Today in History - History - August 13th

1732Voltaire's "Zaire" premieres in Paris

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

1886John A. Macdonald uses a silver hammer to pound a gold spike, officially completing the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway in British Columbia

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

198971st PGA Championship: Payne Stewart shoots 276 at Kemper Lakes GC Ill

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

1792Revolutionaries imprison French royals including Marie Antoinette

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

1997SD Padres trade Rickey Henderson to Anaheim Angels

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

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

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

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

1955Betsy King, Reading Pennsylvania, LPGA golfer (1990 US Women's Open)

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

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

1910Florence Nightingale, English nurse, dies at 90

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