February 13, 1784 General Washington, from Mount Vernon, in an order to his merchant, Robert Carey, London, said: ” Mrs. Washington would take it as a favor if you will direct Mrs. Shelby to send her a fashionable summer cloak and hat, a black silk apron, one piece of penny and one of two-penny ribbon (white), and a pair of French bead ear-rings and necklace. And I should be obliged to you for sending me a dozen and a half of water plates. (Pewter, with my crest engraved.)” From: Washington Day by Day, published in 1895

Image from Boston Public Library via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

First Lady of the United States, Bess Truman, was born in Independence, Missouri on February 13, 1885. She and Harry were married in Independence, Missouri.

Image of Bess Truman at 4 years of age via Wikimedia Commons, no known restrictions.

Grant Wood, born February 13, 1891 was an artist known for Regionalism – realistic paintings of small-town and rural America in the early-to-mid 20th century. Although his 1930 “American Gothic” depicted a farmer and his daughter the models were actually Wood’s sister, Nan and his dentist, Dr. McKeeby.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, copyright nor renewed, public domain in the US.

A photograph of the Joseph Hewlings House on Mount Laurel Road in Burlington County, New Jersey that was taken on February 13, 1939. Construction of the dwelling started in 1767, nine years before the signing of The Declaration of Independence. The home and 186 acres of property were granted to Joseph’s son Samuel in 1769. 17 years later, in 1786, Samuel sold the home and the land for 2,000 Pounds (Gold and Silver) to a farmer.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On February 13, 1919, Tennessee Ernie Ford (Ernest Jennings Ford) was born in Bristol, Tennessee. In 1961 he released two albums of songs relating to the American Civil War titled Civil War Songs of the North and Civil War Songs of the South.

Image: Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1957 from NBC Television via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

American flying ace was Chuck Yeager was born on February 13, 1923 in Myra, West Virginia. In 1947 he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A postcard of the Paseo Branch Y.M.C.A. in Kansas City, Missouri. On February 13, 1920, eight owners of African American baseball clubs met at the Paseo Y.M.C.A. to form the Negro National League. The league lasted until 1931.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Theo. Roosevelt Jr., Alice Longworth and Will Rogers, 2/13/1922

Image via LOC

On February 13, 1950, a poll by the Associated Press named Jim Thorpe (who was still living at the time) “the greatest male athlete of the half century”

Image of Thorpe with the Cincinnati Reds in 1917 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On February 13, 1976, American figure skater Dorothy Hamill won the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Image of Dorothy Hamill in Ice Capades in the late 70s/early 80s via Alamy

One of the first U.S. Marine Corps aviators, Francis Thomas Evans Sr., performed an aerobatic loop of a seaplane on February 13, 1917 off Pensacola, Florida. He was one of the first pilots to perform the maneuver in a seaplane. Francis Thomas Evans Sr. served during WWI and WWII.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, no known restrictions

Woman seated at a soda fountain table is pouring alcohol into a cup from a cane, during Prohibition; with a large Coca-Cola advertisement on the wall 2/13/1922

via LOC, no known restrictions

Davy Jones and Peter Tork from the first episode of The Monkees in 1966 Peter Tork was born on February 13, 1942 in Washington, D.C.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Start of pigeons NY to Washington February 13, 1915

Officials of the Poultry and Pigeon Show on the roof of Madison Square Garden in New York City, preparing to release pigeons carrying peace messages for President Wilson in Washington, D.C.

Image via LOC, no known restrictions

Captured on February 13, 1962, John Glenn pauses at the Cape during the final days of preparation for his Friendship 7 mission. Within a week, he would circle the Earth three times and reshape the nation’s sense of possibility.

Rose Cade — celebrated in Southern California’s citrus‑booster era as the “Queen of Lemons,” a tongue‑in‑cheek title given to women who helped promote the region’s orchards and optimism. On February 13, 1920, she stepped into this whimsical publicity moment with full awareness of the spectacle, turning a novelty costume and a Friday‑the‑13th calendar into a lighthearted performance of West Coast good luck and civic pride.

On February 13, 1909, at a dinner for his financial backers in Fraunces Tavern, Lee De Forest announced that he had united wireless telegraphy with the telephone using his arc radiotelephone — a “singing‑arc” transmitter capable of carrying the human voice over continuous radio waves. The New York Times reported his remarks the next morning, and De Forest publicly demonstrated the system on January 12, 1910.