This Day in History

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June 13

1514 - Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.

1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.

1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

1893 – Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.

1917 – World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I is carried out by Gotha G bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.

1940 - The battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55), the most highly decorated American battleship of WWII (15 battle stars), is launched.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Villers-Bocage - German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, destroying up to fourteen tanks and fifteen personnel carriers, along with two anti-tank guns in a Tiger 1 tank.

1952 – Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.

1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1970 – "The Long and Winding Road" becomes The Beatles' last U.S. number one song.

1975 - Peter Frampton played the first of two nights at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California. Recordings from these two shows were used as part of his No.1 double album 'Frampton Comes Alive'. It became the best-selling album of 1976, selling over 6 million copies in the US and Frampton Comes Alive! was voted "Album of the year" in the 1976 Rolling Stone readers poll. It remained on the charts for 97 weeks.

1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.

1981 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.

1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (the farthest planet from the Sun at the time).

1992 - Billy Ray Cyrus started a 17-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Some Gave All'. His debut album featured the world-wide breakthrough song 'Achy Breaky Heart', which was originally recorded as 'Don't Tell My Heart' by The Marcy Brothers on their 1991 self-titled album.

1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

2000 – Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

2010 – A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth.

2015 – A man opens fire at policemen outside the police headquarters in the Texas city of Dallas, while a bag containing a pipe bomb is also found. He was later shot dead by police.

Births

1786 – Winfield Scott; 1865 – W. B. Yeats; 1892 – Basil Rathbone; 1903 – Red Grange; 1913 – Ralph Edwards; 1918 – Ben Johnson; 1926 – Paul Lynde; 1943 – Malcolm McDowell; 1943 – Jim Guy Tucker; 1945 – Whitley Strieber; 1949 - Dennis Locorriere; 1951 – Richard Thomas ('John Boy Walton'), Stellan Skarsgård; 1953 – Tim Allen; 1959 – Lance Kinsey ("Police Academy"); 1962 – Ally Sheedy; 1968 – David Gray; 1969 – Laura Kightlinger; 1970 – Rivers Cuomo; 1973 – Tanner Foust; 1986 – Kat Dennings; 1986 – Ashley & Mary-Kate Olsen

Deaths

1231 – Anthony of Padua; 1979 – Darla Hood ("Our Gang"); 1986 – Benny Goodman; 1987 – Geraldine Page; 1993 – Deke Slayton; 2008 – Tim Russert; 2010 – Jimmy Dean; 2013 – David Deutsch; 2014 – Chuck Noll