May 13 Birthday
On May 13, 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico. The war had already begun — President Polk had sent troops to the disputed border between Texas and Mexico, and in April, Mexican forces had attacked. Polk told Congress that Mexico had "shed American blood upon American soil." The territory was disputed — Mexico claimed the border was the Nueces River, the US claimed it was the Rio Grande, 150 miles south. The war was a land grab. The US captured Mexico City in September 1847. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 gave the United States California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Ulysses S. Grant called it "one of the most unjust" wars ever fought and believed the Civil War was divine punishment for it. Jamestown was founded on May 13, 1607, by 104 colonists sent by the Virginia Company. They chose a swampy island in the James River, partially for defense and partially because it was uninhabited — the local Powhatan knew it was malarial. Within nine months, only 38 of the original 104 were alive. The colony was saved by John Smith, who imposed military discipline, and by Pocahontas, whose intervention — whether real or embellished — became American legend. The colonists discovered tobacco, which became the cash crop that sustained the colony and created the demand for enslaved labor. Pope John Paul II was shot on May 13, 1981, by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish man with ties to far-right organizations. Ağca fired four shots. Two struck the Pope — one in the abdomen, one in the left hand. The Pope survived after five hours of surgery. He visited Ağca in prison in 1983 and forgave him. Ağca was released from prison in 2010. The question of who ordered the assassination remains open. The Bulgarian secret service and the KGB have been suspected but never confirmed. Stevie Wonder, born this day in 1950, was blind from birth. He signed with Motown at eleven. He negotiated complete artistic control at twenty-one — unprecedented for a Black artist — and produced a sequence of albums in the 1970s (Talking Book, Innervisions, Songs in the Key of Life) that are among the greatest in popular music history. He played most of the instruments himself. People born on May 13 fall under the zodiac sign of Taurus. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 13 include 1607: English colonists found Jamestown, first permanent English settlement in America, 1846: United States declares war on Mexico, 1981: Pope John Paul II shot and wounded in St. Peter's Square. Famous people born on May 13 include Stevie Wonder (1950), Dennis Hopper (1936), Harvey Keitel (1939).