24 Farvardin 1382 | Sunday 13 April 2003

This day in four calendars

1924 (102 years ago) A.E.K., a major Greek multi-sport club, is established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople.
1941 (85 years ago) A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1943 (83 years ago) World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
1945 (81 years ago) World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna.
1970 (56 years ago) At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed "Odyssey") while en route to the Moon.
1972 (54 years ago) The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
1976 (50 years ago) Forty workers die in the Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion, the deadliest industrial accident in modern Finnish history.
2006 (20 years ago) The United Front for Democratic Change's attack on the Chadian capital of N'Djamena is repelled by the Chadian army

1519 (507 years ago) Catherine de' Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France (died 1589)
1743 (283 years ago) Thomas Jefferson, American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States (died 1826)
1901 (125 years ago) Jacques Lacan, French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (died 1981)
1906 (120 years ago) Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)
1922 (104 years ago) Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian politician and teacher, 1st President of Tanzania (died 1999)
1939 (87 years ago) Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)
1940 (86 years ago) J. M. G. Le Clézio, Breton French-Mauritian author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1963 (63 years ago) Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player and author

1605 (421 years ago) Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia (born 1551)
1695 (331 years ago) Jean de La Fontaine, French author and poet (born 1621)
1794 (232 years ago) Nicolas Chamfort, French playwright and poet (born 1741)
1941 (85 years ago) Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer and academic (born 1863)
1945 (81 years ago) Ernst Cassirer, Polish-American philosopher and academic (born 1874)
2015 (11 years ago) Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, playwright, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1927)
2015 (11 years ago) Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist and author (born 1940)
2025 (a year ago) Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1936)