April 13th

National Day

• National Scrabble Day
• Plant Appreciation Day
• National Silly Earring Day

Birthdays

• 1951 – Peter Davison, English actor (All Creatures Great and Small, Death in Paradise, The Larkins,Doctor Who), born in Streatham, London.
• 1975 – Lou Bega, German singer (“Mambo No. 5”, “Angelina”), born in Munich, Germany.
• 1978 – Carles Puyol, Spanish former professional footballer who played his entire career for Barcelona and the Spanish national team, born in Catalonia, Spain.

On This Day

• 1936 – Luton Town footballer Joe Payne, aged 22, set a goal scoring record when he scored ten goals in one match against Bristol Rovers.
• 1992 – Neil Kinnock resigned as Labour Party leader. He blamed the Conservative backed press for his party’s defeat at the general election.
• 1994 – Star Trek actor George Takei had an asteroid named after him. The asteroid 7307 Takei was discovered on this day from Nachi-Katsuura Observatory in Japan.
• 2021 – Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria apologized for voicing Apu for 30 years. Azaria, a white man, felt he needed to apologize to “every single Indian person” for the harm he did in voicing the iconic Indian shopkeeper.

Music

• 1965 – The Beatles record the song ‘Help!’ during an evening recording session at Abbey Road in London.
• 1967 – Nancy and Frank Sinatra were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Somethin’ Stupid’, (making them the only father and daughter to have a UK No.1 single as a team).
• 2003 – Madonna struck back at web sites who were offering illegal downloads of her new album, ‘American Life’ by flooding file-sharing networks with decoy files. When the files were opened they were greeted by the voice of Madonna asking, ‘What the f**k do you think you’re doing?’ The latest Madonna album has been kept under tight wraps to avoid piracy, with promotional copies being held back from journalists until just before the official release.
• 2010 – Brian May launched a major new campaign to try to prevent the return of legalised blood sports to the British Countryside. The ‘SAVE-ME’ campaign – named after May’s song, called on the British public to consider how their vote will affect the welfare of animals; and in particular fox-hunting, stag hunting and hare-coursing. The first ‘SAVE-ME campaign poster was unveiled by Brian at a prime advertising site on London’s West Cromwell Road.

History

• 1570 – The birth of Guy Fawkes at High Petergate in York. His birthplace is now the Guy Fawkes Inn, a medieval inn that stands in the shadow of York Minster. He was also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries. Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot at the Houses of Parliament in 1605.
• 1668 – John Dryden was appointed as England’s first Poet Laureate by King Charles II. Dryden received £300 a year and a cask of Canary wine for being the kingdom’s official poet.
• 1732 – The birth of Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guildford. As Lord North, he levied the tax on tea which angered the American colonists and ultimately provoked the so called ‘Boston Tea Party’ when demonstrators boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbour.
• 1829 – The British Parliament passed the Catholic Emancipation Act, lifting restrictions imposed on Catholics at the time of Henry VIII.
• 1892 – The birth of Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, considered by many to be the inventor of radar. The system provided the vital advance information that helped the Royal Air Force win the Battle of Britain.