Today In History - August 13

523 St. John I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1521 Spanish conquerors captured Mexico City from Aztecs
1642 Christian Huygens discovers the Martian south polar cap
1651 Litchfield, CT was founded
1704 The English defeat the French at the Battle of Blenheim
1831 Nat Turner leads an uprising of slaves in Virginia
1868 A series of earthquakes kill 25,000 people and does $300 million in damages in Peru and Ecuador
1876 The Reciprocity Treaty between the US and Hawaii is ratified
1906 Black soldiers raid Brownsville, Texas
1907 The first taxicab operates: in New York City
1919 Man O' War's only defeat: at Saratoga
1923 Mustapha Kemal is elected the president of Turkey
1928 The Soviet Union Spartacan Games begin
1945 35 Jews sacrifice their lives to destroy a Nazi rubber plant in Silesia
1946 Britain transfers illegal immigrants bound to Palestine, to Cyprus
1953 President Eisenhower establishes the Government Contract Compliance Committee
1960 The Central African Republic and Chad proclaim independence from France
1961 Construction on the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany
1971 Paul and Linda McCartney release "The Back Seat of My Car"
1988 The US beats Jamaica 5-1, in the 2nd round of the 1990 world soccer cup

1422 William Caxton
1655 Johann Christoph Denner
1802 Nikolaus Lenau
1818 Lucy Stone
1819 Sir George Gabriel Stokes
1820 Sir George Grove
1860 Annie Oakley
1895 Robert Burton
1898 Jean Borota
1899 Alfred Hitchcock
1902 Felix Wankel
1902 Regis Toomey
1904 Charles "Buddy" Rogers
1908 Gene Raymond
1909 John Beal
1912 Ben Hogan
1912 Rita Johnson
1918 Frederick Sanger
1919 Rex Humbard
1920 George Shearing
1921 Neville Brand
1927 Fidel Castro
1929 Pat Harrington, Jr.
1930 Don Ho
1931 Norman Read
1934 Gary Davidson
1939 Saul Steinberg
1942 Robert L. Stewart
1943 Gary Ilman
1947 Gretchen Corbett
1948 Kathleen Battle
1949 Bobby Clarke
1951 Dan Fogelberg
1955 Betsy King
1958 Feargal Sharkey
1959 Danny Bonaduce
1959 Mark Nevin
1961 Dawn Lewis
1963 Pamela Jean Stein
1963 Tigg Ketler
1964 Ian Haughland
1967 Quinn Cummings