Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Today In History Logo
Today In History Star August 13
Today In History Phone
Subject to Britannica's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Go to Today's Date
1952: Big Mama Thornton records “Hound Dog”
On this day in 1952, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton—the “biggest, baddest, saltiest chick” in blues music—recorded “Hound Dog.” True to her reputation, she gave the song everything she had—and changed rock and roll history. Thornton didn’t just sing the lyrics, she screamed and growled them. “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog / quit snoopin’ ’round my door.” Four years later Elvis Presley recorded his own version of the song, and it launched the young rocker’s career straight into the stratosphere.
READ MORE
August 13, 1952: She was singing to a man. He was singing to a dog.
© BMI—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; Photo Illustration EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
Illustration of Hernan Cortes, dressed in red and white, meeting Aztec Emperor Montezuma II, who wears elaborate gold and feathered attire, inside a richly decorated room.
© Photos.com/Getty Images
Fall of the Aztec empire
On this day in 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernån Cortés captured Tenochtitlån (now Mexico City) after a 93-day siege, thereby ending the Aztec empire and winning Mexico for the crown of Spain. [How much do you know about Latin American history?]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Master of suspense
The Bettmann Archive
Sir Alfred Hitchcock

If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Film director Sir Alfred Hitchcock—a master of suspense who used innovative techniques and a sound grasp of human psychology to create such immensely popular movies as Psycho (1960)—was born in London this day in 1899.

Famous Birthdays
1913
Makarios III
bishop and president of Cyprus
1844
Friedrich Miescher
Swiss biochemist
1819
Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet
British mathematician and physicist
1818
Lucy Stone
American suffragist
MORE BIRTHDAYS

More on August 13

Helen Gurley Brown, 1969
Fairchild Archive/Penske Media/Shutterstock.com
2012
American writer and magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown—whose upbeat, stylish publications, beginning in the mid-20th century, emphasized sexual and career independence and adventure for a large audience of young women—died at age 90. [Test your knowledge of pop culture.]
Julia Child
© AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
2004
American cooking expert Julia Child—who brought the art of French cooking to a vast number of Americans through her books and, especially, her programs on public television, where she became known for her humour and hearty voice—died at age 91. [Take our foodie quiz.]
default image
Image: EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
2004
The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad opened in Athens, which had hosted the first modern Summer Games in 1896. [Test your knowledge of Olympic history.]
Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, wearing a fedora and vest, sits on the bumper of a vintage car holding a gun in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.
© 1967 Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
1967
The crime drama Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the outlaw couple, opened in New York City, and it pioneered a new era of filmmaking, tearing down barriers in the depiction of violence and sexuality. [Take our film buff quiz.]
Fidel Castro
Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos
1926
Cuban political leader Fidel Castro, who transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere, was born. [Take our U.S. and Cuba quiz.]
Spanish-American War: Manila
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1898
The U.S. Army took control of the Philippine port of Manila during the Spanish-American War. [How much do you know about the history of warfare?]
Annie Oakley stands facing forward in a decorated skirt and blouse, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding a rifle, with two more rifles propped beside her.
The Bettmann Archive
1860
American markswoman Annie Oakley—who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, where she was often called “Little Sure Shot”—was born. [Watch Annie Oakley shoot at glass balls.]