Today in History - History - August 13th

1940Hermann Goering's "Adler Tag" (Eagle day); 45-48 German aircraft shot down over Southern England (Battle of Britain)

1876The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opens with the first complete performance of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle

1993Blue Jay Rickey Henderson pays Turner Ward $25,000 for his #24

1997SD Padres trade Rickey Henderson to Anaheim Angels

1950US President Harry Truman gives military aid to Vietnamese regime of Bao-Dai

1521Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire

199577th PGA Championship: Steve Elkington shoots a 267 at Riviera Calif

1732Voltaire's "Zaire" premieres in Paris

1792Revolutionaries imprison French royals including Marie Antoinette

1932Hitler refuses President Von Hindenburg's proposal to become vice-chancellor of Germany

1912Ben Hogan, Dublin Tx, PGA golfer (US Open 1950, 51, 53)

1926Fidel Castro, Mayari, Oriente, Cuba, dictator/prime minister/president (1959-2008)

1860Annie Oakley [Phoebe Ann Moses], North Star Ohio, sharp shooter (Buffalo Bill's Wild West), (d. 1926)

1899Alfred Hitchcock, Leytonstone Essex, English director (Psycho, Birds, Rear Window)

1868Prime Minister of Canada Wilfrid Laurier (26) weds Zoé Lafontaine (27) in Montreal, Canada

1980Actor James Woods (33) weds costume designer Kathryn Morrison

1946H. G. Wells, English writer, dies at 79

1995Mickey Mantle, baseball great (NY Yankees), dies of cancer at 63