Important Events From This day in History – 13 April

Today in History

• 1997 Tiger Woods becomes the youngest ever golfer to win the Masters Tournament

  The 21-year-old athlete was also the first person of African descent to win a major golf title. Tiger Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time.

• 1970 An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, leaving the spacecraft crippled

  The crisis prompted Jack Swigert’s famous remark, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” The crew made it back to Earth safely.

• 1970 Mikis Theodorakis is freed

  The right-wing military junta interned the Greek composer and politician in the Oropos concentration camp. Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein, and Harry Belafonte were among those who joined the call for his release.

• 1960 The world’s first satellite navigation system is launched

  Transit 1B was primarily used by the U.S. Navy to update the navigation systems aboard their Polaris submarines.

• 1919 British troops massacre around 400 unarmed civilians in India

  Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer directed his troops to fire into the crowd in order “to punish the Indians for disobedience.” Following the Amritsar massacre, the Indian independence movement grew significantly.