Historical Events on December 13, Facts & Special Events On This Day - CalendarZ

Historical Events on December 13

902
Battle of the Holme: Anglo-Saxon forces are defeated by Danish Vikings under Æthelwold (a son of Æthelred of Wessex) who is killed in battle.
1294
Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
1545
Council of Trent begins.
1577
Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
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 National Guard of the United States.
1642
Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand.
1643
English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
1758
The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.
1769
Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.
1818
Cyril VI of Constantinople resigns from his position as Ecumenical Patriarch.
1862
American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats Union Major General Ambrose Burnside.
1867
A Fenian bomb explodes in Clerkenwell, London, killing six.
1928
George Gershwin's An American in Paris is first performed.
1937
Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: The city of Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese. This is followed by the Nanking Massacre, in which Japanese troops rape and slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.
1938
The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.
1939
World War II: Battle of the River Plate: Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.
1943
World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying forces in Greece.
1949
The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
1959
Archbishop Makarios III becomes the first President of Cyprus.
1960
While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
1962
NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1967
Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels.
1968
Brazilian President Artur da Costa e Silva issues AI-5 (Institutional Act No. 5), enabling government by decree and suspending habeas corpus.
1972
Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
1974
Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.
1977
Air Indiana Flight 216 crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff, and boosters of the team.
1981
General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, largely due to the actions by Solidarity.
1982
The 6.0 Ms North Yemen earthquake shakes southwestern Yemen with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 2,800, and injuring 1,500.
1988
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York.
1989
The Troubles: Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches an attack on a British Army temporary vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea, Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are killed and two others are wounded.
2001
Sansad Bhavan, the building housing the Indian Parliament, is attacked by terrorists. Twelve people are killed, including the terrorists.
2002
European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
2003
Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
2011
A murder-suicide in Liège, Belgium, kills six and wounds 125 people at a Christmas market.
2013
Arapahoe High School shooting: Murder-suicide: A female student seeking the librarian is shot dead in a hallway by another student after the librarian had demoted him on the debate team. The shooter takes his own life shortly afterwards.

December 13 Birthdays

December 13 Deaths