TODAY IN HISTORY - FEBRUARY 13TH

1880 – Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.

1885 – Bess Truman, American wife of Harry S. Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (d. 1982) is born.

1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

1920 – The Negro National League is formed.

1923 – Michael Bilandic, American soldier, judge, and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002) is born.

1935 – A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.

1942 – Peter Tork, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor (The Monkees) is born.

1944 – Jerry Springer, English-American television host, actor, and politician, 56th Mayor of Cincinnati is born.

1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.

1958 – Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women's Social and Political Union (b. 1880) dies.

1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.

1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.

1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.

1967 – Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (b. 1880) dies.

1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.

1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.

2000 – The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies.

2001 – An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.

2002 – Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Highwaymen) (b. 1937) dies.

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".

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.