1542Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, was executed for adultery.
On the 13th of February [1594], in the preceding year, John Graham of Halyards, a Lord of Session (a kinsman of Montrose), was passing down Leith Wynd, attended by three or four score of armed men for his protection, when Sir James Sandilands, accompanied by his friend Ludovic Duke of Lennox, with an armed company, met him.
As they had recently been in dispute before the Court about some temple lands, Graham thought he was about to be attacked, and prepared to make resistance. The duke told him to proceed on his journey, and that no one would molest him; but the advice was barely given when some stray shots were fired by the party of the judge, who was at once attacked, and fell wounded.
He was borne bleeding into an adjacent house, whither a French boy, page to Sir Alexander Stewart, a friend of Sandilands, followed, and plunged a dagger into him, thus ending a lawsuit according to the taste of the age.– Old and New Edinburgh
13th Feb 1777: On this day Philosopher Marquis Sade was arrested without any charge and imprisoned in Vincennes fortress.
1917 Mata Hari's arrest for espionage: On February 13, 1917, Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer and alleged spy, was arrested in Paris on charges of espionage. She was accused of spying for Germany during World War I, leading to the deaths of thousands of French soldiers. Despite her claims of innocence, she was tried and executed by firing squad on October 15, 1917
On 13th February 1923, BBC broadcasting in Wales began when the British Broadcasting Company (as it then was) made its first radio broadcast from 'Station 5WA' in Cardiff. Blaina-born baritone Mostyn Thomas opened the programme, singing Dafydd y Garreg Wen and Gwilym Davies became the first speaker to broadcast in the Welsh language.
'Tynged yr Iaith' On 13th February 1962, writer and political activist Saunders Lewis delivered a now famous radio lecture entitled Tynged yr Iaith -the Fate of the Language, which was instrumental in the formation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh language Society) and, therefore, the implementation of most of the current bilingual policies.
In the lecture, Lewis predicted the decline and eventual death of the Welsh language if Welsh speakers did not refuse to fill in all types of official forms if it was not possible for them to do so in Welsh, even if it resulted in imprisonment.
1964: ex-Danish ferry Frederica leaves the Dutch port of Rotternam on the way to Greenore, Ireland to be re-fitted as Radio Caroline's first radio-ship.
1966: The Walton lifeboat is launched in reply to an emergency onboard Radio Caroline South (from her temporary home aboard Cheeta 2) when DJ Graham Webb falls ill with a throat virus. [media=https://youtu.be/tW3ia6u7K-8]
Catherine Howard wasn’t even 20 when she died, and guys who had been with her before Henry even knew she existed, died, too. If not for her ambitious relatives, Catherine would’ve probably just lived a normal life (for those times). Ironically, she was 1st cousin to Anne and George Boleyn.
