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February 13th Major News Events

  1. 1920 : Switzerland who had asked for international confirmation of it's neutrality
  2. 1935 : Bruno Hauptmann was convicted of the Lindbergh baby murder
  3. 1945 : A massive air raid with hundreds of British bombers completely destroy the city of Dresden
  4. 1955 Israel Dead Sea Scrolls
  5. 1958 : A four-passenger Thunderbird often even today referred to as the T-Bird.
  6. 1974 : The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $70 of food be given to every needy Californian
  7. 1997 : The Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time

Find More Details for What happened 13th February This Day in History on your birthday

1955 Israel Dead Sea Scrolls

1955 : Israel has bought four Dead Sea scrolls written at various times between the middle of the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. from the Syrians for $250,000. The scrolls together with many others discovered in 11 caves in and around the Wadi Qumran are now housed with many others at the Shrine of the Book, a wing of the Israel Museum near Givat Ram in western Jerusalem, Find More What happened in 1955

1920 Switzerland Neutrality

1920 : Switzerland who had asked for international confirmation of it's neutrality in 1920 before becoming a member of the League of Nations. The countries belonging to the League of Nations (the predecessor to the United Nations) agreed and recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.

1931 U.S.A. Train Crash

1931 : An attempt was made today to derail train no. 18, a train southbound between Dallas and Houston. This incident took place around midnight near the old Chambers Creek. As soon as the train engineer suspected trouble on this line, that engineer signaled a porter for help. The porter had notices two rails missing from the track, and two more that were loose. The removal of the train rails had taken about 40 minutes. Personnel from the Navarro county sheriff's department railroad detectives arrived on the scene as soon as possible. The tools used for this act of vandalism were believed to be stolen from a nearby Cotton Belt tool house.

1933 U.S.A. Kidnapping

1933 : A descendant of a millionaire pioneer Colorado family, Charles Boettcher II, was held on ransom. Kidnappers demanded a $60,000 ransom (payment for return of Boettcher II, the hostage). Two men with masks had taken not held Boettcher hostage, but those men had also taken his wife in captivity as well. They were abducted at the garage of their home as they returned from a party at midnight. The couple was directed forcibly to an upper room of their home, where Mrs. Boettcher was given a ransom note. The kidnappers then took off with Boettcher in a motorcar.

1935 Lindbergh Baby

1935 : Bruno Hauptmann was convicted of the Lindbergh baby murder after the jury reached a guilty verdict.

1937 Alabama 2% Sales Tax

1937 : Two percent sales tax was passed by the Alabama Senate on this day. It had received a 17 to 15 vote by the Senate, and was expected to be reviewed a second time by the House, which had passed the bill last week. Changes were made by the Senate before the bill was passed, which is the main reason why the House is expected to review it again. One of the changes made by the Senate was the levy of one half of one percent of a tax on new automobiles, and another was on mail order purchases outside the state.

1940 Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues

1940 : "Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues" is recorded by Earl "Fatha" Hines and his orchestra. The song eventually becomes a classic and is still popular among big band fans today.

1945 Germany Dresden

1945 : A massive air raid with hundreds of British bombers loaded with incendiaries and high-explosive bombs drop 1,478 tons of high-explosive bombs and 1,182 tons of incendiaries completely destroying the city of Dresden, in eastern Germany leaving between 35,000 and 135,000 civilian casualties.

Born This Day In History February 13th

Celebrating Birthdays Today

Oliver Reed

Born: Robert Oliver Reed 13th February 1938 Wimbledon, London, England

Died: May 2 1999 Valletta, Malta

Known For : Oliver Reed is best remembered for his acting career which included Oliver!, Women in Love, The Three Musketeers, Tommy, Lion of the Desert and Gladiator. He is also remembered sadly for his abuse of alcahol which cost him many starring roles due to his excessive drinking.

Chuck Yeager

Born: Charles Elwood Yeager 13th February 1923 Lincoln County, West Virginia

Known For : Chuck Yeager is best known as a fighter pilot from World War II who flew a P-51 Mustang becoming a World War II decorated combat ace. After World War II he became a test pilot and became the first man in history to break the sound barrier on October 14th, 1947, flying the experimental rocket-powered Bell X-1 at Mach 1. Following this record he continued to break many other speed and altitude records. During his time in the United States Air Force he received a number of medals including the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal. He is now a retired major general. He is an inspiration to many as unlike many pilots both then and now he attained greatness starting from a humble background and without a college education.

1958 U.S.A. T-Bird

1958 : A four-passenger Thunderbird was made by the Ford Company, and it was introduced on this day in 1958 This new version was called the "Square Bird", and was considered to be a model of car that turned the Thunderbird from a sports car into a luxury car. This version of the Thunderbird is often even today referred to as the T-Bird. It is known as the epitome of 1950s culture, and has appeared in movies such as Grease and in music videos (i.e. Beach Boys "I Get Around").

1960 Algeria Fourth Atomic Power

1960 : France becomes the fourth atomic power after exploding an atomic bomb in the Sahara Desert.

1967 Beatle's Release Double A Side Single

1967 : The Beatles release the double A-sided single in the United Kingdom with Penny Lane ( Paul McCartney ) ** written about Penny Lane where Lennon and McCartney would meet to go into Liverpool *** on one side and "Strawberry Fields Forever" ( John Lennon ) *** named after a Salvation Army house where Lennon would play as a kid *** on the other side.

1974 Patricia Hearst

1974 : The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $70 of food be given to every needy Californian which could cost as much as $400 million in exchange for the release of 19-year-old Patricia Hearst.

1975 UK Coal Miners 35% Pay Rise

1975 : British mineworkers' leaders have agreed to accept the National Coal Board latest pay offer of up to 35% in pay increases. To put this in context the basic rate for workers at the coal face increased from £45 to £61 per week.

1978 US Snowstorms

1978 : Major snowstorms hit the North Dakota area creating problems for local farmers and ranchers because they could not supply their livestock with hay and a state of emergency was declared.

1983 Italy Movie Theater Fire

1983 : 74 people lost their lives in a movie theater fire. This cinema was located in Turin, Italy. The fire took place on the ground floor and abruptly set several seats on fire. These seats were covered with plastic, which had produced toxic smoke when caught on fire. Some of the people that died during this incident did not lose their lives directly because of the fire. Rather, they had suffocated to death when a crowd of panicking people headed for exits, causing a stampede. The other problem was that the rear emergency exits were locked. In the vicinity of the locked exits, several people had died while trying to escape. A total of 37 people on the first floor had died from one or more of the following: bums, smoke inhalation, or stamped injuries. Fortunately, the firefighters were able to put out the fire before it reached the second floor and balcony. However, 37 people had died up there as well-many of them in the bathroom, as a result of smoke inhalation. Possible causes of the fire included one or more of the following: lighted cigarette, faulty electrical wiring, or a firecracker (a firearm used during the celebration of Shrove Tuesday at the time). Of course, the use of the plastic seat covers and the locking of the emergency doors was also a concern.

1991 Huckleberry Finn

1991 : This was the day that the original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn by Mark was recovered. It was a handwritten script of the first half of the original draft of this book, which included Twains own handwritten corrections. This manuscript had been missing for over a hundred years. It was found by a 62-year old librarian from Los Angeles, who finally sorted through old papers sent to her from upstate New York. Mark Twain had sent the second half of the manuscript to this librarian's grandfather, James Gluck. Gluck had solicited this manuscript in Buffalo, New York where Mark Twain had lived at one time. Mark Twain could not find the first half of his manuscript, even while he was alive. However, he did find it and sent it to Gluck. Court proceedings had taken place to decide who owned the rights to the lost Huckleberry Finn manuscript (the first half). The sisters, the library, and the Mark Twain Papers Projects in Berkeley, California all fought for rights of this book. After a fairly lengthy battle, the three different groups mentioned above came to a consensus, and made a deal. The library would be awarded the rights to the physical papers, and all three parties would share in publication rights. Then, in 1995, Random House won the rights to publish the book. They were said to have paid a high price for these rights, however, and the amount they were said to have paid was not disclosed to the public.

1991 Iraq Bombing

1991 : Local reports from Baghdad, Iraq say two laser-guided precision bombs from American bombers hit an air-raid shelter in the middle class district of Amiriya, five miles from the centre of the Iraqi capital. So far 235 bodies have been recovered, 12 hours after the attacks.

100 years of price Change

100 Years Of Price Changes

We spent many hours researching cost of living information for each year and I created this page after being asked a number of times about why I did not include current prices alongside our cost of living information for each year and thought this was the easiest way to make the information available. includes Average Cost Of New Home, Average Wages, New Car cost, Gallon Of Gas and a 1lb Hamburger Meat, 1920 to 2023

Visit our 1950's Section

1950s Prices including inflation prices for homes, wages, etc.

Baby Boomers raise families following 20 years of unrest (Great Depression and World War II) the peak of the Baby Boomer Years

Includes Music, Fashion, Prices, News for each Year, Popular Culture, Technology and More.

1997 US Dow Jones

1997 : The Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time, closing at 7,022.44.

2000 Last Peanuts Comic

2000 : On the day after Charles M. Schultz died the comic strip "Peanuts" appeared in newspapers for the last time. The characters of "Peanuts" included Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, Woodstock, and others.

2001 El Salvador Earthquake

2001 : In El Salvador, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake had hit in El Salvador. It had killed 402 people after another earthquake had killed more than 800 people.

2007 Romney Announces Candidacy

2007 : Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has returned to his native state of Michigan to kick off his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. His presidential bid comes forty years after his father made an unsuccessful run for the G.O.P. nomination in 1968. Romney will be following his announcement with a four-day, six-state tour that will include stops in the three crucial early primary and caucus states of Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, as well as Massachusetts and Florida.

2009 House Passes American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

2009 : The House of Representatives has voted 246 to 183 to jolt the nation's struggling economy with a $787.2 billion stimulus package, designed to provide quick tax relief and create or save some 3.5 million jobs. The Senate passage is expected to take place later today, and President Obama is likely to sign it the following week. It will provide up to thirty-three weeks of additional jobless benefits in high-unemployment states, funds to help the poor and those with disabilities with health care costs, and payments of $250 to retirees, supplemental security income recipients and veterans who get pensions or disability payments. The ARRA is also known as the Stimulus.

2010 Special Envoy to Muslim world Announced

2010 : President Barack Obama has named a special envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (O.I.C.). Rashad Hussain is a deputy associate counsel at the White House, and has played a key role in developing partnerships with the Muslim world. The O.I.C. represents more than fifty states and promotes Muslim solidarity in economic, social and political affairs. Obama made the announcement in a video statement to the U.S.-Islamic World conference in Doha, Qatar, which is co-hosted by the Brookings' Saban Center and the Qatari government. Hussain is currently a deputy associate White House counsel, and a former Justice Department trial attorney and U.S. Appeals Court law clerk. His work in the White House counsel's office has focused on national security, new media, and science and technology issues.

2011 Italian Women Protest Prime Minister

2011 : Female protesters took to the streets in over sixty cities across Italy as a reaction to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex scandals. Protesters demonstrated against what they said was demeaning behavior against women.

2012 Henrique Capriles Radonski to Run Against Chavez

2012 : The opposition party in Venezuela has picked Henrique Capriles Radonski to run against current president Hugo Chavez in the first opposition primary election. The presidential election will be held in October. Chavez who has been in power since 1999 through several questionably democratic elections has declared that he is confident he will win re-election no matter who runs against him.

2013 Man Self Immolates at Job Center

2013 : A man in Nantes, France set himself on fire outside of a job center. Police had tried to stop the man as he had alerted them to his intentions via messages to the media but they were unsuccessful. Unemployment levels had raised to some of their worst in several years in the country.

2014 Belgium Extends Euthanasia

2014 : The parliament of Belgium voted 86 to 44 to extend euthanasia rights by getting rid of any age limit for terminally ill children. If the King of Belgium signs the bill, which is likely, then Belgium would become the first country in the world to remove all age limits on euthanasia. There were still rules in place before a euthanasia for children could be carried out.

From From Our 1920s Food Prices Page

  • Butter 1 lb. 57¢ 1925 Los Angeles
  • Cabbage 1 lb. 1920 WI
  • Cheese I lb. 38¢ 1926 New York
  • Chicken 1 lb. 39¢ 1925 New York

1980s Toys Section

Hot Wheels Spiral Speedway From The 1980s Hot Wheels Spiral Speedway
Manufacturer: Mattel
Price: $24.99

Hot Wheel Spiral Speedway has an elevated spiral track that climbs to a height of one and a half feet to provide excitement of vertical racing. Includes the Hot Ones Hot Bird and White Porsche, power wheels, booster, starting gate, access, even a working grease track.


Our Price Basket

Our Pricebasket showing inflation of food etc. from 2008 to 2023 Updated Price Basket 2023

This shows the highest increase since we began collecting the data in 2008

26% increase from 2021 to 2023

Our Basket includes 20 of the basics needed to live Bread, Milk, Meat, Sugar ETC.