Date·Lore

On This Day · The 103rd day of the year

April 13

April 13 carries 10 recorded events spanning between 1742 and 2009. George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

♈ZodiacAries ◈BirthstoneDiamond ❀Birth flowerDaisy

Compiled & reviewed by · Last reviewed July 13, 2026

What happened on April 13?

April 13 is the 103rd day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 1742 and 2009. Famous people born on April 13 include Thomas Jefferson, Guy Fawkes and Carles Puyol.

The shape of the day

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion — April 13 carries the weight of round numbers. Its center of gravity is the 20th century, and conflict is a recurring thread.

Aries is the sign for April 13 — read more on the Aries page, or see April's birthstone & birth flower.

Released on April 13

Movies, games, albums & shows

2025

  • Game Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth

2024

  • TV Kaiju No. 8

2023

  • Game Hunt the Night

Release data from TMDB & IGDB.

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 1742

    George Frideric Handel

    George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

  2. 1777

    American Revolutionary War

    American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.

  3. 1829

    Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829

    The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.

  4. 1943

    World War II

    World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.

  5. 1945

    Nazi Germany

    World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.

  6. 1953

    Central Intelligence Agency

    CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.

  7. 1970

    Oxygen

    At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed "Odyssey") while en route to the Moon.

  8. 1976

    Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion

    Forty workers die in the Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion, the deadliest industrial accident in modern Finnish history.

  9. 1997

    Tiger Woods

    Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

  10. 2009

    Kamień Pomorski homeless hostel fire

    A fire destroys a homeless hostel and kills at least 22 people in Kamień Pomorski, Poland.

Famous birthday twins

Born on April 13

Thomas Jefferson

b. 1743

American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States

Guy Fawkes

b. 1570

English soldier, member of the Gunpowder Plot (probable; died 1606)

Carles Puyol

b. 1978

Spanish footballer

Arthur Fadden

b. 1894

Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia

Josh Gordon

b. 1991

American football player

Garry Kasparov

b. 1963

Russian chess player and author

Samuel Beckett

b. 1906

Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate

J. M. G. Le Clézio

b. 1940

Breton French-Mauritian author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

  • 2025Mario Vargas Llosa
  • 2015Günter Grass
  • 2015Eduardo Galeano
  • 1999Willi Stoph
  • 1966Georges Duhamel (author)
  • 1695Jean de La Fontaine

Holidays & observances

  • —Christian feast day: Caradoc
  • —Christian feast day: Ida of Louvain
  • —Christian feast day: Pope Martin I
  • —Christian feast day: Margaret of Castello
  • —Christian feast day: Sabás Reyes Salazar
  • —April 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • —Songkran Songkran (Thailand)
  • —Songkran Water-Sprinkling Festival

Historical facts, event summaries, and biographical lines above are adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the author

Roman Tailor compiles and reviews every date on DateLore. He's the writer and editor behind the site's editorial essays and the day-by-day almanac. Corrections and questions are welcome — read more about DateLore or get in touch.

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