On this day: Glencoe Massacre | Dresden bombing

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 13 February

1633: Italian astronomer Galileo arrived in Rome and was detained by Roman Catholic Inquisition.

1689: English Parliament adopted a Bill of Rights.

1692: The Massacre of Glencoe, in which 34 men, two women and two children, members of the Macdonald clan, were slaughtered by Campbells on government orders after inadvertent failure of clan chief to sign allegiance to William III.

1866: Jesse James robbed his first bank.

1931: Scottish Youth Hostels Association was formed.

1945: 1,400 RAF and 450 United States Air Force bombers devastated Dresden in three waves over a 14-hour period.

1968: Ten thousand US troops were in process of being transported to South Vietnam as fighting increased there.

1969: It was announced that eggs removed from a woman volunteer had been fertilised in a test tube as a result of work done at Cambridge University in collaboration with a doctor at Oldham General Hospital.

1975: Turkish Cypriots proclaimed separate administration in Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus.

1989: A two-and-a-half-inch meteor crashed through the roof of Lewes Station, Sussex.

1989: Soviet Union’s Red Army left Afghan capital of Kabul in ceremony, leaving behind a handful of soldiers.

1990: The two Germanies, with Britain, France, Soviet Union, and US, agreed a framework for German reunification.

1991: Hundreds died as Americans bombed concrete structure in Baghdad claimed by Allies as command and control centre and by Iraq as air raid shelter.

1992: Ford motor manufacturers in the UK announced losses of £920m.

1994: John Major’s “back-to-basics” philosophy took a dent with resignation of Conservative MP Hartley Booth over relationship with Commons researcher.

2004: The Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics announced 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.

2010: The start of the Winter Olympics in Canada were overshadowed by the death of a luge competitor who left the track at high speed. Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died when he collided with a steel pole .

BIRTHDAYS

Mena Suvari, actress, 34; Jesse Birdsall, actor, 50; Caroline Blakiston, actress, 80; Liam Brady, footballer and manager, 57; Stockard Channing, actress, 69; Peter Gabriel, singer and songwriter, 63; Peter Hook, musician (Joy Division and New Order), 57; Simon Fraser, 16th Lord Lovat, 5th Baron Lovat, 36; Kim Novak, actress, 80; Henry Rollins, actor and singer, 52; Professor Simon Schama CBE, academic and broadcaster, 68; Jerry Springer, talk show host, 69; Robbie Williams, singer, 39.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1728 John Hunter, East Kilbride-born physiologist and surgeon; 1744 David Allan, Alloa-born artist; 1901 Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell), novelist; 1928 Douglas John Moray Stuart, 20th Earl of Moray.

Deaths: AD858 Kenneth MacAlpin, first King of Scots; 1883 Richard Wagner, composer; 1917 Mata Hari, reputed First World War double agent (executed by French); 1958 Dame Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette; 1979 Jean Renoir, film-maker.