April 13 in History

Historical Events on April 13

945

Hugh of Provence abdicates the throne in favor of his son Lothair II who is acclaimed sole king of Italy.
1111

Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1204

Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
1612

Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island.
1613

Samuel Argall captures Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father; she is brought to Henricus as hostage.
1699

Guru Gobind Singh establishes the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.
1742

George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
1777

American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.
1829

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
1849

Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly.
1861

American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
1865

American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union Forces.
1870

The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
1873

The Colfax massacre, in which more than 60 African Americans are murdered, takes place.
1902

James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1909

The military of the Ottoman Empire reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
1919

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea is established.
1919

Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British troops gun down at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India; at least 1200 are wounded.
1919

Eugene V. Debs is imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I.
1941

A Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1943

World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
1943

The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.
1944

Diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
1945

World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
1945

World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna.
1948

In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah.
1953

CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.
1960

The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
1964

At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
1970

An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.
1972

The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
1972

Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.
1974

Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.
1975

An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
1976

The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.
1976

Forty workers die in an explosion at the Lapua ammunition factory, the deadliest accidental disaster in modern history in Finland.
1987

Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999.
1992

Basements throughout the Chicago Loop are flooded, forcing the Chicago Board of Trade Building and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to close.
1997

Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
2017

The US drops the largest ever non-nuclear weapon on Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

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