Tuesday 13 February 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday

Pope Gregory XIII add the event to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 on the day before Ash Wednesday, which Lent, the 40 days of fasting and prayer leading up to Easter Sund..→

World Radio Day

"Radio is the theater of the mind..."- Steve Allen. Nikola Tesla was granted the first radio patents in 1900, resulting in Guglielmo Marconi’s initial radio pa..→

Holidays and observances

• Children's Day in Myanmar
• Get a Different Name Day
• International Shawarma Day (since 2011)
• Lantern Festival
• Little New Year in Japan (小正月 koshōgatsu)
• Madly In Love With Me Day
• National Tortellini Day and National “Italian Food” Day in USA
• National Women's Day in India
• Night of Redemption
• Terendez in Armenia (in pre-Christian times, the holiday was celebrated as a festival of awakening nature. After the adoption of Christianity, Terendez was tied to one of the main church holidays - the Presentation of the Lord)
• World Singles Day

Events

• 2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
• 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.
• 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".
• 1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
• 1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
• 1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
• 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.

Births

• 1988 – Ryan Goins, American baseball player. Ryan Matthew Goins (born February 13, 1988) is an American professional baseball second baseman and shortstop in the Oakland Athletics organization.
• 1980 – Carlos Cotto, Puerto Rican-American wrestler and boxer. While performing for the first, Cotto became the only person to win all eligible championships, later becoming a Universal Heavyweight Champion in the second.
• 1979 – Mena Suvari, American actress and fashion designer. After beginning her career as a model and guest-starring in several television series, she made her film debut in the drama Nowhere (1997).
• 1977 – Randy Moss, American football player and coach. He holds the NFL single-season touchdown reception record (23 in 2007), the NFL single-season touchdown reception record for a rookie (17 in 1998), and is second on the NFL all-time regular season touchdown reception list with 156.
• 1974 – Fonzworth Bentley, American rapper and actor. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1972 – Charlie Garner, American football player. Charlie Garner III (born February 13, 1972) is a former American football running back in the National Football League.
• 1971 – Todd Williams, American baseball player. Todd Michael Williams (born February 13, 1971) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher.
• 1969 – Joyce DiDonato, American soprano and actress. Joyce DiDonato (née Flaherty; born February 13, 1969) is an American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano.
• 1966 – Freedom Williams, American rapper and singer. Frederick Brandon Williams (born February 13, 1966), better known by his stage name Freedom Williams is an American rapper, singer and songwriter, who gained fame as the lead vocalist on C+C Music Factory's biggest hits.
• 1966 – Neal McDonough, American actor and producer. McDonough (born February 13, 1966) is an American actor and producer, known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), Deputy District Attorney David McNorris on Boomtown (2002–2003), Sean Cahill on Suits, Robert Quarles on Justified, William Parker in Mob City, and Dave Williams on ABC's Desperate Housewives (2008–2009).
• 1964 – Stephen Bowen, American engineer, captain, and astronaut. Stephen Bowen is the name of:
• 1962 – Baby Doll, American wrestler and manager. Baby Doll is a 1956 American dramatic black comedy film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Carroll Baker, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach.
• 1961 – Henry Rollins, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor. He currently hosts a weekly radio show on KCRW, is a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia, and was a regular columnist for LA Weekly.
• 1960 – Gary Patterson, American football player and coach. Patterson has led the TCU Horned Frogs to six conference championships—one Conference USA title in 2002; four Mountain West Conference titles in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011; and one Big 12 Conference title in 2014—and nine bowl game victories—including victories in the 2011 Rose Bowl and 2014 Peach Bowl.
• 1957 – Denise Austin, American fitness trainer and author. Denise Austin (née Katnich; born February 13, 1957) is an American fitness instructor, author, and columnist, and a former member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
• 1955 – Joe Birkett, American lawyer, judge, and politician. Birkett (born February 13, 1955) is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court - Second District.
• 1954 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (d. 1989), was an American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Chicago Cubs (1975, 1977–79), St. Louis Cardinals (1980), Milwaukee Brewers (1981), Atlanta Braves (1982–84) and California Angels (1985–88).
• 1952 – Ed Gagliardi, American bass player (d. 2014), 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.
• 1947 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball player and coach. Michael William Krzyzewski (/ʃɪˈʒɛfski/ shih-ZHEF-skee; nicknamed "Coach K"; born February 13, 1947) is an American college basketball coach and former player.
• 1947 – Stephen Hadley, American soldier and diplomat, 21st United States National Security Advisor. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (commonly referred as National Security Advisor), serving under President George W.
• 1946 – Richard Blumenthal, American sergeant and politician, 23rd Attorney General of Connecticut. Serving as the state's senior senator since 2013, he is ranked as one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, with a net worth of over $100 million.
• 1945 – King Floyd, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006), was a New Orleans soul singer and songwriter, best known for his Top 10 hit from 1970, "Groove Me".
• 1945 – William Sleator, American author and composer (d. 2011), 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.
• 1944 – Jerry Springer, English-American television host, actor, and politician, 56th Mayor of Cincinnati. He currently hosts a courtroom show called Judge Jerry.
• 1944 – Stockard Channing, American actress. She is also known for originating the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and the Academy Award for Best Actress.
• 1943 – Elaine Pagels, American theologian and academic. Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey (born February 13, 1943), is an American religious historian.
• 1942 – Carol Lynley, American model and actress, was an American actress and child model. She is known for her roles in the films The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Blue Denim.
• 1942 – Donald E. Williams, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2016), 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.
• 1942 – Peter Tork, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor, was an American musician, composer and actor, best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of The Monkees.
• 1941 – Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor, director, and producer. He is a naturalized United States citizen.
• 1937 – Angelo Mosca, American-Canadian football player and wrestler. Mosca has a son, Angelo Jr., who also wrestled.
• 1934 – George Segal, American actor. Some of his most acclaimed roles are in films such as Ship of Fools (1965), King Rat (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The St.
• 1933 – Kim Novak, American actress. Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak (born February 13, 1933) is a retired American film and television actress.
• 1932 – Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990), was an American actress, television director, and aviator.
• 1930 – Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, author, and academic. Israel Meir Kirzner (also Yisroel Mayer Kirzner /ˈkɜːrznər/; born February 13, 1930) is a British-born American economist closely identified with the Austrian School.
• 1926 – Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, American nuclear physicist (d. 2012). 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.
• 1923 – Chuck Yeager, American general and pilot; first test pilot to break the sound barrier. Charles Elwood Yeager (/ˈjeɪɡər/; born February 13, 1923) is a former United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot.
• 1923 – Michael Anthony Bilandic, American soldier, judge, and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002), was an American Illinois politician who served as the 49th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, after the death of then-mayor Richard J. Daley, from December 20, 1976, until April 16, 1979.
• 1922 – Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (d. 2014), was an economist and 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.
• 1920 – Boudleaux Bryant, American songwriter (d. 1987). Felice Bryant (born Matilda Genevieve Scaduto; August 7, 1925 – April 22, 2003) and Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant (/ˈbuːdɛloʊ/; February 13, 1920 – June 25, 1987) were an American husband and wife country music and pop songwriting team.
• 1920 – Eileen Farrell, American soprano and educator (d. 2002), 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.
• 1919 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (d. 1991), 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 his version of "Sixteen Tons".
• 1918 – Patty Berg, American golfer and lieutenant (d. 2006), was an American professional golfer and a founding member and then leading player on the LPGA Tour during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Her 15 major title wins remains the all-time record for most major wins by a female golfer.
• 1915 – Lyle Bettger, American actor (d. 2003), 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).
• 1911 – Jean Muir, American actress and educator (d. 1996), was a British fashion designer.
• 1910 – William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989), was an American physicist and inventor. Shockley was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.
• 1907 – Katy de la Cruz, Filipino-American singer and actress (d. 2004), was a leading Filipino singer who specialized in jazz vocals and torch songs in a performing 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.
• 1903 – Georgy Beriev, Georgian-Russian engineer, founded the Beriev Aircraft Company (d. 1979), was a Soviet Georgian major general, founder and chief designer of the Beriev Design Bureau in Taganrog, which concentrated on amphibious aircraft.
• 1902 – Harold Lasswell, American political scientist and theorist (d. 1978), was a leading American political scientist and communications theorist. He was a PhD student at the University of Chicago, and he was a professor of law at Yale University.
• 1901 – Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist and academic (d. 1976). 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." The two main accomplishments he is associated with can be analyzed within two lenses of analysis: research institutes, methodology, as well as his research content itself.
• 1892 – Robert H. Jackson, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 57th United States Attorney General (d. 1954), was an American attorney and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 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.
• 1891 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (d. 1942), was an American painter best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly American Gothic (1930), which has become an iconic painting of the 20th century.
• 1885 – Bess Truman, American wife of Harry S. Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (d. 1982), was the wife of U.S. President Harry S.
• 1884 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (d. 1961), was an American inventor, athlete, magician, toy-maker and businessman. Gilbert is best known as the inventor of the Erector Set.
• 1883 – Hal Chase, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947). Harold Homer Chase (February 13, 1883 – May 18, 1947), 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.
• 1876 – Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player and umpire (d. 1933), 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.
• 1870 – Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1938), was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, and teacher. 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 technic – principles later propagated by Godowsky's pupils, such as Heinrich Neuhaus.
• 1831 – John Aaron Rawlins, American general and politician, 29th United States Secretary of War (d. 1869), 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.

Deaths

• 2017 – Aileen Hernandez, American union organizer and activist (b. 1926)
• 2016 – Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1936)
• 2015 – Stan Chambers, American journalist and actor (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Ralph Waite, American actor and activist (b. 1928)
• 2013 – Gerry Day, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1922)
• 2013 – Miles J. Jones, American pathologist and physician (b. 1952)
• 2012 – Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic (b. 1928)
• 2012 – Louise Cochrane, American-English screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
• 2012 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Dale Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
• 2010 – Lucille Clifton, American poet and academic (b. 1936)
• 2007 – Charlie Norwood, American captain and politician (b. 1941)
• 2005 – Nelson Briles, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1943)
• 2003 – Kid Gavilán, Cuban-American boxer (b. 1926)
• 2003 – Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist; 7th United States National Security Advisor (b. 1916)
• 2002 – Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
• 2000 – James Cooke Brown, American sociologist and author (b. 1921)
• 1997 – Robert Klark Graham, American eugenicist and businessman (b. 1906)
• 1996 – Martin Balsam, American actor (b. 1919)
• 1989 – Wayne Hays, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1911)
• 1986 – Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (b. 1907)
• 1980 – David Janssen, American actor (b. 1931)
• 1976 – Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (b. 1904)
• 1968 – Mae Marsh, American actress (b. 1895)
• 1967 – Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (b. 1880)
• 1958 – Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women's Social and Political Union (b. 1880)
• 1951 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American minister and author (b. 1877)
• 1888 – Jean-Baptiste Lamy, French-American archbishop (b. 1814)
• 1818 – George Rogers Clark, American general (b. 1752)
• 1728 – Cotton Mather, American minister and author (b. 1663)