On Feb. 13, 1542, the fifth wife of England’s King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was beheaded after being convicted of adultery.
In 1795 the University of North Carolina became the first U.S. state university to admit students with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus for two weeks.
In 1892 artist Grant Wood was born near Anamosa, Iowa.
In 1920 the League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
In 1933 actress Kim Novak was born in Chicago.
In 1935, in Flemington, N.J., a jury convicted Bruno Richard Hauptmann of murder in the 1932 kidnap-slaying of Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s infant son. Hauptmann was executed.
In 1980 opening ceremonies were held in Lake Placid, N.Y., for the 13th Winter Olympics.
In 1996 world chess champion Garry Kasparov asked for a draw in his third game against the IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” leaving the six-game match in Philadelphia tied at 1 1/2 games each.
In 2001 a 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook El Salvador, killing at least 402 people one month to the day after another quake killed more than 800 people.
In 2005 Ray Charles’ final album, “Genius Loves Company,” won eight Grammy awards.
