Today in History, 4/13

1250: The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt and King Louis IX of France is captured.
1570: Guy Fawkes, English Catholic conspirator is born. He attempted to blow up Parliament and the King.1598: King Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
1743: Thomas Jefferson is born.1829: The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.
1861: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
1899: Alfred Mosher Butts is born. He invented Scrabble.1902: James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, WY.1906: Samuel Beckett is born. He wrote Waiting for Godot.1907: Harold Stassen, perennial presidential candidate is born. He attempted to get the Republican nomination in 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992.1919: British troops led by Reginald Dyer massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India.1923: Don Adams is born.

1924: Jack Chick is born. He writes those odd evangelical tracts that you find at laundromats.
1931: Jon Stone, co-creator of Sesame Street is born.
1939: Paul Sorvino is born.1941: The USSR and Japan sign a pact of neutrality.
1943: The mass grave where victims of the Soviet Union's Katyn Forest Massacre is discovered, alienating the Western Allies and the exiled Polish government.
1943: The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth.1945: Tony Dow is born. He played the good-hearted older brother on Leave it to Beaver.1946: Al Green is born. He had many hits such as "Let's Stay Together." He returned to Christianity after his girlfriend threw a pan of boiling grits on him while he was in the shower.

1945: Charles Robinson is born. He played Mac on Night Court.
1950: Terry Lester is born. He played the boyfriend-turned-evil-robot in KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.
1950: Ron Perlman is born.1950: William Sadler is born. He played Luther Sloan, the wicked head of Section 31, the Federation equivalent of the CIA on Deep Space Nine. Although Section 31 is portrayed as pure evil, I always liked that the Federation still needed someone to play hardball behind the facade of "we're so advanced and peaceful and not at all like those 20th century barbarians."1951: Peter Davison is born. He played the fifth incarnation of The Doctor on Doctor Who.

1953: CIA director Allan Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.
1953: Gary Kasparov, Russian chess master is born.
1964: Caroline Rhea is born. She's a comedian, actress and talk show host.1970: Apollo 13 is crippled when a tank of liquid oxygen explodes.
1970: Rick "Don't Call Me Ricky" Schroder is born.


Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.