It happened today – this day in history – April 13

1570: Birth of Guy Fawkes.

1668: John Dryden is appointed the first Poet Laureate by Charles I.

1742: Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” is performed for the first time at New Music Hall, Dublin.

1743: Birth of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the US.

1796: Napoleon’s forces defeat allied armies of Austria and of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont at the Battle of Millesimo.

1866: Birth of outlaw Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker) in Utah.

1906: Birth of novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett in Ireland.

1919: British troops open fire on demonstrators in Amritsar, India, killing 350.

1928: The first transatlantic flight from Europe to the US.

1945: The Red Army occupies Vienna. On the same day, Canadian soldier Léo Major single-handedly liberates the Dutch town of Zwolle by fooling the Germans into thinking a raid had begun.

1949: Philip S Hench announces discovery of cortisone to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

1954: Physicist and father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer is accused of being a communist by Senator Joe McCarthy.

1962: The Beatles made their third trip to Germany for a 48-night residency at The Star Club, Hamburg.

1964: Ian Smith becomes Prime Minister of Rhodesia.

1965: The Beatles record the John Lennon song “Help!” during an evening session at EMI Studios in Abbey Road.

1970: Apollo 13 announces “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here”, as an oxygen tank explodes en route to Moon.

1975: Jack Nicklaus wins his fifth US Masters title.

1980: Seve Ballesteros wins his first US Masters.

1982: David Crosby was arrested when police found him preparing cocaine backstage in his dressing room before a show in Dallas.

2004: Death of TV presenter Caron Keating from cancer aged 41.

2006: Death of author Muriel Spark aged 88.

2009: Producer Phil Spector was convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson.

2014: Manny Pacquiao defeats Timothy Bradley to regain his WBO welterweight boxing title.

2015: Writer Gunter Grass dies aged 87.

2018: Death of director Milos Forman aged 86.

BIRTHDAYS: Edward Fox, actor, 83; Jack Casady, bassist (Jefferson Airplane) 76; Al Green, singer, 74; Ron Perlman, actor, 70; Peter Davison, actor, 69; Max Weinberg, drummer (The E. Street Band) 69; Jonjo O’Neill, racehorse trainer,68; Jimmy Destri, keyboardist (Blondie) 66; Alan Devonshire, former footballer, 64; Rudi Voller, former West Germany footballer, 60; James Jordan, dancer, 42.