May 13
is the 133rd day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (134th in
leap years). There are 232 days remaining.
*
1497 -
Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
*
1568 -
Battle of Langside: the forces of
Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of
Scottish Protestants under
James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
*
1619 -
Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in
The Hague after having been accused of treason.
*
1648 - Construction of the
Red Fort at
Dehli was completed.
*
1779 -
War of Bavarian Succession:
Russian and
French mediators at the
Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement
Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from them (the
Innviertel).
*
1787 -
Captain Arthur Phillip leaves
Portsmouth,
England with eleven ships full of convicts (
First Fleet) to establish a
penal colony in
Australia.
*
1830 -
Ecuador gains its independence.
*
1846 -
Mexican-American War: The
United States declares war on
Mexico.
*
1848 - First performance of
Finland's
national anthem.
*
1861 -
American Civil War:
Queen Victoria of Britain issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the
breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
*1861 -
Great Comet of 1861 discovered in
Australia.
*
1864 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Resaca – the
battle begins with
Union General Sherman fighting toward
Atlanta.
*
1865 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Palmito Ranch – In far south
Texas, more than a month after
Confederate General Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a
Confederate victory.
*
1880 - In
Menlo Park, New Jersey,
Thomas Edison performs the first test of his
electric railway.
*
1888 - With the passage of the
Lei Áurea ("
Golden Law"),
Brazil abolishes
slavery.
*
1909 - The first
Giro d'Italia took place in
Milan.
Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the winner.
*
1912 - In the
United Kingdom, the
Royal Flying Corps (now the
Royal Air Force) was established.
*
1913 -
Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine
aircraft.
*
1917 - Three peasant children report seeing the
Blessed Virgin Mary near
Fatima,
Portugal.
[John De Marchi (1952) The True Story of Fatima Catechetical Guild Entertainment Society, St. Paul Minnesota, pp47-59] *1917 - The
Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, the future
Pope Pius XII, is consecrated
Archbishop by
Pope Benedict XV.
*
1939 - The first commercial
FM radio station in the United States is launched in
Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later became
WDRC-FM.
*
1940 -
World War II:
Germany's conquest of
France begins as the
German army crosses the
Meuse River.
Churchill makes his "
blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the
House of Commons.
*1940 - Queen
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the
Nazi invasion in the
Netherlands to
Britain.
Princess Juliana takes her children to
Canada for their safety.
*
1941 -
World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel
Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
*
1943 -
World War II:
German Afrika Korps and
Italian troops in
North Africa surrender to
Allied forces.
*
1948 -
1948 Arab-Israeli War: The
Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by
Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of
Israel on
May 14.
*
1952 - The
Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the
Parliament of India, held its first sitting.
*
1958 - During a visit to
Caracas,
Venezuela,
Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by
anti-American demonstrators.
*1958 -
Pierre Pflimlin becomes
Prime Minister of
France.
*1958 -
Velcro's trade mark is registered.
*
1967 -
Dr. Zakir Hussain became 3rd
President of
India. He was the first
Muslim President of Indian Union. He held this position till
August 24,
1969.
*
1969 - Race riots in
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, later known as the
13 May Incident.
*
1972 - Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in
Osaka. Blocked exits and nonfunctional elevators cause 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
*
1980 - An
F3 tornado hits
Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
President Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
*
1981 -
Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to
assassinate Pope John Paul II in
St. Peter's Square in
Rome.
*
1985 -
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police storm
MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
*
1996 - Severe
thunderstorms and a
tornado in
Bangladesh kill 600 people.
*
1998 -
India carries out two nuclear tests at
Pokhran, in addition to the three conducted on May 11.
United States and
Japan impose
economic sanctions on
India.
*
2000 -
Lara Dutta (21), who said beauty pageants give women a platform to
voice our choices and opinions is named
Miss Universe 2000 in the
Cyprus capital
Nicosia.
*2000 - In
Enschede, the
Netherlands, a
fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately €450 million in damage.
*
2005 - The
Andijan Massacre occurs in
Uzbekistan.
*
2006 -
São Paulo Riots*
1588 -
Ole Worm, Danish physician (d.
1654)
*
1638 -
Richard Simon, French Biblical critic (d.
1712)
*
1655 -
Pope Innocent XIII (d.
1724)
*
1699 -
Marquis of Pombal,
Prime Minister of Portugal (d.
1782)
*
1712 -
Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (d.
1772)
*
1717 - Empress
Maria Theresa of Austria (d.
1780)
*
1753 -
Lazare Carnot, French general, politician, and mathematician (d.
1823)
*
1792 -
Pope Pius IX (d.
1878)
*
1794 -
Louis-Leopold Robert, French painter (d.
1835)
*
1795 -
Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist (d.
1875)
*
1830 -
Zebulon Baird Vance, three-time governor of North Carolina (d.
1894)
*
1840 -
Alphonse Daudet, French novelist (d.
1897)
*
1842 -
Arthur Sullivan, English composer (d.
1900)
*
1857 -
Ronald Ross, English physician, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1932)
*
1882 -
Georges Braque, French painter (d.
1963)
*
1894 -
Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, 2nd
President of Iceland (d.
1972)
*
1907 - Dame
Daphne du Maurier, English author (d.
1989)
*
1913 -
Gil Evans, Canadian musician (d.
1988)
* 1913 -
William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberian president (d.
1980)
*
1914 -
Joe Louis, American boxer (d.
1981)
*
1923 -
Beatrice Arthur, American actress
*
1926 -
Wallace Breem, British author
*
1927 -
Herbert Ross, American director (d.
2001)
*
1928 -
Jim Shoulders, Champion Rodeo Cowboy
*
1931 -
Jim Jones, American cult leader (d.
1978)
*
1934 -
Leon Wagner, baseball player (d.
2004)
*
1937 -
Madeleine Albright, 64th American Secretary of State
* 1937 -
Roch Carrier, Canadian novelist
*1937 -
Roger Zelazny, American author (d.
1995)
*1937 -
Trevor Baylis, English inventor of the wind-up radio
*
1939 -
Harvey Keitel, American actor
*
1940 -
Bruce Chatwin, British writer (d.
1989)
*
1941 -
Senta Berger, Austrian actress
*1941 -
Ritchie Valens, American singer (d.
1959)
*
1944 -
Armistead Maupin, American author
*
1947 -
Stephen R. Donaldson, American author
*
1949 -
Zoe Wanamaker, British actress
*
1950 -
Stevie Wonder, American singer and musician
*
1951 -
Sharon Sayles Belton, Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota
*1951 -
Paul Thompson, British rock drummer (
Roxy Music)
*
1954 -
Johnny Logan, Irish singer and songwriter
*
1956 -
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder of the Art of Living Foundation
*
1957 -
Alan Ball, American screenwriter, director, producer
*
1961 -
Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor
*
1962 -
Eduardo Palomo, Mexican actor (d.
2003)
*1962 -
Kathleen Jamie, Scottish poet
*
1964 -
Stephen Colbert, American comedian and actor
*
1964 -
Ronnie Coleman, American bodybuilder and an eight-time Mr. Olympia title winner
*
1965 -
José Antonio Delgado, Venezuelan mountain climber (d.
2006)
*1965 -
Hikari Ota, Japanese comedian
*
1966 -
Darius Rucker, American singer (
Hootie & The Blowfish)
*
1967 -
Chuck Schuldiner, American singer (
Death) (d.
2001)
*
1969 -
André Schmechta, German musician (
X Marks the Pedwalk)
*
1976 -
Mark Delaney, Welsh footballer
*
1977 -
Ilse DeLange, Dutch singer
* 1977 -
Samantha Morton, English actress
*
1978 -
Barry Zito, baseball player
* 1978 -
Mike Bibby, American basketball player
*
1979 -
Prince Carl Philip of Sweden
*
1980 -
Waka Inoue, Japanese gravure idol and actress
*
1981 -
Jimmy Yang, American professional wrestler
* 1981 -
Sunny Leone, Canadian model
*
1982 -
Yoko Kumada, Japanese gravure idol
*
1986 -
Robert Pattinson, English actor
*
1988 -
Casey Donovan, Australian singer
*
1162 -
Géza II of Hungary*
1176 -
Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine (b.
1119)
*
1312 -
Theobald II, Duke of Lorraine (b.
1263)
*
1573 -
Takeda Shingen, Japanese warlord (b.
1521)
*
1619 -
Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch statesman (b.
1547)
*
1704 -
Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit preacher (b.
1632)
*
1742 -
Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (b.
1719)
*
1807 -
Eliphalet Dyer, American statesman and judge (b.
1721)
*
1832 -
Georges Cuvier, French naturalist (b.
1769)
*
1835 -
John Nash, English architect (b.
1752)
*
1871 -
Daniel Auber, French composer (b.
1782)
*
1884 -
Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b.
1809)
*
1885 -
Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German physician (b.
1809)
*
1916 -
Sholom Aleichem, Russian author (b.
1859)
*
1925 -
Boris Savinkov, Russian writer and terrorist (b.
1879)
*
1926 -
Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian Catholic prelate (b.
1857)
*
1930 -
Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1861)
*
1937 -
Ekaterina Geladze, mother of Joseph Stalin (b.
1858)
*
1938 -
Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1861)
*
1945 -
Tubby Hall, American musician (b.
1895)
*
1962 -
Henry Trendley Dean, American dental researcher (b.
1893)
*
1974 -
Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican writer, politician, and diplomat (b.
1902)
*
1975 -
Bob Wills, American musician (b.
1905)
*
1985 -
Leatrice Joy, American actress (b.
1893)
*
1988 -
Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter (b.
1929)
*
1992 -
F. E. McWilliam, Northern Irish sculptor (b.
1909)
*
1999 -
Gene Sarazen, American golfer (b.
1902)
*
2000 -
Paul Bartel, American actor,writer and director (b.
1938)
*
2001 -
R.K. Narayan, Indian novelist (b.
1906)
* 2001 -
Jason Miller, American playwright/actor (b.
1939)
*
2005 -
George Dantzig, American mathematician (b.
1914)
*
2006 -
Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian (b.
1923)
* 2006 -
Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American singer (b.
1949)
* 2006 -
Katherine McCarron, autistic child who died at age three (b.
2003)
* Commemoration of
Julian of Norwich (
Anglican).
*
Roman Empire -
Feast of the Lemures (See
Larvae).
*
Abbotsbury Garland Day,
Dorset,
England.
*
World Fair Trade Day (
2006).
*
Rotuma Day in
Fiji.
*
Our Lady of Fatima saints in the
Roman Catholic Church:
*
Saint Servatus*
Saint Robert Bellarmine*
Saint Gerald of Villamagna*
Saint John the Silent*
Saint Maria Dominica Mazzarello (died 1881)
*
Saint Rolanda*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaMay 12 -
May 14 -
April 13 -
June 13 –
listing of all days
