See what makes December 13 special at Famous Daily.
History, birthdays, holiday, and a quote!
What happened on December 13
- December 13, 1294 Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
- December 13, 1545 Council of Trent (19th ecumenical council) opens
- December 13, 1545 Council of Trent begins.
- December 13, 1577 "Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage."
- December 13, 1636 The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.
- December 13, 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand.
- December 13, 1642 New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman
- December 13, 1643 English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
- December 13, 1769 Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter
- December 13, 1769 "Dartmouth College is founded by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, with a Royal Charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal Governor John Wentworth."
- December 13, 1774 "First incident of the Revolution-400 attack Fort William and Mary, NH"
- December 13, 1816 "Patent for a dry dock issued to John Adamson, Boston"
- December 13, 1862 "American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside."
- December 13, 1862 "Battle of Fredericksburg, Va; South beats North"
- December 13, 1879 First federal fish hatching steamer launched (Wilmington Delaware)
- December 13, 1884 "first performance of any of Richard Strauss's compositions in the United States (Symphony in F, New York Philharmonic)"
- December 13, 1895 Premiere of Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in Berlin.
- December 13, 1898 "First passenger train over the newly reconstructed Victoria Railway Bridge, Montreal. The original 1859 tube had been replaced by a double track steel bridge."
- December 13, 1903 Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone (NJ)
- December 13, 1916 "Avalanche kills 10,000 Austrian and Italian troops in 24 hrs in Tyrol"
- December 13, 1918 "US army of occupation crosses the Rhine, enters Germany"
- December 13, 1918 "Wilson, becomes first to make a foreign visit as president (France)"
- December 13, 1919 Ross and Smith land in Australia from a flight from London
- December 13, 1920 F Pease's interferometer measures first stellar diameter (Betelgeuse)
- December 13, 1924 KOA-AM in Denver CO begins radio transmissions
- December 13, 1928 "George Gershwin's ""An American In Paris"" premieres (New York NY)"
- December 13, 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Japanese troops begin carrying out several weeks of raping and killing of civilians and suspected Chinese resistance after the fall of Nanjing.
- December 13, 1938 """Aryanization"" decree is enacted, all Jewish property is transferred to Aryan possession."
- December 13, 1938 Los Angeles freezes at 28?
- December 13, 1938 The Holocaust: 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
- December 13, 1941 World War II: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
- December 13, 1943 "World War II: 710 Bombers of U.S. 8th Air Force attack Kiel, Germany. *1942 - Robert Volpe : Artist, Art Crime Detective d. 2006"
- December 13, 1944 "Japanese kamikaze crashes into US cruiser Nashville, kills 138"
- December 13, 1947 Maine Turnpike opens to traffic
- December 13, 1949 Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capitol to Jerusalem
- December 13, 1949 The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
- December 13, 1951 Future British PM Margaret Roberts Thatcher marries Denis Thatcher
- December 13, 1951 Margaret Thatcher (Roberts) marries Denis Thatcher at City Methodist in London.
- December 13, 1959 Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus.
- December 13, 1959 Archbishop Makarios elected first president of Cyprus
- December 13, 1962 Number one hit on UK music charts - Elvis Presley - Return To Sender
- December 13, 1963 Capitol records signs right of first refusal agreement with the Beatles
- December 13, 1964 "In El Paso, TX, LBJ and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion diverting Rio Grande, to reshape US-Mexico border"
- December 13, 1967 Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels
- December 13, 1967 "San Diego, CA records snow at a zero elevation after temperatures plunge 19 degrees (F) in eight hours."
- December 13, 1968 Playland at the Beach reopens
- December 13, 1971 "John Sinclair (sentence: 10 yrs, sold 2 marijuana joints) is freed"
- December 13, 1972 "An HC-1 Detachment Five SH-3G Sea King helicopter, stationed aboard Oriskany, rescued a VFP-63 pilot involved in operations in the Tonkin Gulf while on Yankee Station. This was the fifteenth pilot rescued by HC-1"
- December 13, 1972 "Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or ""Moonwalk"" of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century."
- December 13, 1973 "Rael, leader of the Raelian Movement claims to meet an ET he says is named Yahweh, during an alleged UFO encounter in Puy de Lassolas, France."
- December 13, 1974 Malta becomes a republic
- December 13, 1976 Golden Gate Bridge District starts ferry service to Larkspur
- December 13, 1976 Longest non-stop passenger airflight (Sydney to San Francisco 13h14m)
- December 13, 1977 "A DC-3 aircraft chartered from the Indianapolis-based National Jet crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff and boosters of the team."
- December 13, 1977 "Entire University of Evansville basketball team, die in plane crash"
- December 13, 1978 "Susan B Anthony dollar, first US coin to honor a woman, issued"
- December 13, 1978 The first Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation.
- December 13, 1981 General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares [[martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
- December 13, 1981 "Polish government declares martial law, arrests Solidarity activists"
- December 13, 1983 Martha Layne Collins inaugurated as Kentucky's first female governor
- December 13, 1983 "The Denver Nuggets and the Detroit Pistons play in the highest scoring NBA game in history, with the Pistons winning 186-184 in triple overtime. In addition to most points in a game, this game also set the record for most field goals made (136), and most assists (93)."
- December 13, 1984 Artificial heart recipient William Schroeder suffers first stroke
- December 13, 1988 Arafat addresses UN in Geneva
- December 13, 1989 Forced repatriation of Vietnamese in Hong Kong
- December 13, 1989 "The last issue of Gnistan (The Spark), the organ of the Solidaritetspartiet, is published in Sweden."
- December 13, 1990 President De Klerk of S Africa meets with Mandela to talk of end of apartheid
- December 13, 1991 Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconciliation
- December 13, 1991 New York assembly speaker Mel Miller is convicted of federal mail fraud
- December 13, 1993 Hubble Space Telescope repaired
- December 13, 1996 Kofi Annan is elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
- December 13, 1998 "Ottawa Central Railway, a subsidiary of RailLink's Quebec Railway Corporation, commences operation over the CN Beachburg subdivision between Ottawa and Pembroke, ON as well as the Walkley line in Ottawa. The Ottawa Central also received running rights over the Alexandria subdivision between Ottawa and Coteau."
- December 13, 2000 American Vice President Al Gore delivers his concession speech effectively ending his hopes of becoming the 43rd President of the United States.
- December 13, 2000 "The ""Texas 7"" escape from the John Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas and go on a robbery spree, during which police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot and killed."
- December 13, 2001 "the Indian Parliament Sansad is attacked by terrorists. 15 people are killed, including all the terrorists."
- December 13, 2002 "Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004."
- December 13, 2003 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).
- December 13, 2003 "In the most-attended basketball game in history, 78,129 watch Michigan State University lose 79-74 to the University of Kentucky at Ford Field."
- December 13, 2004 "Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal."
- December 13, 2006 "The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, announced as extinct."
- December 13, 2007 The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names 88 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players to be named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.
- December 13, 2009 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to support British forces deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force and to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
- December 13, 2009 "Campaigners in Copenhagen criticise ""heavy handed"" tactics by Danish police after 968 people are arrested as a result of protests surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference"
- December 13, 2009 Chinese President Hu Jintao opens the Kazakhstan?China oil pipeline connecting central Asia to China.
- December 13, 2009 "Danish police arrest 200 protesters heading for Copenhagen harbour, on the second day of demonstrations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference."
- December 13, 2009 "Edmonton, Alberta - Canada was the coldest place in the WORLD early this morning...even beating the Arctic! -47C without wind chill. Around-63C with wind chill. Global warming is bullshit!"
- December 13, 2009 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair states in an interview that he would have gone to war in Iraq even if he had known that it had no weapons of mass destruction.
- December 13, 2009 Global consulting firm Accenture and multinational corporation Procter & Gamble end their endorsement deals with golfer Tiger Woods following a marital infidelity controversy.
- December 13, 2009 "India successfully test fires its nuclear-capable ""Dhanush"" missile off the Orissa coast."
- December 13, 2009 Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accuses the pro-reform opposition of breaking the law after state television allegedly showed opposition supporters destroying images of founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
- December 13, 2009 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hit in the face and knocked to the ground after a political rally in Milan.
- December 13, 2009 Joe McElderry wins the sixth series of the UK version of ITV's The X Factor produced by FremantleMedia's talkbackTHAMES and Simon Cowell's Syco TV. This meant that Cheryl Cole was the first mentor to win two consecutive series.
- December 13, 2009 Leaders of north and south Sudan reach a deal on a referendum for the south's independence in 2011.
- December 13, 2009 "Over 100 suspected Islamic militants break into a prison in the Philippine city of Isabela, freeing at least 31 inmates and killing two, including a prison guard."
- December 13, 2009 The Sarejevo-Belgrade rail link resumes between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia after 18 years.
- December 13, 2009 Violence erupts in Turkey after the Constitutional Court of Turkey bans the Democratic Society Party over its alleged terrorist links.
- December 13, 2009 Voters in Chile go to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections.
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