Today in History - History - August 13th

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

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

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

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

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

1997SD Padres trade Rickey Henderson to Anaheim Angels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1988Musician Robert Smith (29) weds Mary Poole in UK

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

1910Florence Nightingale, English nurse, dies at 90