Today is Thursday, April 13, the 103rd day of 2023 with 262 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars and Saturn. Evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include British anti-government conspirator Guy Fawkes in 1570; Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, in 1743; Frank Woolworth, founder of the five-and-dime stores, in 1852; outlaw Butch Cassidy in 1866; novelist Nella Larsen in 1891; Alfred Butts, inventor of the game Scrabble, in 1899; Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in 1906; author Eudora Welty in 1909; atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1919; actor Lyle Waggoner in 1935; Irish poet Seamus Heaney in 1939; actor Paul Sorvino in 1939; composer Bill Conti in 1942 (age 81); actor Tony Dow in 1945; singer Al Green in 1946 (age 77); author/critic Christopher Hitchens in 1949; actor Ron Perlman in 1950 (age 73); singer Peabo Bryson in 1951 (age 72); actor Peter Davison in 1951 (age 72); Max Weinberg, band leader/Bruce Springsteen drummer, in 1951 (age 72); chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1963 (age 60); actor Caroline Rhea in 1964 (age 59); actor Rick Schroder in 1970 (age 53); singer Aaron Lewis in 1972 (age 51); actor Jonathan Brandis in 1976; actor Glenn Howerton in 1976 (age 47); actor Allison Williams in 1988 (age 36).On this date in history:

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In 1742, George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" made its world premiere.

In 1873, a mob of former Confederate soldiers and Ku Klux Klan members killed dozens of Black militia men occupying the Grant Parish, La., courthouse after a contested gubernatorial election. The deadly confrontation came to be known as the Colfax massacre.

In 1932, Democrats at a Jefferson Day luncheon accused the Hoover administration of wrecking the economy, plunging millions into misery and engulfing the government in debt due to extravagance.

In 1943, the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor, honored for his work in Lilies of the Field.

In 1970, an oxygen tank exploded aboard Apollo 13 en route to a planned moon landing and one of the three astronauts aboard, Jack Swigert, the command module pilot, famously said, "Houston, we've had a problem." The mission was aborted and the craft, also carrying James Lovell, the commander, and Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot, returned safety to Earth April 17 after some harrowing moments.

In 1972, the first Major League Baseball strike ended, eight days after it began.

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In 1984, Christopher Wilder, the FBI's "most wanted man," accidentally killed himself as police moved in to arrest him in New Hampshire. Wilder was a suspect in the deaths, rapes and disappearances of 11 young women in eight states.

In 1987, the Population Reference Bureau reported the world's population had exceeded 5 billion.

In 1997, Tiger Woods, 21, won the Masters, the youngest golfer to accomplish that feat and the first Black American to win any of the four men's major professional golf tournaments. Woods also won the Masters in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019.

In 2005, as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings that killed two people and injured more than 120. Among the attacks were bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and two abortion clinics. Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2009, music producer Phil Spector was found guilty of second-degree murder by a Los Angeles jury in his second trial for the 2003 slaying of Lana Clarkson, an actress and club hostess. He was sentenced to 19 years-to-life in prison.

In 2013, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis appointed eight cardinals to look into ways of reforming the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2021, U.S. health regulators recommended an immediate pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after several reported cases of blood clotting. The CDC and FDA lifted the pause 10 days later.

A thought for the day: American historian Alfred Whitney Griswold said, "The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."