A few of the great historical events that happened today in history, February 13th!

1542	The fifth wife of England’s King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.
1635	The Boston Public Latin School, the first public school in what is now the United States, was founded.
1689	British Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights.
1692	In the Glen Coe highlands of Scotland, thirty-eight members of the MacDonald clan are murdered by soldiers of the neighboring Campbell clan for not pledging allegiance to William of Orange. Ironically the pledge had been made but not communicated to the clans. The event is remembered as the Massacre of Glencoe.
1862	The four day Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, begins.
1865	The Confederacy approves the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, as long as the approval of their owners is gained.
1866	Jesse James holds up his first bank.
1914	The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is founded. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
1920	The League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
1936	First social security checks are put in the mail.
1945	The Royal Air Force Bomber Command devastates the German city of Dresden with night raids by 873 heavy bombers. The attacks are joined by 521 American heavy bombers flying daylight raids.
1949	A mob burns a radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.”
1951	At the Battle of Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contain the Chinese forces’ offensive in a two-day battle.
1953	The Pope asks the United States to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
1960	France exploded its first atomic bomb.
1968	The United States sends 10,500 more combat troops to Vietnam.
1970	General Motors is reportedly redesigning automobiles to run on unleaded fuel.
1972	Enemy attacks in Vietnam decline for the third day as the United States continues its intensive bombing strategy.
1984	Konstantin Chernenko is selected to succeed Yuri Andropov as Party General Secretary in the Soviet Union.
1991	During Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
1997	The Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time, closing at 7,022.44.
2000	Charles Schulz’s final “Peanuts” comic strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died at age 77.
2002	John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.).
2005	Ray Charles won eight posthumous Grammy awards for his final album, “Genius Loves Company.” Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company.”
2008	Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens denied having taken performance-enhancing drugs in testimony before Congress.
2011	Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who’d helped topple President Hosni Mubarak.
2012	Washington became the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Today in History facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, and HistoryOrb.com.