This Year in History:
1913
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, mastermind of an aggressive German military strategy that will soon be used, in modified form, at the start of the Great War, dies on…
Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president of the United States, is born on January 9, 1913 in California. The son of Quaker parents, Nixon grew up in the southern California city of…
On February 1, 1913, 25‑year‑old multi‑sport star Jim Thorpe—who won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics—signs a Major League Baseball contract with the New York Giants. The signing comes on…
On February 2, 1913, New York City’s Grand Central Terminal opens for the first time. The transportation hub as we know it today began construction in 1903, but before that…
Rosa Louise McCauley—known to history by her married name, Rosa Parks—is born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. A lifelong civil rights activist, Parks’ name has become synonymous with…
Raymond Poincare, a conservative politician who had been elected president of the French Republic over the objections of Georges Clemenceau and the French Left a month earlier, takes office on…
With trouble brewing between the great nations of Europe, Thomas Woodrow Wilson takes office as the 28th president of the United States on this day in 1913, in Washington, D.C.…
Thirty‑one‑year‑old writer Virginia Woolf delivers the manuscript of her first novel, The Voyage Out, to her publisher. Coincidentally, this date was also the 21st birthday of Woolf’s future lover, Vita…
A horrible month for weather‑related disasters in the United States culminates with a devastating tornado ripping through Nebraska, near Omaha, on this day in 1913. It was the worst of…
When Bob Dylan picked up an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, he permanently alienated a portion of his passionate fan base. When Muddy Waters went electric…
Thirteen‑year‑old Mary Phagan is found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the Atlanta, Georgia, pencil factory where she worked. Her murder later led to one of the most…
On May 14, 1914, Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson throws his 54th consecutive scoreless inning in Sportsman’s Park, leading his Washington Senators to victory over the St. Louis Browns, 10‑5.…
Some of those in attendance to see the Ballets Russes at the Théâtre des Champs‑élysées on May 29, 1913, would already have been familiar with the young Russian composer Igor…
On the night of Thursday, May 29, 1913, the pioneering Russian ballet corps Ballet Russes performs Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), choreographed by the…
On May 30, 1913, a peace treaty is signed ending the First Balkan War, in which the newly aligned Slavic nations of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece had driven Turkish…
On June 7, 1913, Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, leads the first successful ascent of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley), the highest point on the North American continent at…
Two farmers walking near a quarry outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, find two small, dead bodies floating in the water, tied together. Although the bodies were so waterlogged that authorities could…
On July 14, 1913, Gerald R. Ford is born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska. His biological father left the family when Ford was three years old. His mother’s…
Canadian author Robertson Davies is born on this day in the town of Thamesville in Ontario, Canada. Davies was the son of a publisher and politician who owned the Canadian…
On this day in 1913, Stanley Kramer, the director and producer whose best‑known “message” movies–including The Defiant Ones,Judgment at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner–tackled controversial political and social…
