February 13 in History

Historical Events on February 13

951

Guo Wei, a court official, leads a militay coup and declares himself emperor of the new Later Zhou.
962

Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII co-sign the Diploma Ottonianum, recognizing John as ruler of Rome.
1322

The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th-13th.
1462

The Treaty of Westminster is finalised between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
1503

Challenge of Barletta: Tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
1542

Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
1575

Henry III of France is crowned at Reims and marries Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont on the same day.
1633

Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1660

With the death of Swedish King Charles X Gustav, the Swedish government begins to seek peace with Sweden's enemies in the Second Northern War, something that Charles had refused. As his son and successor on the throne, Charles XI, is only four years old, a regency rules Sweden until 1672.
1689

William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
1692

Massacre of Glencoe: Almost 80 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.
1739

Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1755

Treaty of Giyanti signed by VOC, Pakubuwono III and Prince Mangkubumi. The treaty divides the Javanese kingdom of Mataram into 2: Sunanate of Surakarta and Sultanate of Yogyakarta.
1849

The delegation headed by Metropolitan bishop Andrei Șaguna hands out to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria the General Petition of Romanian leaders in Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina, which demands that the Romanian nation be recognized.
1861

In Gaeta the capitulation of the fortress decreeing the end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is signed.
1867

Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
1880

Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
1913

The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.
1914

Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
1920

The Negro National League is formed.
1931

The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi.
1935

A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
1945

World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
1945

World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
1951

Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the "high-water mark" of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences.
1954

Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.
1955

Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
1960

With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
1960

Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
1961

An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
1967

American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
1978

Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
1979

An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
1981

A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1983

A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
1984

Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1990

German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
1991

Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
1996

The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre).
2001

An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
2004

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
2007

Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election.
2008

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
2010

A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more.
2011

For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.
2012

The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
2017

Kim Jong-nam is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

February 13 Birthdays

February 13 Deaths

Choose Another Date