May 13

is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (134th in leap years). There are 232 days remaining.

Events

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 Inn District).
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 - Following India's second round of nuclear tests the United States and Japan impose economic sanctions.
1998 - India carries out two more nuclear tests at Pokharan in Rajasthan.
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

Births

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)
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
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
1965 - Hikari Ota, Japanese comedian (Bakusho Mondai)
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

Deaths

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)

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Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical Feast days

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