On Oct. 13, A.D. 54, Roman Emperor Claudius I died after being poisoned by his wife, Agrippina.
In 1775 the Continental Congress ordered construction of a naval fleet, thereby launching the Navy.
In 1792 the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.
In 1843 the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith was founded in New York.
In 1845 Texas ratified a state constitution.
In 1925 Margaret Thatcher, who would become Britain’s prime minister, was born in Grantham, England.
In 1943 Italy declared war on Germany.
In 1944 American troops entered Aachen, Germany. Also in 1944 British and Greek advance units landed at Piraeus during World War II.
In 1981 voters in Egypt participated in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
In 1993 the UN Security Council voted to reimpose sanctions on Haiti unless military leaders there stopped violating a UN-brokered accord. Also in 1993 a German who had stabbed tennis star Monica Seles received a suspended jail term.
In 1999 the Senate defeated the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, 51-48. Also in 1999, in Boulder, Colo., the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months of work with prosecutors saying there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old’s strangulation.
In 2002 historian Stephen Ambrose died in Bay St. Louis, Miss.; he was 66.
In 2003 the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution expanding the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
