December 13

Today in History
• 1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England to go around world
• 1642 - New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman
• 1759 - 1st music store in America opens in Philadelphia
• 1816 - Patent for a dry dock issued to John Adamson, Boston
• 1843 - "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold
• 1879 - 1st federal fish hatching steamer lauched (Wilmington Delaware)
• 1903 - Wright Bros make 1st flight at Kittyhawk
• 1903 - Italo Marcioni patents ice cream cone in New Jersey


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Malta Republic Day
• National Cocoa Day
• National Day of Saint Lucia
• National Horse Day
• National Ice Cream Day
• National Violin Day
• Pick A Pathologist Pal Day
• U.S. National Guard Birthday

Birthdays
• 1521 - Sixtus V, Felice Peretti/"Montalto", bishop of Fermo/Pope, 1585-90
• 1533 - Erik XIV Wasa, king of Sweden, 1560-69
• 1553 - Henry IV, 1st Bourbon-king of Navarre/France, 1572/89-1610
• 1678 - Yongzheng, 4th Emperor of the Qing Dynasty
• 1804 - Joseph Howe, Canadian politician (3rd Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia)
• 1816 - Werner von Siemens, inventor (siemens electrical conductance unit) and industrialist
• 1818 - Mary Todd Lincoln, American wife of Abraham Lincoln and US First Lady (1861-65)
• 1899 - Harold Guinzburg, publisher, founder of Literary Guild