May 13
| May 13 in recent years |
| 2024 (Monday) |
| 2023 (Saturday) |
| 2022 (Friday) |
| 2021 (Thursday) |
| 2020 (Wednesday) |
| 2019 (Monday) |
| 2018 (Sunday) |
| 2017 (Saturday) |
| 2016 (Friday) |
| 2015 (Wednesday) |
May 13 is the 133rd day of the year (134th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 232 days remain until the end of the year.
Events
- 1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions which are later transcribed in her Revelations of Divine Love.
- 1497 – Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
- 1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially married at Greenwich.
- 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 being convicted of treason.
- 1648 – Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is 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 it (the Innviertel).
- 1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in early Tennessee.
- 1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.
- 1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derne from the Americans attack the city.
- 1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
- 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 the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
- 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
- 1861 – Pakistan’s (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca – the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch – in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. 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 starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.
- 1912 – The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom.
- 1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
- 1923 – Robert Bellarmine, a Doctor of the Catholic Church, is beatified.
- 1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.
- 1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
- 1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the Nazi invasion. 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.
- 1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.
- 1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
- 1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
- 1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese Middle School students in Singapore, take place.
- 1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
- 1958 – The trade mark Velcro is registered.
- 1958 – May 1958 crisis: a group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
- 1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Thirty-one students are arrested, and the Free Speech Movement is born.
- 1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland is decided.
- 1967 – Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
- 1969 – Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- 1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
- 1980 – An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy 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. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
- 1985 – Police storm MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
- 1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
- 1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.
- 1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.
- 1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
- 1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
- 1998 – India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
- 2000 – In Enschede, 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.
- 2005 – The Binh Bridge opens to traffic in Hai Phong, Vietnam.
- 2006 – 2006 São Paulo violence: a major rebellion occurs in several prisons in Brazil.
- 2008 – The Jaipur bombings in Rajasthan, India results in dozens of deaths.
Births
- 1024 – Hugh of Cluny, French saint (d. 1109)
- 1254 – Maria of Brabant, queen of France (d. 1321)
- 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 – Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary and Bohemia, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1780)
- 1730 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1782)
- 1742 – Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (d. 1798)
- 1753 – Lazare Carnot, French general, politician, and mathematician (d. 1823)
- 1792 – Blessed Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)
- 1794 – Louis-Leopold Robert, French painter (d. 1835)
- 1795 – Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist (d. 1875)
- 1822 – Francis of Assisi of Bourbon, King Consort of Spain (d. 1902)
- 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)
- 1856 – Tom O'Rourke, American boxing manager (d. 1938)
- 1857 – Ronald Ross, English physician, Nobel laureate (d. 1932)
- 1881 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian author (d. 1922)
- 1882 – Georges Braque, French painter (d. 1963)
- 1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor, inventor of the pap smear (d. 1962)
- 1894 – Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, 2nd President of Iceland (d. 1972)
- 1895 – Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-born psychologist and parapsychologist (d. 1964)
- 1898 – Justin/Giustino Tuveri, Italian World War I veteran (d. 2007)
- 1904 – Louis Duffus, South African cricketer (d. 1984)
- 1907 – Dame Daphne du Maurier, English author (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Robert Middleton, American film and television actor (d. 1977)
- 1912 – Gil Evans, Canadian musician (d. 1988)
- 1912 – Judah Nadich, American rabbi (d. 2007)
- 1913 – William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (d. 1980)
- 1914 – Joe Louis, American boxer (d. 1981)
- 1918 – T. Balasaraswati, Indian Bharatanatyam dancer (d. 1984)
- 1920 – Gareth Morris, British flautist (d. 2007)
- 1922 – Michael Ainsworth, British cricketer (d. 1978)
- 1922 – Beatrice Arthur, American actress (d. 2009)
- 1922 – Otl Aicher, German graphic designer (d. 1991)
- 1923 – Red Garland, American hard bop jazz pianist (d.1984)
- 1924 – Harry Schwarz, South African anti-apartheid politician, lawyer and diplomat (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Theodore Mann, American theatre producer and director
- 1926 – Wallace Breem, British author (d. 1990)
- 1927 – Archie Scott-Brown, English race car driver (d. 1958)
- 1927 – Herbert Ross, American director (d. 2001)
- 1928 – Enrique Bolaños, Nicaraguan politician
- 1928 – Édouard Molinaro, French film actor, director and screenwriter
- 1928 – Jim Shoulders, American rodeo cowboy (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Mike Gravel, American politician
- 1930 – José Jiménez Lozano, Spanish writer
- 1930 – Vernon Shaw, President of Dominica
- 1931 – Jim Jones, American businessman, and cult leader of the Peoples Temple (d. 1978)
- 1934 – Ehud Netzer, Israeli archaeologist (d. 2010)
- 1934 – Leon Wagner, American baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1935 – Dominic Cossa, American baritone
- 1937 – Trevor Baylis, English inventor
- 1937 – Roch Carrier, Canadian novelist
- 1937 – Zohra Lampert, American actress
- 1937 – Roger Zelazny, American author (d. 1995)
- 1938 – Giuliano Amato, Italian politician
- 1938 – Laurent Beaudoin, French/Canadian businessman
- 1939 – Hildrun Claus, German athlete
- 1939 – Harvey Keitel, American actor
- 1940 – Bruce Chatwin, British writer (d. 1989)
- 1941 – Senta Berger, Austrian actress
- 1941 – Joe Brown, British singer
- 1941 – Jody Conradt, American basketball coach
- 1941 – Ritchie Valens, American singer (d. 1959)
- 1942 – Roger Young, American television director
- 1943 – Kurt Trampedach, Danish artist
- 1943 – Mary Wells, American singer (d. 1992)
- 1944 – Armistead Maupin, American author
- 1945 – Sam Anderson, American actor
- 1945 – Magic Dick, American musician (The J. Geils Band)
- 1946 – Waneta Hoyt, American convicted serial killer (d. 1998)
- 1947 – Edgar Burcksen, Dutch film editor
- 1949 – Zoë Wanamaker, English/American actress
- 1950 – Danny Kirwan, British musician (Fleetwood Mac)
- 1950 – Manning Marable, American academic and author (d. 2011)
- 1950 – Bobby Valentine, American baseball player and manager
- 1950 – Stevie Wonder, American singer and musician
- 1951 – Sharon Sayles Belton, American politician
- 1951 – Paul Thompson, British rock drummer (Roxy Music)
- 1951 – James Whale, English radio personality
- 1952 – John Kasich, American politician and political commentator
- 1952 – Mary Walsh, Canadian comedian and actress
- 1954 – Johnny Logan, Irish singer and songwriter
- 1956 – Richard Madeley, English television presenter
- 1956 – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian spiritual figure
- 1957 – Alan Ball, American screenwriter, director, and producer
- 1957 – Andrea Klump, German Red Army Faction terrorist
- 1957 – Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II, Philippine politician
- 1957 – Koji Suzuki, Japanese writer
- 1958 – Frances Barber, British actress
- 1961 – Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor
- 1962 – Kathleen Jamie, Scottish poet
- 1962 – Paul McDermott, Australian comedian
- 1962 – Sean McDonough, American sportscaster
- 1962 – Eduardo Palomo, Mexican actor (d. 2003)
- 1963 – Wally Masur, Australian tennis player
- 1964 – Stephen Colbert, American comedian and actor
- 1964 – Ronnie Coleman, American bodybuilder
- 1964 – Tom Verica, American actor
- 1965 – José Antonio Delgado, Venezuelan mountaineer (d. 2006)
- 1965 – Tasmin Little, English violinist
- 1965 – Hikari Ota, Japanese comedian
- 1965 – Lari White, American country music singer
- 1966 – Nikos Aliagas, Greek TV show host
- 1966 – Alison Goldfrapp, English musician
- 1966 – Darius Rucker, American singer (Hootie & the Blowfish)
- 1966 – Kamen Vodenicharov, Bulgarian entertainer
- 1967 – Chuck Schuldiner, American musician (Death, Control Denied) (d. 2001)
- 1967 – Melanie Thornton, American pop singer (La Bouche) (d. 2001)
- 1968 – Miguel Ángel Blanco, Spanish politician (d. 1997)
- 1968 – PMD, American rapper
- 1969 – Buckethead, American musician
- 1971 – Tom Nalen, American football player
- 1972 – Stefaan Maene, Belgian swimmer
- 1974 – Brian Geraghty, American actor
- 1975 – Cristian Bezzi, Italian rugby player
- 1975 – Jamie Allison, Canadian professional ice hockey player
- 1976 – Mark Delaney, Welsh footballer
- 1976 – Trajan Langdon, American basketball player
- 1977 – Ilse DeLange, Dutch singer
- 1977 – Robby Hammock, American baseball player
- 1977 – Neil Hopkins, American actor
- 1977 – Samantha Morton, English actress
- 1978 – Mike Bibby, American basketball player
- 1978 – Ryan Bukvich, American baseball player
- 1978 – Steve Mildenhall, English footballer
- 1978 – Dilshan Vitharana, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1978 – Barry Zito, American baseball player
- 1979 – Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland of Sweden
- 1979 – Michael Madden, American musician (Maroon 5)
- 1980 – Chris Barker, American bassist (Anti-Flag)
- 1980 – Waka Inoue, Japanese gravure idol and actress
- 1980 – Mau Marcelo, Filipino singer
- 1981 – Sunny Leone, Canadian/American pornographic actress
- 1981 – Rebecka Liljeberg, Swedish actress
- 1981 – Jimmy Wang Yang, American professional wrestler
- 1982 – Yoko Kumada, Japanese gravure idol
- 1982 – Oguchi Onyewu, American footballer
- 1983 – Anita Görbicz, Hungarian handball player
- 1983 – Grégory Lemarchal, French singer (d. 2007)
- 1983 – Yaya Touré, Ivorian footballer
- 1984 – Benny Dayal, Indian singer
- 1985 – Jaroslav Halak, Slovak hockey player
- 1985 – Iwan Rheon, Welsh stage/television actor and singer
- 1985 – Travis Zajac, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Giuliana Marino, German glamour model
- 1986 – Robert Pattinson, English actor, musician and model
- 1986 – Alexander Rybak, Norwegian singer
- 1986 – Scott Sutter, English footballer
- 1987 – Candice Accola, American actress/singer
- 1987 – Matt Doyle, American broadway actor/singer
- 1987 – Hunter Parrish, American actor
- 1987 – Carrie Prejean, American beauty pageant contestant
- 1988 – Casey Donovan, Australian singer
- 1993 – Romelu Lukaku, Belgian footballer
- 1993 – Debby Ryan, American actress
Deaths
- 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)
- 1809 – Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, first Anglican to challenge the Church's position on slavery (b. 1731)
- 1832 – Georges Cuvier, French naturalist (b. 1769)
- 1835 – John Nash, English architect (b. 1752)
- 1866 – Nikolai Brashman, Russian mathematician (b. 1796)
- 1871 – Daniel Auber, French composer (b. 1782)
- 1878 – Joseph Henry, American scientist (b. 1797)
- 1884 – Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b. 1809)
- 1885 – Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German physician (b. 1809)
- 1901 – Leopoldo Alas y Ureña, a.k.a. "Clarín", Spanish novelist and literary critic (b. 1851)
- 1903 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b. 1864)
- 1916 – Sholom Aleichem, Russian author (b. 1859)
- 1921 – Jean Aicard, French poet and novelist (b. 1848)
- 1925 – Boris Savinkov, Russian writer and terrorist (b. 1879)
- 1926 – Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian Catholic prelate (b. 1857)
- 1930 – Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- 1937 – Ekaterina Geladze, Georgian mother of Joseph Stalin (b. 1858)
- 1938 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- 1941 – Ōnishiki Uichirō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 26th Yokozuna (b. 1891)
- 1945 – Tubby Hall, American jazz drummer (b. 1895)
- 1947 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bengali poet (b. 1926)
- 1957 – Michael Fekete, Hungarian-born Israeli mathematician (b. 1886)
- 1961 – Gary Cooper, American actor (b. 1901)
- 1962 – Henry Trendley Dean, American dental researcher (b. 1893)
- 1963 – Alois Hudal, Austrian-born Catholic bishop who assisted Nazi war criminals in escaping (b. 1885)
- 1972 – Dan Blocker, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1974 – Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican writer (b. 1902)
- 1974 – Arthur J. Burks, "million-words-a-year" pulp magazines author (b. 1898)
- 1975 – Bob Wills, American musician (b. 1905)
- 1977 – Mickey Spillane, Irish-American gangster (b. 1934)
- 1985 – Leatrice Joy, American actress (b. 1893)
- 1988 – Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1929)
- 1992 – F. E. McWilliam, Northern Irish sculptor (b. 1909)
- 1994 – Duncan Hamilton, British racing driver (b. 1920)
- 1999 – Gene Sarazen, American golfer (b. 1902)
- 2000 – Paul Bartel, American actor (b. 1938)
- 2000 – Jumbo Tsuruta, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1951)
- 2001 – Jason Miller, American playwright (b. 1939)
- 2001 – R.K. Narayan, Indian novelist (b. 1906)
- 2002 – Ruth Cracknell, Australian actress (b. 1925)
- 2002 – Clinton Davis, American artist (b. 1918)
- 2002 – Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian footballer and manager (b. 1939)
- 2005 – Eddie Barclay, French record producer (b. 1921)
- 2005 – George Dantzig, American mathematician (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Michael Ross, American serial killer (b. 1959)
- 2006 – Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American singer (b. 1949)
- 2008 – Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Sheikh of Kuwait (b. 1930)
- 2008 – Ron Stone, American television reporter (b. 1936)
- 2009 – Frank Aletter, American character actor (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Rabbi Meir Brandsdorfer, Belgian-born member of the Rabbinical Court of the Edah HaChareidis, Jerusalem (b. 1934)
- 2009 – Achille Compagnoni, Italian mountaineer (b. 1914)
- 2011 – Derek Boogaard, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1982)
- 2011 – Bruce Ricker, American jazz and blues documentarian (b. 1942)
Holidays and observances
- Abbotsbury Garland Day (Dorset, England)
- Christian Feast Day:
- One of the three feast days of the Lemuralia, observed in ancient Rome
- Rotuma Day (Fiji)
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to May 13.