◆ On this day

April 13

4 sourced moments from April 13 in history: Handel's Messiah premiered in Dublin (1742); The first elephant arrived in the United States (1796); The Amritsar massacre killed at least 379 — likely far more (1919), plus 1 more.

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4 things happened on April 13

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1970 Space · Space Exploration

What Apollo 13 actually said: 'Houston, we've had a problem'

The famous line was past tense, and the oxygen tank that blew on April 13, 1970, had been quietly damaged on the launch pad weeks earlier.

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1919 History · Modern

The Amritsar massacre killed at least 379 — likely far more

On 13 April 1919 Dyer's troops fired 1,650 rounds into a walled garden in Amritsar. Even now, nobody knows exactly how many died.

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1796 Nature & Animals · Mammals

The first elephant arrived in the United States

A two-year-old Asian elephant from Bengal stepped onto a New York wharf on April 13, 1796, the first ever seen in America.

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1742 Culture & Arts · Music

Handel's Messiah premiered in Dublin

Handel skipped London and unveiled his now-beloved oratorio in a packed Dublin music hall on April 13, 1742.

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