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A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd, released in September 1987. In 1985 guitarist David Gilmour (pictured) began to assemble a group of musicians to work on his third solo album. At the end of 1986 however, he changed his mind, and decided that the new material would instead be included in a new Pink Floyd album. Subsequently Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright (who had left the group in 1979) were brought on board the project. Although for legal reasons Wright could not be re-admitted to the band, he and Mason helped Gilmour craft what would become the first Pink Floyd album since the departure of lyricist and bass guitarist Roger Waters in December 1985. The album was recorded primarily on Gilmour's converted houseboat, Astoria. Its production was marked by an ongoing legal dispute between Waters and the band as to who owned the rights to Pink Floyd's name, which was not resolved until several months after the album was released. Unlike most of Pink Floyd's other studio albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason has no central theme, and is instead a collection of rock songs written mostly by Gilmour and musician Anthony Moore. Although the album received mixed reviews and was derided by Waters, with the help of an enormously successful world tour it easily out-sold their previous album The Final Cut. (more...)

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April 13: Thai New Year's Day

• 1598 – King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
• 1873 – In the wake of a contested election for local political offices in Colfax, Louisiana, US, armed white supremacists overpowered freedmen and the African American state militia trying to control the parish courthouse, killing over 100 of them.
• 1919 – The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, a government in exile based in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of Korea, was formed.
• 1919 – British Indian Army troops massacred hundreds of unarmed men, women and children who were attending a peaceful gathering at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, India.
• 1956 – The Vietnamese National Army captured Ba Cut (pictured), military commander of the Hoa Hao religious sect, which ran a de facto state in southern Vietnam in opposition to Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem.
• 1984 – Indian forces launched Operation Meghdoot, a preemptive attack on the disputed Siachen Glacier region of Kashmir, triggering a military conflict with Pakistan.

More anniversaries: April 12 – April 13 – April 14