Daily Calendar for Sunday, April 13, 2025

This Christian observance falls on the Sunday before Easter and is the sixth and last Sunday of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday marks the day when Christ rode into Jerusalem a week before his death and resurrection and was greeted by its people, who strewed cloaks and tree branches along his path to honor him as their king. This event is known as the Triumphal Entry.

Nowadays, Palm Sunday service often includes the blessing of palm leaves (or substitute branches from yews, willows, or other plants) before a procession into or in the church, after which hymns are sung and readings that focus on Christ’s final week are given. In many Christian denominations, palm fronds are burned at the end of the service; the ashes are saved for use on the next Ash Wednesday.

Palm Sunday is also called Passion, Branch, Yew, Willow, Blossom, or Fig Sunday, as well as Flower Day and several other names.

Born in 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia, Jefferson was the third president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He began his political career in 1769 in the Virginia legislature. Forty years later, he retired as president of the United States. He died on July 4, 1826, at Monticello, his home in Virginia. He once wrote, β€œAll my wishes end where I hope my days will end—at Monticello.”

Thomas Jefferson was a dedicated farmer, and his interest in agriculture is evident in much of his writings. His plantation Monticello included vegetable gardens, flower gardens, orchards, vineyards, grain fields, and ornamental landscapes. Jefferson worked on improving plant varieties as well as agricultural tools, such as the plow.

To celebrate his birthday, pay a visit to the country home he designed. To fully grasp his political philosophy, called Jeffersonianism, read his collected works, including β€œThe Fundamentals of Government.” It was none other than Abraham Lincoln who said, β€œThe principles of Jefferson are the axioms of a free society.”

Born

  • Thomas Jefferson (3rd U.S. president) –
  • Butch Cassidy (American Wild West outlaw) –
  • Samuel Beckett (author, playwright, & Nobel Prize winner) –
  • Caroline Rhea (comedian & actress) –
  • Rick Schroder (actor) –

Died

  • Archie "Grey Owl" Belaney (conservationist) –
  • Annie Jump Cannon (astronomer) –
  • Wallace Stegner (writer) –
  • Mark "the Bird" Fidrych (baseball pitcher) –
  • Jonathan Frid (actor) –

Events

  • Pres. FDR dedicated the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.–
  • First navigational satellite Transit-1B launched–
  • The Beatles recorded their hit song β€œHelp!” –
  • An explosion occurred aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its way to the moon. Short of oxygen and flying a crippled ship, the crew aborted the moon landing and headed back to earth under emergency conditions–
  • A dwarf mouse named Yoda celebrated his fourth birthday, making him the oldest of his kind and far beyond 100 in human years. Yoda owes his longevity to genetic modifications that affected his pituitary and thyroid glands and reduced insulin production - and which left him a third smaller than an average mouse and very sensitive to cold–
  • Barry Bonds, the San Francisco slugger, hit his 661st career home run, passing Willie Mays (also his Godfather) to take sole possession of third place on baseball’s career list–

Weather

  • Zero degrees F at Hanover, New Hampshire–
  • Dozen tornadoes in eastern Iowa–
  • Tornado tore through Iowa City, Iowa–
  • 8.9 inches of snow fell on Great Falls, Montana, setting a new record for this date–
  • A tornado struck the states of Bihar and West Bengal in eastern India–

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