Thomas Jefferson - April 13
Founding Father Learning
Monday, April 13, 2026
Today is Scrabble Day, Thomas Jefferson Day, Plant Appreciation Day, and National Peach Cobbler Day.
Today's Birthdays
Songs of the Day
Poem of the Day - April is National Poetry Month
Today's Theme: Thomas Jefferson
AMERICAN REVOLUTION HISTORY ON THIS DATE
1743 – Birthday of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson
1777 – American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.
ON THIS DATE
- 1598 - King Henry IV of France signs the Edict of Nantes, granting rights to the Protestant Huguenots.
- 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah premieres in Dublin, Ireland.
- 1861 - Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
- 1870 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
- 1873 - More than 60 Black men are murdered in the Colfax Massacre in Colfax, Louisiana.
- 1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- 1964 - Sidney Poitier becomes the first Black male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
- 1970 - An oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes.
- 1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters.
- 1570 - English soldier Guy Fawkes
- 1743 - 3rd President of the U.S. Thomas Jefferson
- 1769 - English painter Sir Thomas Lawrence
- 1828 - English feminist and social reformer Josephine Butler
- 1854 - Educator Lucy Craft Laney
- 1892 - Scottish engineer Robert Watson-Watt
- 1899 - Game designer (Scrabble) and architect Alfred Mosher Butts
- 1902 - Author Marguerite Henry
- 1906 - Irish novelist, poet, and playwright Samuel Beckett
- 1909 - Novelist and short story writer Eudora Welty
- 1929 - Golfer Marilynn Smith
- 1939 - Irish writer Seamus Heaney
- 9146 - Singer-songwriter Al Green
- 1963 - Russian chess player Garry Kasparov
POEM OF THE DAY
Lorine Niedecker - Thomas Jefferson
THEME: THOMAS JEFFERSON
- Grades PreK-1 - Sesame Street: Thomas Jefferson Needs a Quill (4:19) - VIEW
- Grades K-12 - Monticello Education Resources - VIEW, READ, DO
- Grades 3-8 - PBS LearningMedia - Exploring Monticello (44:04) - VIEW, READ, DO
- Grades 3-8 - PBS LearningMedia - Three Presidents - Monroe, Madison, Jefferson Media Gallery - VIEW
- Grades 4-8 - ICivics - Thomas Jefferson Mini-Lesson (need to register as an educator to access) - DO
- Grades 4-12 - PBS LearningMedia - 60-Second Presidents - Thomas Jefferson (1:07) - VIEW
- Grades 5-12 - NHPBS Video - Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns - VIEW
- Grades 8-12 - Crash Course - Jefferson (13:13) - VIEW
- Grades 9-12 - NHPBS Video - Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty (26:56) - VIEW
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