11th May 1913 (Sunday)

BORN TODAY, in Resende, Portugal – Edgar Cardoso, builder of bridges (literally, not metaphorically) on three continents across the Portuguese (ex) empire, including: Angola, Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea Bissau) and Mozambique in Africa; Macau and India in Asia; and of course in Portugal.

First Balkan War: The Bulgarian town of Silistra is awarded to Romania as part of the settlement.

Extreme Weather: A typhoon strikes the Philippines, killing over 800 people.

Society and Culture: In the US House of Representatives, Members wear white carnations to honor American Mothers – the first observance of Mothers’ Day in the USA.

Dr Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes, author of “Married Love” and “Wise Parenthood”, files for divorce on the grounds that her marriage has never been consummated.

 

8th April 1913 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY, in Porto Novo, French Dahomey (now Benin) – Sourou-Migan Apithy, a descendant of the Goun Royal Family. President of Benin in 1964-65 and famous as a dictator (one part of the “three headed monster” in Benin in the sixties) before he was overthrown. Returned later (in the seventies) and became a member of a presidential triumvirate before being overthrown in a coup and imprisoned. Died in exile in Paris in 1989.

World Affairs: China inaugurates its first elected Parliament in Beijing.

In Mexico, 30 are killed and 58 wounded in the (first) Battle Of Naco between government and rebel troops as part of the ongoing Mexican Revolution.

Empire:  In Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, a monument is unveiled to commemorate Earl Curzon of Kedleston, the Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. After Indian independence he will be replaced by  a statue of Sri Aurobindo, Indian nationalist, philosopher and freedom fighter.

Accidents: Members of the UK Royal Flying Corp are photographed on Salisbury plain dismantling the wreckage of 2 crashed aeroplanes.

At Ardler Colliery in Ayrshire, Scotland, Edward Dale is killed while pushing a coal wagon to the shaft. In the mistaken belief that a cage is there to receive the wagon, he pushes both the wagon and himself into the 108 foot shaft.