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On This Day, Oct. 13: Continental Congress establishes Navy

Oct. 13 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1775, the Continental Congress ordered construction of America’s first naval fleet.

In 1792, the cornerstone to the White House in Washington was laid. It would be November 1800 before the first presidential family — that of John Adams — moved in.

In 1903, the Boston Americans (later known as the Red Sox) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the first modern World Series, five games to three.

In 1917, up to 100,000 people gathered in Fatima, Portugal, for the “Miracle of the Sun” and its strange solar activity and, for many, a reported glimpse of the Virgin Mary.

In 1943, conquered by the Allies, Italy declared war on Germany, its Axis former partner.

In 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 carrying 45 people, including a rugby team from Montevideo, crashed in the Andes mountains. It would take 72 days for rescuers to learn the fate of the survivors, and by that time, only 16 were left to tell their story. The survivor’s harrowing story was brought to the big screen in the 1993 feature film, Alive.

In 1972, more than 170 people were killed in a Soviet airliner crash near Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport.

In 1987, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — the first winner from Central America. Arias was recognized for his work promoting democracy and peace in Central America.

File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI

In 1990, Syrian forces moved into Lebanon, removing Christian militia leader General Michel Aoun from power, effectively ending the Lebanese Civil War.

In 1994, two months after the Irish Republican Army announced a cease-fire, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Freedom Fighters, the two main paramilitary groups fighting to keep Northern Ireland with its Protestant majority in the United Kingdom, announced a cease-fire.

In 2000, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung for his efforts to reconcile his country with North Korea through a summit earlier in the year with counterpart Kim Jong Il.

In 2010, after more than two months entombed half a mile under the Chilean desert, the first of 33 trapped miners was pulled to safety in a narrow passageway drilled through more than 2,000 feet of rock, to be followed in the next 24 hours by the rest of the crew in a dramatic finale to a remarkable rescue mission.

In 2013, a stampede by masses of worshipers crossing a bridge over the Sindh River at a Hindu festival in India’s Madhya Pradesh state killed more than 100 people and injured scores of others. A police official said people panicked as rumors spread that the bridge was collapsing.

In 2019, American Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history with her record 25th gold medal at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

In 2021, Star Trek actor William Shatner, at 90, became the oldest person to go to space. He traveled with three others aboard a Blue Origin capsule and returned 11 minutes after reaching space.

In 2024, SpaceX used a tower with arms to “catch” the 20-story-tall booster for its Starship rocket for the first time.

File Photo courtesy of SpaceX

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On This Day, May 6: FDR establishes Works Progress Administration

May 6 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1863, Confederate forces commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee routed Union troops under Gen. Joseph Hooker at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.

In 1915, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hit his first major league home run in a game against the New York Yankees.

In 1935, in the depths of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing the Works Progress Administration to provide work for the unemployed. Later known as the Work Projects Administration, the agency was dissolved in 1943 after building thousands of new schools, armories, stadiums, parks, and other recreational facilities, and improving existing sites such as the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and the Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, S.C.

In 1937, the German passenger airship Hindenburg erupted in a fireball at Lakehurst, N.J., on its arrival from Europe after static electricity ignited the airship’s flammable fabric skin. The disaster killed 35 of the 97 passengers and crew aboard the zeppelin.

In 1940, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A rare, first-edition of the novel fetched $48,000 at auction in 2007.

In 1954, 25-year-old British medical student Roger Bannister cracked track and field’s most famous barrier, the 4-minute mile, during a meet at Oxford, England. His time: 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.

File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI

In 1994, the Channel Tunnel, a railway under the English Channel connecting Britain and France, was officially opened.

In 2001, John Paul II became the first pope to enter a mosque — the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

In 2006, the largest rebel group in Sudan’s Darfur region and the government of Sudan signed a peace agreement ending their three-year armed conflict that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives.

In 2009, Dave Bing, Hall of Fame star for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, was elected mayor of Detroit, succeeding the ousted Kwame Kilpatrick.

In 2010, British voters gave the Conservatives control of Parliament, ultimately making David Cameron, 43, Britain’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years.

File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI

In 2013, three women missing for 10 years were found alive in Cleveland. The man who had kept them as hostages pleaded guilty to charges including kidnapping and rape. He killed himself in prison.

In 2017, French lawmakers passed a bill that requires models to provide a doctor’s note to prove they are healthy, a bid to crack down on dangerously skinny models in the nation’s highly competitive fashion industry.

In 2023, King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey in London in a lavish, eye-popping ceremony not seen in Britain in nearly 70 years.

In 2024, Columbia University handed out the Pulitzer Prizes, with journalism awards going to ProPublica, The New York Times, the Lookout Santa Cruz in California and The Washington Post.

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

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