On this day, April 13 ...

1999: Right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian is sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in the lethal injection of a Lou Gehrig’s disease patient. (Kevorkian would serve eight years in prison.)

Also on this day:

1743: Thomas Jefferson is born in Shadwell in the Virginia Colony.

Thomas Jefferson is born in Shadwell in the Virginia Colony. 1861: At the start of the Civil War, Fort Sumter in South Carolina falls to Confederate forces.

At the start of the Civil War, Fort Sumter in South Carolina falls to Confederate forces. 1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of the third American president’s birth.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of the third American president’s birth. 1958: Van Cliburn of the United States wins the first International Tchaikovsky Competition for piano in Moscow; Russian Valery Klimov wins the violin competition.

Van Cliburn of the United States wins the first International Tchaikovsky Competition for piano in Moscow; Russian Valery Klimov wins the violin competition. 1964: Sidney Poitier becomes the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.”

Sidney Poitier becomes the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” 1970: Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, is crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen bursts. (The astronauts would manage to return safely.)

1986: Pope John Paul II visits the Great Synagogue of Rome in the first recorded papal visit of its kind to a Jewish house of worship.

1992: The Great Chicago Flood takes place as the city’s century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.

The Great Chicago Flood takes place as the city’s century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River. 1992: “The Bridges of Madison County,” a romance novel by Robert James Waller, is published by Warner Books.

“The Bridges of Madison County,” a romance novel by Robert James Waller, is published by Warner Books. 1997: Tiger Woods becomes the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament and the first player of partly African heritage to claim a major golf title.

Tiger Woods becomes the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament and the first player of partly African heritage to claim a major golf title. 2005: Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in back-to-back court appearances in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta.