Thursday 13th of May 1655

244th Pope Innocentius XIII is born as Michelangelo dei Conti in Poli, Lazio, Italy.

Sunday 13th of May 1792

255th Pope Pius IX is born as Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti in Senigallia, Marche, Italy.

Sunday 13th of May 1827

97-year-old Elise Schmidt is poisoned with arsenic by serial poisoner Gesche Gottfried aka Der Engel von Bremen in Bremen, Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Germany.

Thursday 13th of May 1869

Solicitor and murderer Herbert Rowse Armstrong is born in Newton Abbot, Devon, United Kingdom.

Saturday 13th of May 1882

Artist Georges Braque is born in Argenteuil, Val d'Oise, France.

Monday 13th of May 1907

Writer and playwright Daphne du Maurier is born in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 13th of May 1931

Founder and leader of the Peoples Temple Jim James Warren Jones is born in Lynn, Indiana, United States.

Saturday 13th of May 1939

Actor Harvey Keitel is born in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Tuesday 13th of May 1941

Singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens is born as Richard Steven Valenzuela in Los Angeles, Pacoima, California, United States.

Tuesday 13th of May 1947

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Irmgard Möller is born in Bielefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Saturday 13th of May 1950

Singer-songwriter and musician Stevie Wonder is born as Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, United States.

Monday 13th of May 1957

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Andrea Martina Klump is born in Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany.

Saturday 13th of May 1961

Actor Gary Cooper dies of cancer at the age of 60 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Sunday 13th of May 1962

Abstract expressionist painter Franz Kline dies of a rheumatic heart disease at the age of 52 in New York City, New York, United States.

Monday 13th of May 1968

Double murderer James Lee Clark is born in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, United States.

Tuesday 13th of May 1969

196 die in Sino-Malay race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia.

Saturday 13th of May 1972

118 die in Sennichi Department Store Building fire in Osaka, Sennichimae, Kinki, Japan.

Most of the dead were found in the Playtown Cabaret on the 6th floor. 93 suffered carbon dioxide poisoning, three died from compression injuries in the chest and abdomen (meaning that they were probably trampled to death) and 22 died from jumping.

Saturday 13th of May 1972

Multiple murderer Marion Butler Dudley is born in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States.

Saturday 13th of May 1978

40-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 62. Aktion (lehraktion) in Schloss Prinzendorf, Schloss Straße 1, Prinzendorf an der Zaya, Niederösterreich, Austria.

Sunday 13th of May 1979

20-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Installation - 2' in Turfschip, Chasséveld, Breda, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.

I was hanging with my arms spread and blindfolded in a darkened corridor. To my feet ropes were attached, leading to the door. Each time somebody entered he/she pulled my body towards him/her.

Wednesday 13th of May 1981

61-year-old Ioannes Paulus II is shot and wounded by 24-year-old Mehmet Ali Ağca in Piazza San Pietro, Rome, Vatican City, Lazio, Italy.

The Pope was struck four times and suffered severe blood loss.

Sunday 13th of May 1984

20-year-old Ngeun Thi 'Peggy' Long is abducted, raped and strangled by serial killer Bobby Joe Long aka The Adman Rapist in Tampa, Florida, United States.

Monday 13th of May 1985

Founder of MOVE black liberation group John Africa is fatally shot during an armed standoff with the Philadelphia Police Department at the age of 54 in 6221 Osage Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, .

Africa was killed along with five other adults and five children when the Philadelphia Police Department head of bomb disposal dropped a satchel containing a gel-based explosive from a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter on a fortified bunker occupied by members of MOVE. The resulting explosion started a fire that resulted in the destruction of 65 homes in the neighborhood.

Sunday 13th of May 1990

30-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer aka The Milwaukee Cannibal rents room 213 where he will kill and dismember 13 people in less than 2 years in Oxford Apartments #213, 924 25th North Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Tuesday 13th of May 1997

Murderer Anthony Ray Westley is executed by lethal injection at the age of 37 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Monday 13th of May 2002

Concrete summer in Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Friday 13th of May 2005

Serial killer Michael Bruce Ross aka The Roadside Strangler is executed by lethal injection at the age of 46 in Osborn Correctional Institution, 335 Bilton Road, Somers, Connecticut, United States.

Tuesday 13th of May 2014

301 die in Soma Kömür İşletmeleri A.Ş. Mine explosion and fire in Soma Kömür İşletmeleri A.Ş. Mine, Soma, Manisa, Turkey.

Sunday 13th of May 2018

Avant-garde composer and guitarist Glenn Branca dies of throat cancer at the age of 70 in New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Monday 13th of May 2019

Actress, singer and animal rights activist Doris Day dies of pneumonia at the age of 95 in Carmel Valley Village, California, United States.