and composer. She represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 final in Dublin, where she finished fifth. Read more
• 13 Feb 1969: Joyce DiDonato, American soprano and actress Joyce DiDonato is an American opera singer and recitalist. A coloratura mezzo-soprano, she has performed operas and concert works spanning from the 19th-century Romantic era to those by Handel and Mozart. Read more
• 13 Feb 1969: Bryan Thomas Schmidt, American science fiction author and editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an American science fiction author and editor. He has edited twenty-two anthologies, and written a space opera trilogy, and an ongoing, near-future police procedural series set in Kansas City, Missouri, and a near future thriller novel being developed as a motion picture. He wrote a non-fiction book on how to write a novel. He was a finalist, with Jennifer Brozek, for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for the anthology Shattered Shields. His anthology Infinite Stars was nominated for the 2018 Locus Award for Best Anthology. Read more
• 13 Feb 1968: Kelly Hu, American actress Kelly Ann Hu is an American actress. She starred as Dr. Rae Chang on the American television soap opera Sunset Beach and as Michelle Chan on the American television police drama series Nash Bridges. She has starred in numerous films including The Scorpion King (2002) as Cassandra, Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) as Sona, X2 (2003) as Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike, The Tournament (2009) as Lai Lai Zhen, and White Frog (2012). She appeared as China White / Chen Na Wei in The CW series Arrow. Read more
• 13 Feb 1967: Stanimir Stoilov, Bulgarian footballer and coach Stanimir Kolev Stoilov is a Bulgarian former footballer and football manager who is head coach of Göztepe in the Süper Lig. He is best known for two successful spells at Levski Sofia, reaching the 2005–06 UEFA Cup quarter-finals and, in 2006, taking Levski to the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time in Bulgarian club history; domestically he won league titles in 2005–06 and 2006–07, the Bulgarian Cup in 2004–05 and 2006–07, and the Bulgarian Supercup in 2005 and 2007. Read more
• 13 Feb 1966: Neal McDonough, American actor and producer Neal McDonough is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), Fletcher in Minority Report (2002), Tin Man in the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man (2007), Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and Damien Darhk in The CW series Arrow (2015–2016) and various series in the DC Arrowverse (2015–2022). Read more
• 13 Feb 1966: Jeff Waters, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer Jeff Waters is a Canadian guitarist and the founder, bandleader and producer of the metal band Annihilator. He was born in Ontario and resides in the UK. Waters has owned Watersound Studios since 1994 and from 2003 until 2018, in Ottawa, Ontario, and now in the UK. Read more
• 13 Feb 1966: Freedom Williams, American rapper and singer Frederick Brandon "Freedom" Williams is an American rapper, singer and songwriter, who gained fame as the lead rapper on C+C Music Factory's biggest hits. Read more
• 13 Feb 1965: Peter O'Neill, Papua New Guinean accountant and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter Charles Paire O'Neill is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. He has been a Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pangia since 2002. He was a former cabinet minister and the leader of the People's National Congress between 2006 and 2022. He resigned his position as prime minister to avoid a vote of no confidence, and he was succeeded by James Marape. Read more
• 13 Feb 1964: Stephen Bowen, American engineer, captain, and astronaut Stephen Gerard Bowen is a United States Navy submariner and a NASA astronaut; he was the second submariner to travel into space. Bowen has been on four spaceflights, the first three of which were Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station. His first mission, STS-126, took place in November 2008, and his second was STS-132 in May 2010. His third was STS-133 in February 2011, and his fourth was SpaceX Crew-6 in March 2023. Read more
• 13 Feb 1964: Ylva Johansson, Swedish educator and politician, Swedish Minister of Employment Ylva Julia Margareta Johansson is a Swedish politician who served as European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Sweden's European Commissioner in the von der Leyen Commission from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2024. Read more
• 13 Feb 1962: Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, Puerto Rican lawyer and politician Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. Read more
• 13 Feb 1962: Baby Doll, American wrestler and manager Nickla Ann Roberts-Byrd is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and valet, better known by her ring name, "The Perfect 10" Baby Doll. She is best known for her appearances with World Class Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980s. Read more
• 13 Feb 1962: Michele Greene, American actress Michele Dominguez Greene is an American actress, singer, and author. She is known for her role as attorney Abby Perkins on the TV series L.A. Law from 1986 to 1991, for which she was nominated for a 1989 Primetime Emmy Award. She reprised the role in the 2002 TV reunion film L.A. Law: The Movie. Read more
• 13 Feb 1961: Marc Crawford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Marc Joseph John Crawford is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and coach. He played as a forward for the Vancouver Canucks in the National Hockey League (NHL). Crawford won the Stanley Cup in 1996 as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL. He has also been the head coach of the Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings, Dallas Stars, and interim head coach of the Ottawa Senators. He has also coached in Switzerland, having two tenures at the helm of the ZSC Lions, at the international level, as head coach of Team Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Crawford has won the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as coach of the year in the American Hockey League and the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in the NHL. His 556 wins as coach is 26th best among all NHL coaches. Read more
• 13 Feb 1961: cEvin Key, Canadian singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboard player, and producer Kevin William Crompton, known professionally as cEvin Key, is a Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. He is best known as a member of the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded in 1982 with singer Nivek Ogre. Initially a side project while he was with the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy quickly became his primary musical outlet after landing a record deal with Nettwerk Records in 1984. Read more
• 13 Feb 1961: Henry Rollins, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Henry Lawrence Garfield, known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, comedian, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986. Following the band's breakup, he established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, and formed the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups from 1987 to 2003 and in 2006. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: Pierluigi Collina, Italian footballer and referee Pierluigi Collina is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998 to 2003. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: John Healey, English journalist and politician John Healey is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Defence since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, formerly Wentworth and Wentworth and Dearne, since 1997. He previously held various junior ministerial positions under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 2001 to 2010. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: Gary Patterson, American football player and coach Gary Allen Patterson is an American college football coach and former player. He is currently the defensive coordinator at USC. He served as head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU) from 2000 to 2021, compiling a record of 181–79. Patterson led the TCU Horned Frogs to six conference championships and 11 bowl game victories, including victories in the 2011 Rose Bowl and 2014 Peach Bowl. His 2010 squad finished the season undefeated at 13–0 after a 21–19 Rose Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers on New Year's Day 2011, and ranked second in the final tallying of both major polls. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: Matt Salinger, American actor Matthew Douglas Salinger is an American actor known for his appearances in the films Revenge of the Nerds and Captain America. Read more
• 13 Feb 1960: Artur Yusupov, Russian-German chess player and author Artur Mayakovich Yusupov is a chess grandmaster and a chess writer. Born in Soviet Russia, he has lived in Germany since the early 1990s. Read more
• 13 Feb 1959: Gaston Gingras, Canadian ice hockey player Gaston Reginald Gingras is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played one season in the World Hockey Association (WHA) and ten seasons in the National Hockey League from 1978 to 1989. He won the 1986 Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Pernilla August, Swedish actress Pernilla August, also known as Pernilla Östergren, Pernilla Wallgren, and Pernilla Wallgren-Östergren, is a Swedish actress, director and screenwriter. She was a longtime collaborator with director Ingmar Bergman and won the Best Actress Award at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival for her role in his film The Best Intentions. She is best known internationally for portraying Shmi Skywalker in George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Øivind Elgenes, Norwegian singer, guitarist, and composer Øivind Elgenes alias "Elg" is a Norwegian vocalist, guitarist and composer, known from a series of recordings and as front figure of the Norwegian band Dance with a Stranger. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Marc Emery, Canadian publisher and activist Marc Scott Emery is a Canadian cannabis rights activist, entrepreneur and politician. Often described as the "Prince of Pot", Emery has been a notable advocate of international cannabis policy reform, and has been active in multiple Canadian political parties at the provincial and federal levels. Emery has been jailed several times for his cannabis activism. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Jean-François Lisée, Canadian journalist and politician Jean-François Lisée is a Canadian politician who served as the leader of the Parti Québécois from October 2016 until October 2018. He was first elected a member of the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2012 Quebec election in the electoral district of Rosemont. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Derek Riggs, English painter and illustrator Derek Riggs is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the band Iron Maiden's mascot, "Eddie". Read more
• 13 Feb 1957: Denise Austin, American fitness trainer and author Denise Austin is an American fitness instructor, author, and columnist, and a former member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Read more
• 13 Feb 1956: Peter Hook, English singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer Peter Hook is an English musician. He is the former bassist and co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division and its successor New Order. He often used the bass as a lead instrument, playing melodies on the high strings with a signature heavy chorus effect. Read more
• 13 Feb 1955: Joe Birkett, American lawyer, judge, and politician Joseph E. Birkett is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court – Second District. He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010, and was subsequently elected to a full term in November 2012. His current term runs through December 2032. Prior to being elevated to the bench, Justice Birkett was the State's Attorney of DuPage County, an office he had held since 1996. Read more
• 13 Feb 1954: Donnie Moore, American baseball player (died 1989) Donnie Ray Moore was an American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals (1980), Milwaukee Brewers (1981), Atlanta Braves (1982–1984) and California Angels (1985–1988). Moore is best remembered for the home run he gave up to Dave Henderson while pitching for the California Angels in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series. With only one more strike needed to clinch the team's first-ever pennant, he allowed the Boston Red Sox to come back and eventually win the game. Boston then won Games 6 and 7 to take the series. Shortly after his professional career ended, he shot his wife three times in a dispute and then committed suicide. Read more
• 13 Feb 1953: Akio Sato, Japanese wrestler and manager Akio Sato is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation as Sato, a member of the Orient Express. Read more
• 13 Feb 1952: Ed Gagliardi, American musician (died 2014) Edward John Gagliardi was an American bass guitarist, best known as the original bass player for the 1970s rock band Foreigner. He was a member of Foreigner from the beginning in 1976. Gagliardi, most notably, played a Fireglo Rickenbacker bass guitar, left-handed even though he was naturally right-handed. It is widely known that he did so out of admiration, and devotion to Paul McCartney. Gagliardi was on the albums Foreigner and Double Vision. Read more
• 13 Feb 1951: David Naughton, American actor and singer David Walsh Naughton is an American actor and singer. He is known for his starring roles in the horror film An American Werewolf in London (1981) and the Disney comedy Midnight Madness (1980), as well as for a long-running "Be a Pepper" ad campaign for beverage maker Dr Pepper. He also starred in the short-lived sitcom Makin' It and sang its hit theme song "Makin' It", giving him a Top 5 hit on the Billboard charts. Read more
• 13 Feb 1950: Vera Baird, English lawyer and politician Dame Vera Baird is a British barrister and politician who has held roles as a government minister, police and crime commissioner, and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales. Read more
• 13 Feb 1950: Peter Gabriel, English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single. After releasing four successful studio albums, all titled Peter Gabriel, his fifth studio album, So (1986), became his best-selling release and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the US. The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. A 2011 Time report said "Sledgehammer" was the most played music video of all time on MTV. Read more
• 13 Feb 1949: Peter Kern, Austrian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2015) Peter Kern was an Austrian actor, film director, screenwriter, and producer. He appeared in more than 70 films and directed a further 25. He starred in the 1978 film Flaming Hearts, which was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1980, he was a member of the jury at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. Read more
• 13 Feb 1947: Stephen Hadley, American soldier and diplomat, 21st United States National Security Advisor Stephen John Hadley is an American attorney and senior government official who served as the 20th United States National Security Advisor from 2005 to 2009. He served under President George W. Bush during the second term of his administration. Hadley was Deputy National Security Advisor during Bush's first term. Read more
• 13 Feb 1947: Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball player and coach Michael William Krzyzewski, nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980 to 2022, during which he led the Blue Devils to five national titles, 13 Final Four appearances, 15 ACC tournament championships, and 13 ACC regular season titles. Among men's college basketball coaches, only UCLA's John Wooden has won more NCAA championships (10). Krzyzewski is widely regarded as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. Read more
• 13 Feb 1947: Bogdan Tanjević, Montenegrin-Bosnian basketball coach Bogdan Tanjević, nicknamed "Boša" is a Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player. Read more
• 13 Feb 1947: Kevin Bloody Wilson, Australian comedian, singer-songwriter, and guitarist Kevin Bloody Wilson is an Australian musical comedian who performs comical songs with his heavy Australian English accent and often including sexual themes. He has won one ARIA Music Award. Read more
• 13 Feb 1946: Richard Blumenthal, American sergeant and politician, 23rd Attorney General of Connecticut Richard Blumenthal is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been a member of the Senate since 2011. Blumenthal previously served as U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, as a member of the Connecticut General Assembly, and as the 23rd Connecticut attorney general. Read more
• 13 Feb 1946: Janet Finch, English sociologist and academic Dame Janet Valerie Finch DBE, DL, FAcSS is a British sociologist and academic administrator. She was Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Social Relations at Keele University, and has held a number of other public appointments in the UK. She currently holds an honorary position at the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life, based in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. She is also part of Flooved advisory board. Read more
• 13 Feb 1946: Colin Matthews, English composer and educator

  Colin Matthews, OBE is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, Britten, Dowland, Mahler, Purcell and Schubert. Other arrangements include orchestrations of all Debussy's 24 Préludes, both books of Debussy's Images, and two movements—Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches—from Ravel's Miroirs. Having received a doctorate from University of Sussex on the works of Mahler, from 1964–1975 Matthews worked with his brother David Matthews and musicologist Deryck Cooke on completing a performance version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony. Read more

• 13 Feb 1945: Marian Dawkins, English biologist and academic Marian Stamp Dawkins is a British biologist and professor of ethology at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include vision in birds, animal signalling, behavioural synchrony, animal consciousness and animal welfare. Read more
• 13 Feb 1945: King Floyd, American singer-songwriter (died 2006) King Floyd was a New Orleans soul singer, best known for his top 10 hit from 1970, "Groove Me". Read more
• 13 Feb 1945: Simon Schama, English historian and author Sir Simon Michael Schama is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. As of January 2026 he is a professor of history and art history at Columbia University. Read more
• 13 Feb 1945: William Sleator, American author and composer (died 2011) William Warner Sleator III was an American science fiction author who wrote primarily young adult novels but also wrote for younger readers. His books typically deal with adolescents coming across a peculiar phenomenon related to an element of theoretical science, then trying to deal with the situation. The theme of family relationships, especially between siblings, is frequently intertwined with the science fiction plotline. Read more
• 13 Feb 1944: Stockard Channing, American actress Stockard Channing is an American actress. Her accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a nomination for an Academy Award. Read more
• 13 Feb 1944: Jerry Springer, English-American television host, actor, and politician, 56th Mayor of Cincinnati (died 2023) Gerald Norman Springer was a British and American broadcaster, journalist, actor, lawyer, and politician. He was best known for hosting the controversial tabloid talk show Jerry Springer from 1991 to 2018. Springer was noted as a pioneer in the emergence of "trash TV"; his eponymous show was a "commercial smash and certifiable cultural phenomenon" in the 1990s. Read more
• 13 Feb 1943: Elaine Pagels, American theologian and academic Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey, is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion Emeritus at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism. Read more
• 13 Feb 1942: Carol Lynley, American model and actress (died 2019) Carol Lynley was an American actress known for her roles in the films Blue Denim (1959) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Read more
• 13 Feb 1942: Peter Tork, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor (died 2019) Peter Halsten Thorkelson, better known by his stage name Peter Tork, was an American musician and actor. He was best known as the bass guitarist and keyboardist of the Monkees and co-star of the NBC television series of the same name (1966–68). Read more
• 13 Feb 1942: Donald E. Williams, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (died 2016) Donald Edward Williams was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, mechanical engineer and NASA astronaut. He logged a total of 287 hours and 35 minutes in space. Read more
• 13 Feb 1941: Sigmar Polke, German painter and photographer (died 2010) Sigmar Polke was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s, when he produced abstract works created by chance through chemical reactions between paint and other products. In the last 20 years of his life, he produced paintings focused on his perception of historical events. Read more
• 13 Feb 1941: Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor, director, and producer Bo Svenson is a Swedish-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his roles in American genre films of the 1970s and 1980s. Read more
• 13 Feb 1940: Bram Peper, Dutch sociologist and politician, Mayor of Rotterdam (died 2022) Abraham "Bram" Peper was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). Read more
• 13 Feb 1938: Oliver Reed, English actor (died 1999) Robert Oliver Reed was an English actor, known for his upper-middle class, masculine image and his heavy-drinking, "hellraiser" lifestyle. His screen career spanned over 40 years, between 1955 and 1999. At the peak of his career, in 1971, British exhibitors voted Reed fifth-most-popular star at the box office. Read more
• 13 Feb 1937: Ali El-Maak, Sudanese author and academic (died 1992) Ali El-Makk, full name Ali Muhammad Ali El-Mak, also spelled Ali El-Maak or Ali Makk, was a Sudanese writer, translator and literary scholar, known for his short stories, translations from English into Arabic and literary studies. Read more
• 13 Feb 1937: Sigmund Jähn, German pilot and cosmonaut (died 2019) Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn was a German pilot, cosmonaut, and Generalmajor in the National People's Army of the GDR. He was the first German to fly into space as part of the Soviet Union's Interkosmos program in 1978. Read more
• 13 Feb 1937: Angelo Mosca, American-Canadian football player and wrestler (died 2021) Angelo Valentino Mosca was an American professional football player and professional wrestler. He was a defensive lineman in the Canadian Football League (CFL). As a wrestler, Mosca was known by the nicknames King Kong Mosca and the Mighty Hercules. He had a son, Angelo Jr., who also wrestled. Mosca was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1987, the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. Read more
• 13 Feb 1934: George Segal, American actor (died 2021) George Segal Jr. was an American actor and musician. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as Ship of Fools (1965) and King Rat (1965), he co-starred in the drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Read more
• 13 Feb 1933: Paul Biya, Cameroon politician, 2nd President of Cameroon Paul Barthélemy Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth prime minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982. As of 2025, he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa and the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world; at the age of 93, he is also the oldest current head of state in the world. Read more
• 13 Feb 1933: Kim Novak, American actress Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Malloy is an American retired actress and painter. Her contributions to cinema have been honored with two Golden Globe Awards, an Honorary Golden Bear, a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Read more
• 13 Feb 1933: Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer (died 2019) Emanuel Ungaro was a French fashion designer who founded his eponymous fashion house in 1965. Read more
• 13 Feb 1932: Susan Oliver, American actress (died 1990) Susan Oliver was an American actress, television director, aviator, and author. Read more
• 13 Feb 1930: Ernst Fuchs, Austrian painter, sculptor, and illustrator (died 2015) Ernst Fuchs was an Austrian painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, architect, stage designer, composer, poet, and one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. In 1972, he acquired the derelict Otto Wagner Villa in Hütteldorf, which he restored and transformed. The villa was inaugurated as the Ernst Fuchs Museum in 1988. Read more
• 13 Feb 1930: Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, author, and academic Israel Meir Kirzner is a British-born American economist, historian, rabbi, and Talmudist closely identified with the Austrian School. Read more
• 13 Feb 1929: Omar Torrijos, Panamanian commander and politician, Military Leader of Panama (died 1981) Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera was the military leader of Panama, as well as the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, but instead held self-imposed and all-encompassing titles including "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution". Torrijos took power in a coup d'état and instituted a number of social reforms. Read more
• 13 Feb 1928: Gerald Regan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 19th Premier of Nova Scotia (died 2019) Gerald Augustine Paul Regan was a Canadian politician, who served as the 19th premier of Nova Scotia from 1970 to 1978. Read more
• 13 Feb 1926: Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, American nuclear physicist (died 2012) Fay Ajzenberg-Selove was an American nuclear physicist. She was known for her experimental work in nuclear spectroscopy of light elements, and for her annual reviews of the energy levels of light atomic nuclei. She was a recipient of the 2007 National Medal of Science. Read more
• 13 Feb 1924: Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, French journalist and politician (died 2006) Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, often referred to as JJSS, was a French journalist and politician. He co-founded L'Express in 1953 with Françoise Giroud, and then went on to become president of the Radical Party in 1971. He oversaw its transition to the center-right, the party being thereafter known as Parti radical valoisien. He tried to found in 1972 the Reforming Movement with Christian Democrat Jean Lecanuet, with whom he supported Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's conservative candidature to the 1974 presidential election. Read more
• 13 Feb 1923: Michael Anthony Bilandic, American soldier, judge, and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (died 2002) Michael Anthony Bilandic was an American Democratic politician, judge, and attorney who served as the 49th mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979, after the death of his predecessor, Richard J. Daley. Bilandic practiced law in Chicago for several years, having graduated from the DePaul University College of Law. Bilandic served as an alderman in Chicago City Council, representing the eleventh ward on the south-west side from June 1969 until he began his tenure as mayor in December 1976. After his mayoralty, Bilandic served on the Illinois Appellate Court from 1984 until being elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1990. He served on the state supreme court until 2000, and was the court’s chief Justice from 1994 to 1997. Read more
• 13 Feb 1923: Chuck Yeager, American general and pilot; first test pilot to break the sound barrier (died 2020) Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. He wrote two books about his life, "Yeager" and "Press On: Further Adventures in the Good Life." Read more
• 13 Feb 1922: Francis Pym, Baron Pym, Welsh soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (died 2008) Francis Leslie Pym, Baron Pym, was a British Conservative Party politician who served in various Cabinet positions in the 1970s and 1980s, including Foreign, Defence and Northern Ireland Secretary, and Leader of the House of Commons. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridgeshire from 1961 to 1987. Pym was made a life peer in 1987. Read more
• 13 Feb 1922: Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (died 2014) Gordon Tullock was an American professor of law and economics at the George Mason University School of Law. He is best known for his work on public choice theory, the application of economic thinking to political issues. He was one of the founding figures in his field. Read more
• 13 Feb 1921: Jeanne Demessieux, French pianist and composer (died 1968) Jeanne Marie-Madeleine Demessieux was a French organist, pianist, composer, and teacher. She was the chief organist at Saint-Esprit for 29 years and at La Madeleine in Paris starting in 1962. She performed internationally as a concert organist and was the first female organist to sign a record contract. She went on to record many organ works, including her own compositions. Read more
• 13 Feb 1921: Aung Khin, Burmese painter (died 1996) Aung Khin was a Burmese painter who became prominent in the Mandalay art world. He is well known as one of the foremost and earliest of modernistic painters in Burma. Read more
• 13 Feb 1920: Boudleaux Bryant, American songwriter (died 1987) Felice Bryant and Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant were an American husband-and-wife country music and pop songwriting team. They are best known for songs such as "Rocky Top", "We Could", "Love Hurts", and numerous hits by the Everly Brothers, including "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bird Dog", "Bye Bye Love", and "Wake Up Little Susie". Read more
• 13 Feb 1920: Eileen Farrell, American soprano and educator (died 2002) Eileen Farrell was an American soprano who had a nearly 60-year-long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. NPR noted, "She possessed one of the largest and most radiant operatic voices of the 20th century." While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances. Her career was mainly based in the United States, although she did perform internationally. The Daily Telegraph stated that she "was one of the finest American sopranos of the 20th century; she had a voice of magnificent proportions which she used with both acumen and artistry in a wide variety of roles", and described her as having a voice "like some unparalleled phenomenon of nature. She is to singers what Niagara is to waterfalls." Read more
• 13 Feb 1919: Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (died 1991) Ernest Jennings Ford, known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of "The Shotgun Boogie" and "Sixteen Tons". Read more
• 13 Feb 1919: Eddie Robinson, American football player and coach (died 2007) Eddie Gay Robinson Sr. was an American college football and basketball coach. For 56 years, from 1941 to 1942 and again from 1945 to 1997, he was the head coach at Grambling State University, a historically black university (HBCU) in Grambling, Louisiana. During a period in college football history when black players were not allowed to play for southern college programs, Robinson built Grambling State into a "small" college football powerhouse. He retired in 1997 with a record of 408–165–15. Read more
• 13 Feb 1916: Dorothy Bliss, American invertebrate zoologist (died 1987) Dorothy Elizabeth Bliss was an American carcinologist and curator of invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History, with which she was associated for over 30 years. She was known as a pioneer in the field of hormonal control in crustaceans. She was editor-in-chief of the 10-volume series The Biology of Crustacea and author of the popular book Shrimps, Lobsters and Crabs. She served as president of the American Society of Zoologists and was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Read more
• 13 Feb 1915: Lyle Bettger, American actor (died 2003) Lyle Stathem Bettger was an American character actor who had roles in Hollywood films and television from the 1950s onward, often portraying villains. One such role was the wrathfully jealous elephant handler Klaus from the Oscar-winning film The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Read more
• 13 Feb 1915: Aung San, Burmese general and politician, 5th Premier of British Crown Colony of Burma (died 1947) Aung San was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goal was realized. Aung San is considered to be the founder of modern-day Myanmar and the Tatmadaw, and is commonly referred to by the titles "Father of the Nation", "Father of Independence", and "Father of the Tatmadaw". Read more
• 13 Feb 1913: Khalid of Saudi Arabia (died 1982) Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 25 March 1975 until his death in 1982. Before his ascension, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Khalid is the fifth son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Read more
• 13 Feb 1912: Harald Riipalu, Russian-Estonian commander (died 1961) Harald Riipalu was an Estonian commander in the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Read more
• 13 Feb 1912: Margaretta Scott, English actress (died 2005) Margaretta Mary Winifred Scott was an English stage, screen and television actress whose career spanned over seventy years. She is best remembered for playing the eccentric widow Mrs. Pumphrey in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1990). Read more
• 13 Feb 1911: Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Indian-Pakistani poet and journalist (died 1984) Chaudhry Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a Pakistani poet and author of Punjabi and Urdu literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated, popular, and influential Urdu writers of his time, and his works and ideas remain widely influential in Pakistan, India and beyond. Outside of literature, he has been described as "a man of wide experience", having worked as a teacher, military officer, journalist, trade unionist, and broadcaster. Read more
• 13 Feb 1911: Jean Muir, American actress and educator (died 1996) Jean Muir was an American stage and film actress. She was the first performer to be blacklisted after her name appeared in the anti-Communist pamphlet Red Channels, published in 1950. In her later years, she was a college drama teacher. Read more
• 13 Feb 1910: William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989) William Bradford Shockley was an American solid-state physicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect." Read more
• 13 Feb 1907: Katy de la Cruz, Filipino-American singer and actress (died 2004) Katy de la Cruz was a leading Filipina singer who specialized in jazz vocals and torch songs in a long career that lasted eight decades. Hailed as "The Queen of Filipino Jazz" and as "The Queen of Bodabil", she was, by the age of 18, the highest paid entertainer in the Philippines. De la Cruz also appeared in films and received a FAMAS Best Supporting Actress Award in 1953. Read more
• 13 Feb 1906: Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher and author (died 1994) George Agostinho Baptista da Silva, GCSE was a Portuguese philosopher, essayist, and writer. His thought combines elements of pantheism and millenarism, an ethic of renunciation, and a belief in freedom as the most important feature of man. Anti-dogmatic, he asserts that truth is only found in the sum of all conflicting hypothesis. He may be considered a practical philosopher, living and working for a change in society, according to his beliefs. Read more
• 13 Feb 1903: Georgy Beriev, Georgian-Russian engineer, founded the Beriev Design Bureau (died 1979) Georgy Mikhailovich Beriev (Beriashvili), was a Soviet Georgian major general, founder and chief designer of the Beriev Design Bureau in Taganrog, which concentrated on amphibious aircraft. Read more
• 13 Feb 1903: Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author (died 1989) Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer who created the fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most prolific and successful authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels, 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies. Read more
• 13 Feb 1902: Harold Lasswell, American political scientist and theorist (died 1978) Harold Dwight Lasswell was an American political scientist and communications theorist. He was a professor of law at Yale University. He served as president of the American Political Science Association, American Society of International Law, and World Academy of Art and Science. Read more
• 13 Feb 1901: Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist and academic (died 1976) Paul Felix Lazarsfeld was an Austrian-American sociologist and mathematician. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted influence over the techniques and the organization of social research. "It is not so much that he was an American sociologist," one colleague said of him after his death, "as it was that he determined what American sociology would be." Lazarsfeld said that his goal was "to produce Paul Lazarsfelds". He was a founding figure in 20th-century empirical sociology. Read more
• 13 Feb 1900: Barbara von Annenkoff, Russian-born German film and stage actress (died 1979) Barbara von Annenkoff was a Russian-born German stage and film actress. Read more
• 13 Feb 1899: Rolf Stenersen, Norwegian businessman (died 1978) Rolf Kristian Eckersberg Stenersen was a Norwegian businessman, non-fiction writer, essayist, novelist, playwright and biographer. He was also a track and field athlete and art collector. Read more
• 13 Feb 1898: Hubert Ashton, English cricketer and politician (died 1979) Sir Hubert Ashton was an English first-class cricketer, footballer and politician. Read more
• 13 Feb 1892: Robert H. Jackson, American politician, 57th United States Attorney General, Nuremberg prosecutor, and Supreme Court justice (died 1954) Robert Houghwout Jackson was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1941 until his death in 1954. He had previously served as United States Solicitor General and United States Attorney General, and is the only person to have held all three of those offices. Jackson was also notable for his work at the Nuremberg trials prosecuting Nazi war criminals following World War II. Jackson developed a reputation as one of the best writers on the Supreme Court and one of the most committed to enforcing due process as protection from overreaching federal agencies. Read more
• 13 Feb 1891: Kate Roberts, Welsh author and activist (died 1985) Kate Roberts was one of the foremost Welsh-language authors of the 20th century. Styled Brenhines ein llên, she is known mainly for her short stories, but also wrote novels. Roberts was a prominent Welsh nationalist. In 1963, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Welsh scholar Idris Foster. Read more
• 13 Feb 1891: Grant Wood, American painter and academic (died 1942) Grant DeVolson Wood was an American artist and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for American Gothic (1930), which has become an iconic example of early 20th-century American art. Read more
• 13 Feb 1889: Leontine Sagan, Austrian actress and director (died 1974) Leontine Sagan was a theatre director and actress of Jewish descent, whose life and career took her from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to South Africa, Britain and the United States. She is best known for directing a film, Mädchen in Uniform (1931), which has been celebrated for its scathing indictment of Prussian military-style schooling, as well as its sensitive portrayal of same-sex intimacy between a teacher and a student at a girls' school, in the waning years of Germany's Weimar Republic. Read more
• 13 Feb 1888: Georgios Papandreou, Greek lawyer, economist, and politician, 162nd Prime Minister of Greece (died 1968) Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as the prime minister of Greece. He was also deputy prime minister from 1950 to 1952, in the governments of Nikolaos Plastiras and Sofoklis Venizelos. He served numerous times as a cabinet minister, starting in 1923, in a political career that spanned more than five decades. Read more
• 13 Feb 1887: Géza Csáth, Hungarian playwright and critic (died 1919) Géza Csáth was a Hungarian writer, playwright, musician, music critic, psychiatrist, and physician. He was the cousin of Dezső Kosztolányi. Read more
• 13 Feb 1885: Bess Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (died 1982) Elizabeth Virginia Truman was First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953 as the wife of President Harry S. Truman. She had previously served as Second Lady of the United States from January to April 1945. At 97 years, 247 days, she was the longest-lived first and second lady. Read more
• 13 Feb 1884: Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (died 1961) Alfred Carlton Gilbert was an American inventor, athlete, magician, toy maker and businessman. As the founder of A. C. Gilbert Company, Gilbert was known for inventing the Erector Set and American Flyer Trains. Read more
• 13 Feb 1883: Hal Chase, American baseball player and manager (died 1947) Harold Homer Chase, nicknamed "Prince Hal", was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he played for the New York Highlanders (1905–1913), Chicago White Sox (1913–1914), Buffalo Blues (1914–1915), Cincinnati Reds (1916–1918), and New York Giants (1919). Read more
• 13 Feb 1883: Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Russian-Armenian actor and director (died 1922) Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov was a Russian actor and theatre director who founded the Vakhtangov Theatre. He was a friend and mentor of Michael Chekhov. He is known for his distinctive style of theatre, his most notable production being Princess Turandot in 1922. Read more
• 13 Feb 1881: Eleanor Farjeon, English author, poet, and playwright (died 1965) Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Read more
• 13 Feb 1880: Dimitrie Gusti, Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and philosopher (died 1955) Dimitrie Gusti was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister of Education in 1932–1933. Gusti was elected a member of the Romanian Academy in 1919, and was its president between 1944 and 1946. He was the main contributor to the creation of a new Romanian school of sociology. Read more
• 13 Feb 1879: Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (died 1949) Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet who served as the first Governor of United Provinces, after India's independence. She played an important role in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. She was the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and appointed governor of a state. Read more
• 13 Feb 1876: Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player and umpire (died 1933) Frederick William Alexander Buelow, sometimes referred to as Fritz Buelow, was a German-born baseball player. He played professional baseball as catcher for 15 years from 1895 to 1909, including nine years in Major League Baseball with the St. Louis Perfectos (1899), St. Louis Cardinals (1900), Detroit Tigers (1901–1904), Cleveland Naps (1904–1906), and St. Louis Browns (1907). Read more
• 13 Feb 1873: Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (died 1938) Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form. Read more
• 13 Feb 1871: Joseph Devlin, Northern Irish political leader (Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)) (died 1934) Joseph Devlin was an Irish journalist and influential nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Irish Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Later Devlin was an MP and leader of the Nationalist Party in the Parliament of Northern Ireland. He was referred to as "the duodecimo Demosthenes" by the Irish politician Tim Healy which Devlin took as a compliment. Read more
• 13 Feb 1870: Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (died 1938) Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher, born in what is now Lithuania to Jewish parents, who became an American citizen in 1891. He was one of the most highly regarded performers of his time, known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion within pianistic technique – principles later propagated by his pupils, such as Heinrich Neuhaus. Read more
• 13 Feb 1867: Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (died 1905) Harold Segerson Mahony was a Scottish-born Irish tennis player who is best known for winning the singles title at the Wimbledon Championships in 1896. His career lasted from 1888 until his death in 1905. Mahony was born in Scotland but lived in Ireland for the majority of his life; his family were Irish including both of his parents, the family home was in County Kerry, Southwestern Ireland. He was the last Scottish born man to win Wimbledon until the victory of Andy Murray at the 2013 championships.
  He remains the most recent Irish singles champion at the All England Club. Read more
• 13 Feb 1863: Hugo Becker, German cellist and composer (died 1941) Hugo Becker was a German cellist, cello teacher, and composer. He studied at a young age with Alfredo Piatti, and later Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden. Read more
• 13 Feb 1855: Paul Deschanel, Belgian-French politician, 11th President of France (died 1922) Paul Eugène Louis Deschanel was a French politician who served as President of France from 18 February to 21 September 1920. Read more
• 13 Feb 1849: Lord Randolph Churchill, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 1895) Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill was a British aristocrat and politician. He was a Tory radical who coined the term "Tory democracy" and participated in the creation of the "National Union of the Conservative Party". Read more
• 13 Feb 1835: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader (died 1908) Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as initially the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, followed by the claim to be both the promised Messiah and Mahdi, in regard to Islamic prophecies regarding the end times, as well as being Krishna, an Avatar of Vishnu, for the Hindus. Read more
• 13 Feb 1834: Heinrich Caro, Sephardic Jewish Polish-German chemist and academic (died 1910) Heinrich Caro was a German chemist. Read more
• 13 Feb 1831: John Aaron Rawlins, American general and politician, 29th United States Secretary of War (died 1869) John Aaron Rawlins was a general officer in the Union army during the American Civil War and a cabinet officer in the Grant administration. A longtime confidant of Ulysses S. Grant, Rawlins served on Grant's staff throughout the war, rising to the rank of brevet major general, and was Grant's chief defender against allegations of insobriety. He was appointed Secretary of War when Grant was elected President of the United States. Read more
• 13 Feb 1819: Francis Smith, Haitian-Australian politician, 4th Premier of Tasmania (died 1909) Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith was an Australian lawyer, judge and politician, who served as the fourth Premier of Tasmania from 12 May 1857 until 1 November 1860. Read more
• 13 Feb 1815: Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American anthologist, editor, poet and critic (died 1857) Rufus Wilmot Griswold was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. He built a strong literary reputation, in part due to his 1842 collection The Poets and Poetry of America. This anthology, the most comprehensive of its time, included what he deemed the best examples of American poetry. He produced revised versions and similar anthologies for the remainder of his life, although many of the poets he promoted have since faded into obscurity. Many writers hoped to have their work included in one of these editions, although they commented harshly on Griswold's abrasive character. Griswold was married three times: his first wife died young, his second marriage ended in a public and controversial divorce, and his third wife left him after the previous divorce was almost repealed. Read more
• 13 Feb 1811: François Achille Bazaine, French general (died 1888) François Achille Bazaine was an officer of the French army. Rising from the ranks, during four decades of distinguished service under Louis Philippe and then Napoleon III, he held every rank in the army from fusilier to Marshal of France, the latter in 1863. Under the Second Empire, he was made a senator. Read more
• 13 Feb 1805: Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (died 1859) Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was a German mathematician. In number theory, he proved special cases of Fermat's Last Theorem and created analytic number theory. In analysis, he advanced the theory of Fourier series and was one of the first to give the modern formal definition of a function. In mathematical physics, he studied potential theory, boundary-value problems, heat diffusion, and hydrodynamics. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 13 February in World History

• 13 Feb 2025: Jim Guy Tucker, American lawyer and politician, 43rd Governor of Arkansas (born 1943) James Guy Tucker Jr. was an American politician, businessman and attorney who served as the 43rd governor of Arkansas from 1992 until his resignation in 1996 after his conviction for fraud during the Whitewater affair. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 15th lieutenant governor, state attorney general, and as a U.S. representative. Read more
• 13 Feb 2021: Kadir Topbaş, Turkish politician (born 1945) Kadir Topbaş was a Turkish architect, businessman and politician who served as Mayor of Istanbul from 2004 to 2017. Read more
• 13 Feb 2019: Callistus Ndlovu, Zimbabwean academic and politician (born 1936) Callistus Dingiswayo Ndlovu was a Zimbabwean academic, diplomat, and politician. He joined the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in 1963 as a teacher in Matabeleland, and went on to serve as its representative to the United Nations and North America in the 1970s. After Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, he was a member of the House of Assembly from 1980 to 1985 and served as a senator from 1985 to 1990. He left ZAPU and joined the ruling ZANU–PF party in 1984. Read more
• 13 Feb 2018: Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, French-born Danish royal (born 1934) Prince Henrik of Denmark was the husband of Margrethe II of Denmark. He served as her royal consort from Margrethe's accession on 14 January 1972 until his death in 2018. Read more
• 13 Feb 2017: Ricardo Arias Calderón, Panamanian politician (born 1933) Ricardo Arias Calderón was a Panamanian politician who served as First Vice President from 1989 to 1992. A Catholic who studied at Yale and the Sorbonne, Arias returned to Panama in the 1960s to work for political reform. He went on to become the president of the Christian Democratic Party of Panama and a leading opponent of the military government of Manuel Noriega. In 1984, he ran as a candidate for Second Vice President on the ticket of three-time former president Arnulfo Arias, but they were defeated by pro-Noriega candidate Nicolás Ardito Barletta. Read more
• 13 Feb 2017: Aileen Hernandez, American union organizer and activist (born 1926) Aileen Hernandez was an African-American union organizer, civil rights activist, and women's rights activist. She served as the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) between 1970 and 1971, and was the first woman to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Read more
• 13 Feb 2017: Seijun Suzuki, Japanese filmmaker (born 1923) Seijun Suzuki , born Seitaro Suzuki , was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their florid visual style, absurd humour, and a playful rejection of traditional film grammar. He made 40 predominately B-movies for the Nikkatsu Company between 1956 and 1967, working most prolifically in the yakuza genre. His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded as his magnum opus, Branded to Kill (1967), starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal, but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that. As an independent filmmaker, he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for his Taishō trilogy, Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981) and Yumeji (1991). Read more
• 13 Feb 2017: Kim Jong-nam, North Korean politician (born 1971) Kim Jong-nam was the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. From roughly 1994 to 2001, he was considered the heir apparent to his father. He was thought to have fallen out of favor after embarrassing the regime in 2001 with a failed attempt to visit Tokyo Disneyland with a false passport, although Kim himself said his loss of favor had been due to advocating reform. Read more
• 13 Feb 2017: E-Dubble, American rapper (born 1982) Evan Sewell Wallace best known by his stage name E-Dubble, often stylized e-dubble, or shortened to e-dub, was an American rapper. He was best known for his Freestyle Friday series in which he released a new song each Friday throughout 2010, with one final unofficial release in 2012. He was the founder of Black Paisley Records. Read more
• 13 Feb 2016: O. N. V. Kurup, Indian poet and academic (born 1931) Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup was a Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007. He received the awards Padma Shri in 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011, the fourth and second highest civilian honours from the Government of India. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Kerala, Trivandrum. O. N. V. was known for his leftist leaning. He was a leader of All India Students Federation (AISF). He died on 13 February 2016 at KIMS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram due to age-related illnesses, aged 84. Read more
• 13 Feb 2016: Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (born 1936) Antonin Gregory Scalia was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative wing. For catalyzing an originalist and textualist movement in American law, he has been described as one of the most influential jurists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important justices in the history of the Supreme Court. Scalia was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018, and the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University was named in his honor. Read more
• 13 Feb 2015: Faith Bandler, Australian activist and author (born 1918) Faith Bandler was an Australian civil rights activist of South Sea Islander and Scottish-Indian heritage. A campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians and South Sea Islanders, she was best known for her leadership in the campaign for the 1967 referendum on Indigenous Australians. Read more
• 13 Feb 2015: Stan Chambers, American journalist and actor (born 1923) Stanley Holroyd "Stan" Chambers was an American television reporter who worked for KTLA in Los Angeles from 1947 to 2010. Read more
• 13 Feb 2014: Balu Mahendra, Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (born 1939) Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a Sri Lankan Tamil cinematographer, director, screenwriter, actor and film editor who worked in various Indian film industries, primarily in Tamil and Malayalam cinema. Born in Sri Lanka, Mahendran developed a passion for photography and literature at a young age, after witnessing the shoot of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) during a school trip in Sri Lanka, he was drawn towards filmmaking. After graduation he joined as an Aerial photographer in the Sri Lankan Government. In 1966, he moved to India and gained admission to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to pursue a course in motion picture photography. Upon completion of his diploma, he entered Malayalam cinema as a cinematographer in the early 1970s. Read more
• 13 Feb 2014: Richard Møller Nielsen, Danish footballer and manager (born 1937) Richard Møller Nielsen was a Danish football player and manager. He coached the Denmark national football team that won the UEFA Euro 1992 tournament. In 1995, he was awarded a gold version of the Medal of Merit. He was the father of Tommy Møller Nielsen. Read more
• 13 Feb 2014: Ralph Waite, American actor and activist (born 1928) Ralph Waite was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr. on The Waltons (1972–1981), which he occasionally directed. He later had recurring roles as two other heroic fathers; in NCIS as Jackson Gibbs, the father of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and in Bones, as Seeley Booth's grandfather. Read more
• 13 Feb 2014: Laura Motta, Brazilian catholic nun (born 1919) Laura Motta, better known as "Irmã Laura", was a Brazilian catholic nun member of the Sisters of Saint Marcelina. Read more
• 13 Feb 2013: Gerry Day, American journalist and screenwriter (born 1922) Gerry Day was an American screenwriter. She was also a newspaper reporter for the Hollywood Citizen News in the mid-1940s. Read more
• 13 Feb 2013: Miles J. Jones, American pathologist and physician (born 1952) Miles James Alfred Jones, Jr., M.D. was a forensic pathologist who became one of the most notorious physician-abusers of internet-mediated services. He was also cited for contempt of the U.S. Congress for failure to appear before it concerning his activities in the sale of fetal body parts. He was eventually imprisoned in the Federal Corrections System for failure to pay U.S. income taxes for two years. Read more
• 13 Feb 2013: Pieter Kooijmans, Dutch judge and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for The Netherlands (born 1933) Pieter Hendrik "Peter" Kooijmans was a Dutch politician, jurist, and diplomat. He was a member of the defunct Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), which later merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party. From 1993 to 1994, he served as Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, succeeding Hans van den Broek. In 1995, he returned to his former position as Professor of Public International Law at the University of Leiden, serving until his appointment to the International Court of Justice. He was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 13 July 2007. Read more
• 13 Feb 2013: Andrée Malebranche, Haitian artist (born 1916) Andrée Malebranche was an Afro-Haitian painter and art instructor. She has works included in the collections of the Musée d'Art Haïtien and was recognized by the Haitian government for her contributions to the development of Haitian painting. Read more
• 13 Feb 2013: Yuko Tojo, Japanese activist and politician (born 1939) Yuko Tojo was a Japanese ultra-nationalist politician, Imperial Japanese apologist, and brief political aspirant. She was the granddaughter of convicted war criminal Hideki Tojo. Read more
• 13 Feb 2012: Russell Arms, American actor and singer (born 1920) Russell Lee Arms was an American actor and singer. Read more
• 13 Feb 2012: Louise Cochrane, American-English screenwriter and producer (born 1918) Louise Cochrane was an American-born writer and television producer best known for creating the BBC Children's TV programme Rag, Tag and Bobtail in the early 1950s. She also wrote a series of career guidance books for young people and a biography of the 12th-century philosopher Adelard of Bath. Read more
• 13 Feb 2012: Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic (born 1928) Daniel Charles Gerould was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center and Director of Publications of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. A scholar, teacher, translator, editor, and playwright, Gerould was a specialist in US melodrama, Central and Eastern European theatre of the twentieth century, and fin-de-siècle European avant-garde performance. Gerould was one of the world’s most recognized “Witkacologists,” a leading scholar and translator of the work of Polish playwright, novelist, painter, and philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ("Witkacy"). Gerould was best known for introducing English-language audiences to the writings of Witkiewicz through such work as Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents, Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer, The Witkiewicz Reader, and his original translations of most of Witkiewicz’s plays. Read more
• 13 Feb 2010: Lucille Clifton, American poet and academic (born 1936) Lucille Clifton was an American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Read more
• 13 Feb 2010: Dale Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1936) Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins was a pioneer American rock singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist who was often called the architect of swamp rock boogie. Read more
• 13 Feb 2009: Edward Upward, English author and educator (born 1903) Edward Falaise Upward, FRSL was a British novelist and short story writer who, prior to his death, was believed to be the UK's oldest living author. Initially gaining recognition amongst the Auden Group as a highly imaginative surrealist writer, in the 1930s he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, after which his writing shifted towards Marxist realism. His literary career spanned over eighty years. Read more
• 13 Feb 2008: Kon Ichikawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1915) Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films The Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires on the Plain (1959), to the documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965), which won two BAFTA Film Awards, and the 19th-century revenge drama An Actor's Revenge (1963). His film Odd Obsession (1959) won the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. Read more
• 13 Feb 2007: Elizabeth Jolley, English-Australian author and academic (born 1923) Monica Elizabeth Jolley was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was published, and she went on to publish fifteen novels, four short story collections and three non-fiction books, publishing well into her 70s and achieving significant critical acclaim. She was also a pioneer of creative writing teaching in Australia, counting many well-known writers such as Tim Winton among her students at Curtin University. Read more
• 13 Feb 2007: Charlie Norwood, American captain and politician (born 1941) Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 until his death in 2007. At the time of his death, Norwood was the representative of the 10th district of Georgia. Read more
• 13 Feb 2007: Richard Gordon Wakeford, English air marshal (born 1922) Air Marshal Sir Richard Gordon Wakeford, was an officer in the Royal Air Force for 36 years, from 1941 to 1977. Beginning as a pilot of flying boats with Coastal Command, he became a flying instructor, and commanded the Queen's Flight. After various operational commands, his last post was as Deputy Chief of Defence (Intelligence) at the UK Ministry of Defence. Read more
• 13 Feb 2006: P. F. Strawson, English philosopher and author (born 1919) Sir Peter Frederick Strawson was an English philosopher who spent most of his career at the University of Oxford. He was the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford from 1968 to 1987. He had previously held the positions of college lecturer and tutorial fellow at University College, Oxford, a college he returned to upon his retirement in 1987, and which provided him with rooms until his death. Read more
• 13 Feb 2005: Nelson Briles, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1943) Nelson Kelley Briles was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. A hard thrower whose best pitch was a slider, he exhibited excellent control. Briles batted and threw right-handed. He was a starting pitcher on World Series champions with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1967 and Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971. Read more
• 13 Feb 2005: Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun (born 1907) Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, OCD, also known as Lúcia of Fátima and by her religious name Maria Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, was a Discalced Carmelite from Portugal. Sister Lúcia and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto claimed to have witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917. Her beatification process was opened in 2017. In 2023, she was declared venerable. Read more
• 13 Feb 2004: François Tavenas, Canadian engineer and academic (born 1942)
  François Tavenas, was a Canadian engineer and academic. Read more
• 13 Feb 2004: Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen politician, 2nd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (born 1952) Zelimkhan Abdulmuslimovich Yandarbiyev was a Chechen writer and politician who was the second president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria between 1996 and 1997. In 2004, Yandarbiyev was assassinated while he was on a mission to obtain recognition of the Chechen Republic by Qatar. Read more
• 13 Feb 2003: Kid Gavilán, Cuban-American boxer (born 1926) Gerardo González, better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a Cuban boxer. Gavilán was the former undisputed world welterweight champion from 1951 to 1954 having simultaneously held the NYSAC, WBA, and The Ring welterweight titles. The Boxing Writers Association of America named him Fighter of the Year in 1953. Gavilán was voted by The Ring magazine as the 26th greatest fighter of the last 80 years. Gavilán was a 1966 inductee to The Ring magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990. Read more
• 13 Feb 2003: Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist; 7th United States National Security Advisor (born 1916) Walt Whitman Rostow was an American economist, professor and political theorist who served as national security advisor to president of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1969. Read more
• 13 Feb 2002: Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937) Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music. Read more
• 13 Feb 2000: Anders Aalborg, Canadian educator and politician (born 1914) Anders Olav Aalborg was a teacher and a politician from Alberta, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1948 to 1971 as a member of the Social Credit caucus, and served in the cabinets of Premier Ernest Manning and Harry Strom from 1952 to 1971. Read more
• 13 Feb 2000: James Cooke Brown, American sociologist and author (born 1921) James Cooke Brown was an American sociologist and science fiction author. He is notable for creating the constructed language Loglan and for designing the Parker Brothers board game Careers. Read more
• 13 Feb 2000: John Leake, English soldier (born 1949) John Steven Leake was an English recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal whilst working for the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI), one of only twelve to be issued to the British forces during the Falklands War. Prior to working for the NAAFI, he worked in private security and was a soldier in the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment of the British Army. Read more
• 13 Feb 1997: Robert Klark Graham, American eugenicist and businessman (born 1906) Robert Klark Graham was an American eugenicist and businessman who made millions by developing shatterproof plastic eyeglass lenses and who later founded the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank for geniuses, in the hope of implementing a eugenics program. Read more
• 13 Feb 1997: Mark Krasnosel'skii, Russian-Ukrainian mathematician and academic (born 1920) Mark Aleksandrovich Krasnoselsky or Mark Alexsandrovich Krasnoselskii was a Soviet and Russian mathematician renowned for his work on nonlinear functional analysis and its applications. Read more
• 13 Feb 1996: Martin Balsam, American actor (born 1919) Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New York stage, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Robert Anderson's You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1968). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in A Thousand Clowns (1965). Read more
• 13 Feb 1992: Nikolay Bogolyubov, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and physicist (born 1909) Nikolay Nikolayevich Bogolyubov was a Soviet mathematician and theoretical physicist known for his significant contributions to quantum field theory, classical and quantum statistical mechanics, and the theory of dynamical systems; he was the recipient of the 1992 Dirac Medal for his works and studies. Read more
• 13 Feb 1991: Arno Breker, German sculptor and illustrator (born 1900) Arno Breker was a German sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where he was endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official state sculptor and exempted from military service. One of his better known statues is Die Partei, representing the spirit of the Nazi Party, which flanked one side of the carriage entrance to Albert Speer's new Reich Chancellery. Read more
• 13 Feb 1989: Wayne Hays, American lieutenant and politician (born 1911) Wayne Levere Hays was an American World War II veteran and politician who served 14 terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1949 to 1976. A Democrat, he resigned from Congress after a much-publicized sex scandal. Read more
• 13 Feb 1986: Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (born 1907) George Ivask was a Russian poet and literary critic; in his later years he was an American scholar of Russian literature. Ivask was born to a family of an Estonian-German father and Russian mother and he identified culturally as a Russian. Read more
• 13 Feb 1984: Cheong Eak Chong, Singaporean entrepreneur (born 1888) Cheong Eak Chong was a Chinese businessman of She ethnicity. He was born in Anxi County in Fujian in 1888, but left China in 1921 for Singapore. He began his business career there as a goldsmith, later diversifying into finance and opening a bank with offices in Hong Kong and focused his investments in the real estate and tourism industries in Singapore and Hong Kong, establishing a property empire whose eventual flagship was the Hong Fok Corporation. Throughout his career, Cheong contributed to poverty relief and development in his home county of Anxi, and he is commemorated in the names of a number of public institutions in Fujian. Read more
• 13 Feb 1980: David Janssen, American actor (born 1931) David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967). Janssen also had the title roles in three other series: Richard Diamond, Private Detective; O'Hara, U.S. Treasury; and Harry O. Read more
• 13 Feb 1976: Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian general and politician, 4th President of Nigeria (born 1938) Murtala Ramat Muhammed was a Nigerian military officer and the fourth head of state of Nigeria. He led the 1966 Nigerian counter-coup in overthrowing the military regime of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and featured prominently during the Nigerian Civil War and thereafter ruled Nigeria from 29 July 1975 until his assassination on 13 February 1976. This period in Nigerian history, from the Northern counter-coup victory to Murtala's death, is commonly associated with the institutionalization of the military in Nigerian politics. Read more
• 13 Feb 1976: Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (born 1904) Alice Joséphine Pons, known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic lyric coloratura soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer, she specialized in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly associated with the title roles in Lakmé and Lucia di Lammermoor. In addition to appearing as a guest artist with many opera houses internationally, Pons enjoyed a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where she performed nearly 300 times between 1931 and 1960. Read more
• 13 Feb 1975: André Beaufre, French general (born 1902) André Beaufre was a French Army officer and military strategist who attained the rank of Général d'Armée before his retirement in 1961. Read more
• 13 Feb 1973: Marinus Jan Granpré Molière, Dutch architect and educator (born 1883) Marinus Jan Granpré Molière was a Dutch architect. His work was part of the architecture event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Read more
• 13 Feb 1968: Mae Marsh, American actress (born 1895) Mae Marsh was an American film actress whose career spanned over 50 years. Read more
• 13 Feb 1968: Portia White, Canadian opera singer (born 1911) Portia May White was a Canadian contralto, known for becoming the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve international fame. Growing up as part of her father's church choir in Halifax, Nova Scotia, White competed in local singing competitions as a teenager and later trained at the Halifax Conservatory of Music. In 1941 and 1944, she made her national and international debuts as a singer, receiving critical acclaim for her performances of both classical European music and African-American spirituals. White later completed tours throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Read more
• 13 Feb 1967: Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (born 1880) Yoshisuke Aikawa was a Japanese entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, noteworthy as the founder and first president of the Nissan zaibatsu, one of Japan's most powerful business conglomerates around the time of the Second World War. Read more
• 13 Feb 1967: Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (1932–1934) (born 1889) Abelardo Rodríguez Luján, commonly known as Abelardo L. Rodríguez was a Mexican military officer, businessman and politician who served as Substitute President of Mexico from 1932 to 1934. He completed the term of President Pascual Ortiz Rubio after his resignation, during the period known as the Maximato, when Former President Plutarco Elías Calles held considerable de facto political power, without being president himself. Rodríguez was, however, more successful than Ortiz Rubio had been in asserting presidential power against Calles's influence. Read more
• 13 Feb 1964: Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish footballer and manager (born 1896) Paulino Alcántara Riestrá was a Spanish and Filipino professional footballer and manager who played as a forward. Born in the Philippines, he played for Catalonia, Philippines and Spain national teams. Read more
• 13 Feb 1964: Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist and academic (born 1902) Werner Heyde was a German psychiatrist. He was one of the main organizers of Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women's Social and Political Union (born 1880) Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst was a British suffragette and Royalist born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914, she supported the war against Germany. After the war, she moved to the United States, where she worked as an evangelist for the Second Adventist movement. Read more
• 13 Feb 1958: Georges Rouault, French painter and illustrator (born 1871) Georges-Henri Rouault was a French painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, whose work is often associated with Fauvism and Expressionism. Read more
• 13 Feb 1956: Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish mathematician and philosopher (born 1878) Jan Łukasiewicz was a Polish logician and philosopher who is best known for Polish notation and Łukasiewicz logic. His work centred on philosophical logic, mathematical logic and history of logic. He thought innovatively about traditional propositional logic, the principle of non-contradiction and the law of excluded middle, offering one of the earliest systems of many-valued logic. Contemporary research on Aristotelian logic also builds on innovative works by Łukasiewicz, which applied methods from modern logic to the formalization of Aristotle's syllogistic. Read more
• 13 Feb 1954: Agnes Macphail, Canadian educator and politician (born 1890) Agnes Campbell Macphail was a Canadian politician and the first woman elected to Canada's House of Commons. She served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1921 to 1940; from 1943 to 1945 and again from 1948 to 1951, she served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the Toronto riding of York East. Active throughout her life in progressive politics, Macphail worked for multiple parties, most prominently the Progressive Party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the United Farmers of Ontario. She promoted her ideas through column-writing, activist organizing, and legislation. Read more
• 13 Feb 1952: Josephine Tey, Scottish author and playwright (born 1896) Elizabeth MacKintosh, known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. Her 1951 novel The Daughter of Time, a detective work investigating the death of the Princes in the Tower, was chosen by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run. Read more
• 13 Feb 1951: Lloyd C. Douglas, American minister and author (born 1877) Lloyd Cassel Douglas was an American minister and author. Although Douglas was one of the most popular American authors of his time, he did not write his first novel until the age of 50. Read more
• 13 Feb 1950: Rafael Sabatini, Italian-English novelist and short story writer (born 1875) Rafael Sabatini was an Italian-born British writer of romance and adventure novels. Read more
• 13 Feb 1942: Otakar Batlička, Czech journalist (born 1895) Otakar Batlička was a Czech adventurer, journalist, ham (amateur) radio operator, and member of the Czech-based Nazi resistance group Obrana Národa during World War II. Read more
• 13 Feb 1942: Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian lawyer, judge, and politician, 11th President of Brazil (born 1865) Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa was a Brazilian politician and jurist who served as the 11th president of Brazil between 1919 and 1922, when Rodrigues Alves was unable to take office due to illness, after being elected in 1918. His government was marked by the beginning of the tenentist movement that would culminate in the Revolution of 1930, which brought Getúlio Vargas to power. Read more
• 13 Feb 1934: József Pusztai, Slovene-Hungarian poet and journalist (born 1864) József Pusztai was a Slovene writer, poet, journalist, teacher, and cantor in Hungary. He was also known under the pen name Tibor Andorhegyi. Read more
• 13 Feb 1906: Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (born 1866) Albert Gottschalk was a Danish painter. He had a close connection, personally and artistically, to the poets Johannes Jørgensen, Viggo Stuckenberg and Sophus Claussen. Read more
• 13 Feb 1905: Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter (born 1844) Konstantin Apollonovich Savitsky was a Russian realist painter born in the city of Taganrog in the village Frankovka or Baronovka, named after former governor Otto Pfeilizer-Frank. Today this area is occupied by the Taganrog Iron and Steel Factory TAGMET. Read more
• 13 Feb 1893: Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Mexican intellectual and journalist (born 1834) Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio was a Mexican radical liberal writer, journalist, teacher and politician. He wrote Clemencia (1869), which is often considered to be the first modern Mexican novel. Read more
• 13 Feb 1892: Provo Wallis, Canadian-English admiral (born 1791) Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo William Parry Wallis, was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, following the capture of USS Chesapeake by the frigate HMS Shannon during the War of 1812, the wounding of HMS Shannon's captain and the death of her first lieutenant in the action, he served as the temporary captain of HMS Shannon as she returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with Chesapeake. Read more
• 13 Feb 1888: Jean-Baptiste Lamy, French-American archbishop (born 1814) Jean-Baptiste Lamy, was a French-American Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop is based on his life and career, as is Paul Horgan's nonfiction work Lamy of Santa Fe. He sometimes anglicised his name to John Baptist Lamy. Read more
• 13 Feb 1883: Richard Wagner, German composer (born 1813) Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas, although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. He first achieved recognition with works in the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but revolutionised the genre through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which sought to unite poetic, musical, visual, and dramatic elements. In this approach, the drama unfolds as a continuously sung narrative, with the music evolving organically from the text rather than alternating between arias and recitatives. Wagner outlined these ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realising them in the first half of his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Read more
• 13 Feb 1877: Costache Caragiale, Romanian actor and manager (born 1815) Costache Caragiale was a Romanian actor and theatre manager who had an important role in the development of the Romanian theatre. Read more
• 13 Feb 1859: Eliza Acton, English food writer and poet (born 1799) Eliza Acton was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, Modern Cookery for Private Families. The book introduced the now-universal practice of listing ingredients and giving suggested cooking times for each recipe. It included the first recipes in English for Brussels sprouts and for spaghetti. It also contains the first recipe for what Acton called "Christmas pudding"; the dish was normally called plum pudding, recipes for which had appeared previously, although Acton was the first to put the name and recipe together. Read more
• 13 Feb 1845: Henrik Steffens, Norwegian-German philosopher and poet (born 1773) Henrik Steffens, was a Norwegian philosopher, scientist, and poet. Read more
• 13 Feb 1837: Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and author (born 1809) Mariano José de Larra y Sánchez de Castro was a Spanish romantic writer and journalist best known for his numerous essays and his infamous suicide. His works were often satirical and critical of the 19th-century Spanish society, and focused on both the politics and customs of his time. Read more
• 13 Feb 1831: Edward Berry, English admiral (born 1768) Rear-Admiral of the Red Sir Edward Berry, 1st Baronet, KCB was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his role as flag captain of Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Berry enjoyed a long and prestigious naval career and commanded HMS Agamemnon at the Battle of Trafalgar. Read more
• 13 Feb 1826: Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Russian general and politician, Governor-General of Baltic provinces (born 1745) Peter Ludwig Graf von der Pahlen was a Russian courtier and general of Baltic German stock, who played a pivotal role in the assassination of Emperor Paul I of Russia in 1801. He became a general in the Imperial Russian Army in 1798, a count in 1799, and served as Military Governor of Saint Petersburg from 1798 to 1801. Read more
• 13 Feb 1818: George Rogers Clark, American general (born 1752) George Rogers Clark was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the Virginia militia in Kentucky throughout much of the war. He is best known for his captures of Kaskaskia in 1778 and Vincennes in 1779 during the Illinois campaign, which greatly weakened British influence in the Northwest Territory and earned Clark the nickname of "Conqueror of the Old Northwest". The British ceded the entire Northwest Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Read more
• 13 Feb 1813: Samuel Ashe, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of North Carolina (born 1725) Samuel Ashe was the ninth governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1795 to 1798. He was also one of the first three judges of the North Carolina Superior Court in 1787. Read more

Why is 13 February Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 13 February, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 13 February in World history?

On 13 February, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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