1913 - Definition and Overview

1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. (click on link for calendar)

Events

January-March

• January 30 - House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill
• February 1 - New York City's Grand Central Station opens as the world's largest train station.
• February 3 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.
• February 3 – Trial of the remnants of the Bonnot gang begins
• February 17 - The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century
• February 19 - Prizes are included in Cracker Jack candy boxes for the first time
• February 27 – Freezing weather stops everything in Balkans
• March - Outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia when the House of Romanov celebrate the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne
• March 4 - End of term for President of the United States William Howard Taft. He is succeeded by Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
• March 12 – Canberra becomes the federal capital of Australia
• March 13 – Assassination of Francisco Madero, president of Mexico
• March 18 - George I of Greece is assassinated.
• March 20 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese nationalist party (KMT) is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days after.
• March 26 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.

April-September

• April 8 - Passing of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, dictating the direct election of senators.
• April 24 - Woolworth Building opening ceremony.
• May 13 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a four engine aircraft.
• May 14 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.
• May 29 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris
• May 30 - First Balkan War: A peace treaty is signed in London ending the war.
• June 4 - Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies a few days later, never having regained consciousness.
• June 15 - Bud Bagsak Massacre: US troops under General John 'Black Jack' Pershing kill at least 2,000 relatively defenceless men, women and children, Bud Bagsak, Philippines.
• July 3 - Commemeration of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of United States Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• July 10 - Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States (as of2004).
• August 13 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.
• August 20 - 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.
• September 23 - French aviator Roland Garros flies over the Mediterranean
• September 29 - Rudolf Diesel disappears enroute to Britain

October-December

• October 7–October 13 – A storm on the North American Great Lakes kills 270.
• October 10 – US President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• October 19 – Founding of the DLRG (German Life Saving Society)
• November 5 – The insane king Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumed the title Ludwig III.
• November 6 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
• December 1 – Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford was not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one did spark an era of mass production).
• December 12 – Emperor of Ethiopia Menelik II dies and is succeeded by his grandson Iyasu V of Ethiopia.
• December 12 – Vincencio Peruggia tries to sell Mona Lisa in the Florence and is arrested
• December 30 – Italy returns Mona Lisa to France
• December 23 Federal Reserve is created Woodrow Wilson ecomony starts boom and busts cycles

unknown dates

• Female suffrage in Norway
• Greece annexes Crete
• British steamship Calvadas disappears in the Marmora Sea with 200 hands
• First crossword puzzle appears in the World newspaper
• Black Chamber, forerunner of NSA, founded
• de Sitter: speed of light is independent of speed of source
• Sagnac: speed of light depends on speed of rotating platform
• Painting September Morn creates a national sensation in U.S.
• Camel Cigarettes were introduced

Births

January-February

• January 6 - Loretta Young, actress (d. 2000)
• January 9 - Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States (d. 1994)
• January 15 - Lloyd Bridges, actor (d. 1998)
• January 18 - Danny Kaye, actor (d. 1987)
• January 29 - Peter von Zahn, journalist and writer (d. 2001)
• February 4 - Rosa Parks, civil rights activist
• February 6 - Mary Leakey, anthropologist (d. 1996)
• February 9 - Gypsy Rose Lee, actress, ecdysiast (d. 1970)
• February 11 - Lucio Diestro, composer.
• February 13 - George Barker, British poet (d. 1991)
• February 14 - Jimmy Hoffa, labor union leader (d. 1975 - disappeared)
• February 14 - Mel Allen, sports reporter (d. 1996)
• February 25 - Gert Fröbe, actor (d. 1988)
• February 25 - Jim Backus, actor (d. 1989)
• February 27 - Irwin Shaw, writer (d. 1984)

March-August

• March 4 - John Garfield, actor (d. 1952)
• March 13 - William Casey, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (d. 1987)
• March 18 - René Clément, French film director (d. 1996)
• March 29 - Tony Zale, world champion boxer (d. 1997)
• March 29 - R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 2000)
• March 30 - Richard Helms, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (d. 2002)
• March 30 - Frankie Laine, singer
• April 3 - Per Borten, former Premiere of Norway (d. 2005)
• April 27 - Philip Hauge Abelson, physicist co-discoverer of Neptunium (d. 2004)
• May 1 - Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (d. 1980)
• May 8 - Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (d. 1937)
• May 11 - Robert Jungk, publicist and futurologist (d. 1994)
• May 16 - Woody Herman, musician, band leader (d. 1987)
• May 20 - William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard (d. 2001)
• May 26 - Peter Cushing, British actor (d. 1994)
• June 10 - Tikhon Khrennikov, Soviet composer
• June 11 - Vince Lombardi, American football coach (d. 1970)
• June 18 – Robert Mondavi, leading American wine maker
• June 25 - Cyril Fletcher, British comedian (d. 2005)
• June 28 - Franz Antel, Austrian filmmaker
• July 14 - Gerald Ford, American president
• July 22 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter
• August 17 - Rudy York, Major League Baseball All-Star (d. 1970)
• August 28 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (d. 1995)
• August 28 - Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)

September-December

• September 5 - Frank Thomas, Disney animator (d. 2004)
• September 12 - Jesse Owens, American athlete (d. 1980)
• September 14 - Jacobo Arbenz, president of Guatemala (d. 1971)
• September 19 - Frances Farmer, American actress (d. 1970)
• September 15 - John N. Mitchell, former United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d. 1988)
• September 29 - Stanley Kramer, Academy Award Winning Movie Producer, director, and writer (d. 2001)
• September 29 - Trevor Howard, actor (d. 1988)
• September 29 - Silvio Piola, all-time highest Serie A goalscorer (d. 1996)
• September 30 - Bill Walsh, movie producer and writer (d. 1975)
• November 2 - Burt Lancaster, actor (d. 1994)
• November 5 - Vivien Leigh, British actress (d. 1967)
• November 7 - Albert Camus, French writer (d. 1960)
• November 10 - Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese communist politician
• November 22 - Benjamin Britten, English composer (d. 1976)
• December 6 - Eleanor Holm - American swimmer (d. 2004)

Deaths

• January 1 - Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal
• January 2 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist
• February 26 - Felix Draeseke, German composer
• March 10 - Harriet Tubman, Underground Railroad conductor, anti-slavery activist
• March 22 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of KMT
• March 31 - John Pierpont Morgan, American financier and banker
• June 5 - Chris von der Ahe, brewer, baseball owner
• July 3 - Horatio Nelson Young, American naval hero
• October 5 - Hans von Bartels, German painter
• December 12 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia
• Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh biologist

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes
• Chemistry - Alfred Werner
• Medicine - Charles Robert Richet
• Literature - Rabindranath Tagore
• Peace - Henri La Fontaine