41st year - Nº 103 Monday, 13 April 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nº 103 Monday, 13 April 2026

13 April / Today's 30 Events:

---

(+) 456 years ago Monday 13th of April 1570 Catholic conspirator Guy Guido Fawkes known planning the Gunpowder Plot is born in Stonegate, York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

---

(x) 364 years ago He Was a Very Cold Meikle Blak Roch Man Thursday 13th of April 1662 Isobel Gowdie confesses to having had an encounter with the Devil after she arranged to meet him in the 'kirk' at night in Auldearn, Scotland, United Kingdom. The Devil put his mark on Gowdie's shoulder then sucked blood from it. Gowdie touched on having sexual intercourse with the Devil who she described as a very cold "meikle, blak, roch man".

---

(-) 331 years ago Wednesday 13th of April 1695 Fabulist Jean de La Fontaine dies of natural causes at the age of 74 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

---

(+) 283 years ago Saturday 13th of April 1743 Founding Father and 3rd President of the United States Thomas Jefferson is born in Shadwell, Virginia, United States.

---

(+) 166 years ago Friday 13th of April 1860 Artist James Sidney Edouard Ensor is born in Langestraat 26B, Oostende, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

---

(+) 141 years ago Monday 13th of April 1885 Marxist philosopher György Lukács, originally Löwinger György Bernát is born in Budapest, Közép-Magyarország, Hungary.

---

(+) 126 years ago Friday 13th of April 1900 Artist Pierre Molinier is born in Agen, Aquitaine, France.

---

(+) 125 years ago Saturday 13th of April 1901 Psychoanalist Jacques Marie Émile Lacan is born in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

---

(+) 120 years ago He Kept Nobody Waiting Friday 13th of April 1906 Writer and playwright Samuel Barclay Beckett known for Waiting for Godot is born in Cooldrinagh, Kerrymount Avenue, Foxrock, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.

---

(-) 109 years ago Friday 13th of April 1917 Murderer Chester Taylor is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 44 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, United States.

---

(x) 107 years ago Sunday 13th of April 1919 Over 400 people are shot dead by troops of the British Indian Army in Jallianwala Bagh Garden, Amritsar, Punjab, India. Over 1.000 people were injured as troops continued to fire into the fleeing civilians until their ammunition was almost exhausted.

---

(-) 106 years ago Tuesday 13th of April 1920 Murderer Frederick Rothwell Holt is executed by hanging at the age of 33 in Strangeways Prison, Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.

---

(-) 103 years ago Friday 13th of April 1923 Double murderer Paul V. Hadley aka Dr. William E. Estaver aka The Claw is executed by hanging at the age of 35 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

---

(x) 95 years ago Monday 13th of April 1931 Start of the trial against 48-year-old Serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

---

(-) 83 years ago Tuesday 13th of April 1943 Painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer known for Das Triadisches Ballett dies of heart failure at the age of 55 in Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

---

(-) 81 years ago Friday 13th of April 1945 Murderer U.L. Holley is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 38 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

---

(-) 79 years ago Sunday 13th of April 1947 Hermann Bennen is hacked to death by serial killer Rudolf Pleil aka Der Großten Todmacher in Zorge, Niedersachsen, Germany.

---

(+) 76 years ago Thursday 13th of April 1950 White-supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, originally James Clayton Vaughn aka The Racist Killer is born in Mobile, Alabama, United States.

---

(-) 70 years ago Friday 13th of April 1956 Expressionist painter Emil Nolde, originally Emil Hansen dies of natural causes at the age of 89 in Seebüll, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

---

(-) 65 years ago Thursday 13th of April 1961 Rapist John Arthur Bennett is executed by hanging at the age of 26 in United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, United States. Bennett was the last person executed by the U.S. military.

---

(-) 59 years ago Thursday 13th of April 1967 Dictator of Nicaragua Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle dies of a heart attack at the age of 45 in Managua, Managua, Nicaragua.

---

(x) 53 years ago Friday 13th of April 1973 27-year-old Performance and installation artist Chris Christopher Burden performs 'Icarus' in Venice, California, United States.

---

(x) 44 years ago Tuesday 13th of April 1982 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV' by 77-year-old Artist Barnett Newman known for Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? is attacked by 29-year-old student Josef Nikolaus Kleer in Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Kleer claimed that the painting was a "perversion of the German flag".

---

(-) 43 years ago Wednesday 13th of April 1983 Joe Rapini is shot through the heart by serial rapist and murderer Mike DeBardeleben aka The Lethal Shadow in Greece, New York, United States.

---

(-) 42 years ago Friday 13th of April 1984 Serial killer Christopher Bernard Wilder aka The Beauty Queen Killer dies due to self-inflicted gun-shots in a fight with a state-trooper at the age of 39 in Vic’s Getty Oil-Station, corner of Main and Bridge Streets, Colebrook, New Hampshire, United States. When the troopers approached Wilder, he retreated to his car to arm himself with a .357 Magnum. Trooper Leo Jellison grabbed Wilder from behind and subdued his arms. In the scuffle two shots were fired; the first bullet passed through Wilder's body, exited through his back and into Jellison. The second also went into Wilder's chest - both bullets went through Wilder's heart, killing him i nstantly.

---

(x) 33 years ago Tuesday 13th of April 1993 31-year-old Serial killer Sergei Vasilyevich Ryakhovsky aka The Hippopotamus aka The Balashikha Ripper is arrested in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia. Ryakhovsky was under suspicion of killing 19 men and women between 14 and 78 years old.

---

(x) 27 years ago Tuesday 13th of April 1999 71-year-old Pathologist and euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian, originally Murad Jacob Kevorkian aka Doctor Death is sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison for his assistance in the videotaped suicide of 52-year-old Lou Gehrig's disease patient Thomas Youk in Pontiac, Michigan, United States. Kevorkian was sent to a prison in Coldwater, Michigan to serve his sentence. After his conviction and subsequent losses on appeal Kevorkian was denied parole repeatedly until 2007.

---

(x) 19 years ago Friday 13th of April 2007 48-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'The Red Dragon' in Ernest van Dijckkaai 8, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium. Between 17.00 and 18.00hrs on I stood on the edge of the top balcony ramp of the house on Ernest Van Dijckkaai N°8 in Antwerp dressed in a shiny red cape rubber boots blindfolded and with my ‘Diggin’ for Gordon’ shovel like a rifle in my hands. While I counted from 1 till 1978 Sofie Pepermans read a cutup text about this piece. The performance had - apart from casual passers-by below - one viewer: Mauro Pawlowski.

---

(-) 11 years ago Hielt er die Trommel Monday 13th of April 2015 Writer and playwright Günter Wilhelm Grass known for Die Blechtrommel dies of a lung infection at the age of 88 in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

---

(-) 8 years ago Friday 13th of April 2018 Film director Miloš Jan Tomáš Forman dies of undisclosed causes at the age of 86 in Danbury Hospital, Danbury, Connecticut, United States.

---