Today in history–February 13

1801: The Judiciary Act of 1801 creates the U.S. Circuit Courts

1866: Alexander Franklin “Frank” James and his 18-year-old brother Jesse, together with Jim and Cole Younger, commit the first daylight peacetime bank robbery in U.S. history.  They net $62,000 (about $700,000 today) from the Clay County (Mo.) Savings Bank and kill a 17-year-old boy in the process.

1910: William Bradford Shockley, whose Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at Beckman Instruments will serve as the original seedbed of what is now called “Silicon Valley,” is born to American parents in London, England.

1914: The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is formed in New York to combat music piracy.

1944: TV phenomenon and former Cleveland mayor Gerald Norman “Jerry” Springer (Northwestern Law 1968) is born in London, England.  In 2004 he will be named Ohio’s Democrat of the Year.

1946: The world’s first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, is demonstrated for the first time at the University of Pennsylvania.

1962: Karl Nickerson Llewellyn dies of a heart attack in Chicago at age 68.

1988: Singer Michael Jackson buys a ranch in Santa Ynez, California.  He renames it “Neverland.”

1997: The world’s most expensive service call is made, as astronauts begin repairs on the defective Hubble Space Telescope.  It is not under warranty.