December 13
December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 18 days remaining.
Events
- 1545 - Council of Trent begins
- 1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, on his round-the-world voyage
- 1642 - Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand
- 1643 - The Battle of Alton during the English Civil War
- 1862 - The Confederates win the Battle of Fredericksburg in the American Civil War
- 1937 - Battle of Nanjing concludes with the Japanese victory and the fall of the city which became the site of the Nanjing Massacre
- 1938 - 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen built the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg
- 1949 - The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem
- 1959 - Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus
- 1972 - A chartered Spanish airliner crashes on takeoff from the Canary Islands, killing 155
- 1974 - Malta becomes a republic
- 1977 - A United States government DC-3 crashes after takeoff at Evansville, Indiana, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team
- 1978 - First Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation
- 1981 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland
- 1996 - Kofi Annan elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 2000 - The so-called "Texas 7" escape from a Texas prison and go on a crime spree.
- 2001 - Parliament of India attacked by armed militants. Attempt foiled.
- 2002 - The European Union announces the addition of ten new members in Copenhagen: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The countries' membership will be effective May 1, 2004
- 2003 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
Births
- 1521 - Pope Sixtus V, religious leader (d. 1590)
- 1533 - King Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1577)
- 1553 - King Henry IV of France (d. 1610)
- 1797 - Heinrich Heine, poet (d. 1856)
- 1798 - Joseph Walker, explorer
- 1816 - Werner von Siemens, engineer, inventor and industrialist (d. 1892)
- 1818 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (d. 1882)
- 1829 - Hugo von Ziemssen, physicist (d. 1902)
- 1836 - Franz von Lenbach, painter (d. 1904)
- 1854 - Thomas Watson, telephone pioneer
- 1864 - Emil Seidel, politician, mayor of Milwaukee, Socialist vice-presidential candidate (d. 1947)
- 1874 - Josef Lhévinne, pianist (d. 1944)
- 1887 - George Polya, mathematician (d. 1985)
- 1897 - Drew Pearson, journalist, political columnist (d. 1969)
- 1903 - Carlos Montoya, guitarist (d. 1993)
- 1906 - Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (d. 1968)
- 1910 - Van Heflin, actor (d. 1971)
- 1913 - Archie Moore, world champion boxer (d. 1998)
- 1915 - Curd Jürgens, actor (d. 1982)
- 1915 - Ross Macdonald, author (d. 1983)
- 1923 - Larry Doby, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2003)
- 1925 - Dick Van Dyke, actor, comedian
- 1926 - George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete
- 1927 - Christopher Plummer, actor
- 1943 - Ferguson Jenkins, Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1948 - Ted Nugent, musician
- 1950 - Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa
- 1953 - Bob Gainey, Hockey Hall of Famer
- 1957 - Steve Buscemi, actor (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Sopranos)
- 1967 - Jamie Foxx, actor (In Living Color, Any Given Sunday, Ali)
- 1981 - Amy Lee, Evanescence frontwoman
Deaths
Holidays and observances
December 12 - December 14 - November 13 - January 13 -- listing of all days
