Daily Calendar for Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Born

  • William Caxton (printer) –
  • Lucy Stone (women’s rights activist) –
  • Goldwin Smith (historian & journalist) –
  • Annie Oakley (sharpshooter) –
  • Alfred Hitchcock (filmmaker) –
  • Sir Basil Spence (architect) –
  • Fidel Castro (politician) –
  • Don Ho (musician) –
  • John Slattery (actor) –
  • Debi Mazar (actress) –

Died

  • Eugene Delacroix (painter) –
  • Florence Nightingale (pioneer of modern nursing) –
  • Herbert George ["H. G."] Wells (English writer) –
  • Mickey Mantle (baseball player) –
  • Julia Child (chef and author) –
  • Sandy Allen (world’s tallest woman, 7 foot, 7 inches tall) –
  • Les Paul (guitar pioneer) –
  • Johnny Pesky (baseball player) –

Events

  • Canada first used to indicate region–
  • Oregon Institute (later named Willamette University) opened in Salem, Oregon–
  • Andrew Campbell discovered the Luray Caverns in Virginia, when cold air from a sinkhole on a large hill extinguished his candle–
  • Last spike driven for first stage of Esquimalt-Nanaimo Railway in Cliffside, B.C.–
  • Samuel Leeds Allen granted patent for Flexible Flyer sled–
  • L’il Abner comic strip debuted–
  • The Walt Disney classic, Bambi, opened this day at Radio City Music Hall in New York City–
  • Canso Causeway, linking Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, opened–
  • A plane flew into a hurricane for the first series of bumpy flights for the National Hurricane Research Project, then part of the U.S. Weather Bureau–
  • The East German government closed the border between east and west sectors of Berlin with barbed wire fencing to discourage further population movement to the west. Later in the week a concrete wall was erected to strengthen the barrier between official crossing points–
  • 3-year-old Jamie Gavin became the youngest heart/lung transplant patient–
  • American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 10th and 11th Olympic gold medals making him the most decorated Olympian in history–

Weather

  • Blue sun observed widely in the South, thought to presage Nat Turner slave uprising: phenomenon continued for several days–
  • Hurricane Connie hit the North Carolina coast with winds up to 87 miles per hour–
  • Four people were injured when lightning hit and shattered a utility pole in Belmont, New Hampshire–
  • Nine people were injured after a lightning strike at a day camp in Pelham, New Hampshire–
  • A small tornado hit Meredith, New Hampshire–
  • Hurricane Charley struck Florida–

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