Today in History - History - August 13th

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

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

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

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

1792Revolutionaries imprison French royals including Marie Antoinette

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

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

1608John Smith's story of Jamestown's first days submitted for publication

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

1732Voltaire's "Zaire" premieres in Paris

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)

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

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

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

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

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