On This Day: January 13

This is the 13th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: thirteen

A coven is a gathering of witches, especially thirteen of them. Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. The "ides" refer to the 15th day of March, May, July, or October as well as the 13th day of January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December in the ancient Roman calendar. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Hilary of Poitiers, St. Agrecius, and St. Berno.

Sweden: St. Knut's Day

Switzerland: Silvesterklause or Meitlisunntig.

Norway: Tyvendedagen or tjugandedagen

Togo: National Liberation Day.

Russia: Old New Year's Eve.

Events

1893 - Britain's Independent Labor Party (a precursor to the current Labor Party) held its first meeting. It was formed by Keir Hardie.

1910 - Opera was broadcast on the radio for the first time - Enrico Caruso singing from the stage of New York's Metropolitan Opera House.

1931 - The bridge connecting New York and New Jersey was named the George Washington Memorial Bridge.

1955 - Chase National and the Bank of Manhattan agreed to merge, resulting in the second largest U.S. bank.

1964 - Capitol Records released the Beatles' first single in the USA; "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" sold one million copies in the first three weeks.

1966 - Robert C. Weaver was appointed to the U.S. cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, becoming the first African-American to attain an executive-branch post.

1990 - L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia took the oath of office, becoming the nation's first elected black governor.

1992 - Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

2000 - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates stepped aside as chief executive and promoted company president Steve Ballmer to the position.

Births

1808 - Salmon P. Chase, U.S. Treasury Secretary, sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

1834 - Horatio Alger, American author.

1884 - Sophie Tucker, American vaudeville singer.

1885 - Alfred Fuller, American businessman, founder of Fuller Brush Company.

1926 - Michael Bond, English author, creator of the Paddington Bear stories.

Deaths

1941 - James Joyce, Irish novelist.