Monday 13th of April 1570

Catholic conspirator Guy Guido Fawkes known planning the Gunpowder Plot is born in Stonegate, York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Thursday 13th of April 1662

Isobel Gowdie confesses to having had an encounter with the Devil after she arranged to meet him in the 'kirk' at night in Auldearn, Scotland, United Kingdom.

The Devil put his mark on Gowdie's shoulder then sucked blood from it. Gowdie touched on having sexual intercourse with the Devil who she described as a very cold "meikle, blak, roch man".

Wednesday 13th of April 1695

Fabulist Jean de La Fontaine dies of natural causes at the age of 74 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 13th of April 1743

Founding Father and 3rd President of the United States Thomas Jefferson is born in Shadwell, Virginia, United States.

Friday 13th of April 1860

Artist James Sidney Edouard Ensor is born in Langestraat 26B, Oostende, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Monday 13th of April 1885

Marxist philosopher György Lukács is born as Löwinger György Bernát in Budapest, Közép-Magyarország, Hungary.

Friday 13th of April 1900

Artist Pierre Molinier is born in Agen, Aquitaine, France.

Saturday 13th of April 1901

Psychoanalist Jacques Marie Émile Lacan is born in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 13th of April 1906

Writer and playwright Samuel Barclay Beckett known for Waiting for Godot is born in Cooldrinagh, Kerrymount Avenue, Dublin, Foxrock, Leinster, Ireland.

Friday 13th of April 1917

Murderer Chester Taylor is executed by Old Sparky at the age of 44 in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, United States.

Sunday 13th of April 1919

Over 400 people are shot dead by troops of the British Indian Army in Jallianwala Bagh Garden, Amritsar, Punjab, India.

Over 1.000 people were injured as troops continued to fire into the fleeing civilians until their ammunition was almost exhausted.

Tuesday 13th of April 1920

Murderer Frederick Rothwell Holt is executed by hanging at the age of 33 in Strangeways Prison, Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.

Friday 13th of April 1923

Double murderer Paul V. Hadley aka Dr. William E. Estaver aka The Claw is executed by hanging at the age of 35 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

Monday 13th of April 1931

Start of the trial against 48-year-old Serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Tuesday 13th of April 1943

Painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer known for Das Triadisches Ballett dies of heart failure at the age of 55 in Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friday 13th of April 1945

Murderer U.L. Holley is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 38 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

Sunday 13th of April 1947

52-year-old Hermann Bennen is hacked to death by serial killer Rudolf Pleil aka Der Großten Todmacher in Zorge, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Thursday 13th of April 1950

White-supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin aka The Racist Killer is born as James Clayton Vaughn in Mobile, Alabama, United States.

Friday 13th of April 1956

Expressionist painter Emil Nolde dies of natural causes at the age of 89 in Seebüll, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Thursday 13th of April 1961

Rapist John Arthur Bennett is executed by hanging at the age of 26 in United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, United States.

Bennett was the last person executed by the U.S. military.

Thursday 13th of April 1967

Dictator of Nicaragua Luis Anastasio Somoza Debayle dies of a heart attack at the age of 45 in Managua, Managua, Nicaragua.

Friday 13th of April 1973

27-year-old Performance and installation artist Chris Christopher Burden performs 'Icarus' in Venice, California, United States.

Tuesday 13th of April 1982

'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV' by 77-year-old Artist Barnett Newman known for Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? is attacked by 29-year-old student Josef Nikolaus Kleer in Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Kleer claimed that the painting was a "perversion of the German flag".

Wednesday 13th of April 1983

42-year-old Joe Rapini is shot through the heart by serial rapist and murderer Mike DeBardeleben aka The Lethal Shadow in Greece, New York, United States.

Friday 13th of April 1984

Serial killer Christopher Bernard Wilder aka The Beauty Queen Killer dies due to self-inflicted gun-shots in a fight with a state-trooper at the age of 39 in Vic’s Getty Oil-Station, corner of Main and Bridge Streets, Colebrook, New Hampshire, United States.

When the troopers approached Wilder, he retreated to his car to arm himself with a .357 Magnum. Trooper Leo Jellison grabbed Wilder from behind and subdued his arms. In the scuffle two shots were fired; the first bullet passed through Wilder's body, exited through his back and into Jellison. The second also went into Wilder's chest - both bullets went through Wilder's heart, killing him instantly.

Tuesday 13th of April 1993

31-year-old Serial killer Sergei Vasilyevich Ryakhovsky aka The Hippopotamus aka The Balashikha Ripper is arrested in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Ryakhovsky was under suspicion of killing 19 men and women between 14 and 78 years old.

Tuesday 13th of April 1999

71-year-old Pathologist and euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian aka Doctor Death is sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison for his assistance in the videotaped suicide of 52-year-old Lou Gehrig's disease patient Thomas Youk in Pontiac, Michigan, United States.

Kevorkian was sent to a prison in Coldwater, Michigan to serve his sentence. After his conviction and subsequent losses on appeal Kevorkian was denied parole repeatedly until 2007.

Friday 13th of April 2007

48-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'The Red Dragon' in Ernest van Dijckkaai 8, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Between 17.00 and 18.00hrs on I stood on the edge of the top balcony ramp of the house on Ernest Van Dijckkaai N°8 in Antwerp dressed in a shiny red cape rubber boots blindfolded and with my ‘Diggin’ for Gordon’ shovel like a rifle in my hands. While I counted from 1 till 1978 Sofie Pepermans read a cutup text about this piece. The performance had - apart from casual passers-by below - one viewer: Mauro Pawlowski.

Monday 13th of April 2015

Writer and playwright Günter Wilhelm Grass known for Die Blechtrommel dies of a lung infection at the age of 88 in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Friday 13th of April 2018

Film director Miloš Jan Tomáš Forman dies of undisclosed causes at the age of 86 in Danbury Hospital, Danbury, Connecticut, United States.