Today is Thursday, May 13, the 133rd day of 2010. There are 232 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1607, English colonists arrived by ship at the site of what became the Jamestown settlement in Virginia (the colonists went ashore the next day).

In 1846, the United States declared that a state of war already existed with Mexico.

In 1917, three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.

In 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, were issued to the public. (On a few of the stamps, the biplane was inadvertently printed upside-down, making them collector's items.)

In 1940, in his first speech as prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told Parliament, "I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act. The musical play "The Pajama Game" opened on Broadway.

In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, were spat upon and their limousine battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1968, a one-day general strike took place in France in support of student protesters.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca (MEH'-met AH'-lee AH'-juh).

In 1985, a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped a bomb onto the group's row house; 11 people, including founder John Africa, died in the resulting fire that destroyed 61 homes.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated federal appeals Judge Stephen G. Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

Ten years ago: Explosions at a fireworks warehouse in the Netherlands killed 22 people and injured nearly 1,000 others. (A suspect was found guilty of causing the blasts, but his conviction was overturned.)

Thought for Today:

"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money?" — Ayn Rand, Russian-born author (1905-1982).