May 13
1568
Mary Queen of Scots was defeated at the Battle of Langside and immediately fled to North England.
1846
The United States formally declared war on Mexico after several days of fighting.
1938
Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded the New Orleans’s jazz classic, When the Saints Go Marching In, on Decca Records.
1940
Winston Churchill gave his first speech as prime minister: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
1973
Tennis male chauvinist Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Smith Court, 6-2, 6-1 in front of a worldwide television audience. He would lose to Billie Jean King later that year.
1981
Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca as he drove through a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Rome.
Birthdays
Joe Louis
1914–81, American boxer, born in Lafayette, Alabama
Maria Theresa
queen of Bohemia and Hungary (1717)
Henry William Stiegel
iron and glass manufacturer (1729)
Sir Arthur Sullivan
composer (1842)
Georges Braque
painter (1882)
Harvey Keitel
actor (1939)
Stevie Wonder
singer, composer, producer (1950)