Did you know
Catherine Howard was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a first cousin to Anne Boleyn, and the niece of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
Notable Deaths on February 13
1542 — Catherine Howard
Queen Consort of England and English wife of King Henry VIII (executed; b. 1521)
February 13 has 115 recorded notable deaths across history, from 106 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
115 source records
106 – 2025
Today in history
Major events on February 13
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 2011 For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. Source
- 2004 The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Source
- 2012 The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Source
- 2007 Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. Source
Did you know
Wagner outlined those ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realising them in the first half of his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Did you know
For catalyzing an originalist and textualist movement in American law, he has been described as one of the most influential jurists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important justices in the history of the Supreme Court.
Did you know
In 1966, he moved to India and gained admission to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to pursue a course in motion picture photography.
Did you know
George Rogers Clark was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Revolutionary War.
More major people who died on February 13
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1883
Richard Wagner
German composer (born 1813)
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas, although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas.
2016
Antonin Scalia
American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (born 1936)
Antonin Gregory Scalia was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016.
2014
Balu Mahendra
Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (born 1939)
Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a Sri Lankan Tamil cinematographer, director, screenwriter, actor and film editor who worked in various Indian film industries, primarily in Tamil and…
1818
George Rogers Clark
American general (born 1752)
George Rogers Clark was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Revolutionary War.
1660
Charles X Gustav
king of Sweden (born 1622)
Charles X Gustav, also Carl X Gustav, was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death in 1660. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine (Pfalzgraf) of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg, and Catherine of Sweden.
2017
Seijun Suzuki
Japanese filmmaker (born 1923)
Seijun Suzuki , born Seitaro Suzuki , was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their florid visual style, absurd humour, and a playful rejection of traditional film grammar.
1954
Agnes Macphail
Canadian educator and politician (born 1890)
Agnes Campbell Macphail was a Canadian politician and the first woman elected to Canada's House of Commons.
2016
O. N. V. Kurup
Indian poet and academic (born 1931)
Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup was a Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007.
2003
Kid Gavilán
Cuban-American boxer (born 1926)
Gerardo González, better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a Cuban boxer.
1984
Cheong Eak Chong
Singaporean entrepreneur (born 1888)
Cheong Eak Chong was a Chinese businessman of She ethnicity. He was born in Anxi County in Fujian in 1888, but left China in 1921 for Singapore.
1859
Eliza Acton
English food writer and poet (born 1799)
Eliza Acton was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, Modern Cookery for Private Families.
1952
Josephine Tey
Scottish author and playwright (born 1896)
Elizabeth MacKintosh, known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. She is known for her Inspector Alan Grant series, which started with The Man in the Queue (1929).
1968
Portia White
Canadian opera singer (born 1911)
Portia May White was a Canadian contralto, known for becoming the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve international fame.
1976
Lily Pons
French-American soprano and actress (born 1904)
Alice Joséphine Pons, known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic lyric coloratura soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s.
2013
Pieter Kooijmans
Dutch judge and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for The Netherlands (born 1933)
Pieter Hendrik "Peter" Kooijmans was a Dutch politician, jurist, and diplomat. He was a member of the defunct Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), which later merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party.
2007
Elizabeth Jolley
English-Australian author and academic (born 1923)
Monica Elizabeth Jolley was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there.
2019
Callistus Ndlovu
Zimbabwean academic and politician (born 1936)
Callistus Dingiswayo Ndlovu was a Zimbabwean academic, diplomat, and politician.
1956
Jan Łukasiewicz
Polish mathematician and philosopher (born 1878)
Jan Łukasiewicz was a Polish logician and philosopher who is best known for Polish notation and Łukasiewicz logic. His work centred on philosophical logic, mathematical logic and history of logic.
1967
Abelardo L. Rodríguez
substitute president of Mexico (1932–1934) (born 1889)
Abelardo Rodríguez Luján, commonly known as Abelardo L. Rodríguez was a Mexican military officer, businessman and politician who served as Substitute President of Mexico from 1932 to 1934.