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On this day: December 13

December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years), with 18 days left until the end of the year.

 

Events on December 13

  • 1294 Saint Celestine V resigned the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit. Wikipedia
  • 1294 Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit. Wikipedia
  • 1577 Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage. Wikipedia
  • 1577 Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage. Wikipedia
  • 1642 Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New Zealand. Wikipedia
  • 1809 Napoleonic Wars: While transporting supplies to Guadeloupe, French commodore François Wikipedia
  • 1818 Cyril VI of Constantinople resigns from his position as Ecumenical Patriarch under pressure from the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
  • 1862 American Civil War: Union forces under Ambrose Burnside suffered severe casualties against entrenched Confederate defenders at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia. Wikipedia
  • 1862 American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee repulses attacks by Union Major General Ambrose Burnside on Marye's Heights, inflicting heavy casualties. Wikipedia
  • 1928 An American in Paris, a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by George Gershwin, premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York. Wikipedia
  • 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces, capturing the Chinese city of Nanjing, began committing numerous atrocities over the next several weeks, including looting, rape and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. Wikipedia
  • 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. Wikipedia
  • 1938 The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany. Wikipedia
  • 1939 The Battle of the River Plate is fought off the coast of Uruguay; the first naval battle of World War II. The Kriegsmarine's Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with three Royal Navy cruisers: HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and HMS Exeter. Wikipedia
  • 1949 The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Wikipedia
  • 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. Wikipedia
  • 1962 NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit. Wikipedia
  • 1974 Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. Wikipedia
  • 1974 In the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese forces launch their 1975 Spring Offensive (to 30 April 1975), which results in the final capitulation of South Vietnam. Wikipedia
  • 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. Wikipedia
  • 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. Wikipedia
  • 1995 Banat Air Flight 166 crashes in Sommacampagna near Verona Villafranca Airport in Verona, Italy, killing 49. Wikipedia
  • 2002 European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members on May 1, 2004. Wikipedia
  • 2003 Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit. Wikipedia
  • 2011 A man threw grenades and fired a rifle at crowds in Liège, Belgium, causing 6 deaths and injuring more than 120 others, before killing himself. Wikipedia
  • 2013 Beyoncé released her fifth studio album without any prior announcement or promotion; it sold 2.3 million copies before the end of the year. Wikipedia

Born on December 13

  • 1363 Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris (died 1429) Wikipedia
  • 1521 Pope Sixtus V (died 1590) Wikipedia
  • 1553 Henry IV of France (died 1610) Wikipedia
  • 1560 Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, 2nd Prime Minister of France (died 1641) Wikipedia
  • 1797 Heinrich Heine, German journalist, poet, and critic (died 1856) Wikipedia
  • 1816 Werner von Siemens, German engineer and businessman, founded Siemens (died 1892) Wikipedia
  • 1818 Mary Todd Lincoln, 16th First Lady of the United States (died 1882) Wikipedia
  • 1887 Alvin C. York, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1964) Wikipedia
  • 1887 George Pólya, Hungarian-American mathematician and academic (died 1985) Wikipedia
  • 1901 Olev Roomet, Estonian singer, violinist, and bagpipe player (died 1987) Wikipedia
  • 1902 Talcott Parsons, American sociologist and academic (died 1979) Wikipedia
  • 1911 Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999) Wikipedia
  • 1920 George P. Shultz, American economist and politician, 60th United States Secretary of State (died 2021) Wikipedia
  • 1923 Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) Wikipedia
  • 1929 Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor and producer (died 2021) Wikipedia
  • 1931 Ida Vos, Dutch Jewish author of books for children and adults (died 2006)[citation needed] Wikipedia
  • 1953 Ben Bernanke, American economist Wikipedia
  • 1957 Steve Buscemi, American actor and director Wikipedia
  • 1967 Jamie Foxx, American actor, singer, songwriter, producer, and comedian Wikipedia
  • 1981 Amy Lee, American singer, songwriter and pianist Wikipedia
  • 1984 Santi Cazorla, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
  • 1989 Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia

Died on December 13

  • 1124 Pope Callixtus II (born 1065) Wikipedia
  • 1204 Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (born 1135) Wikipedia
  • 1250 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1194) Wikipedia
  • 1466 Donatello, Italian painter and sculptor (born 1386) Wikipedia
  • 1671 Antonio Grassi, Italian Roman Catholic priest(born 1592) Wikipedia
  • 1784 Samuel Johnson, English poet and lexicographer (born 1709) Wikipedia
  • 1929 Rosina Heikel, Finnish physician (born 1842) Wikipedia
  • 1930 Fritz Pregl, Slovenian-Austrian chemist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869) Wikipedia
  • 1931 Gustave Le Bon, French psychologist, sociologist, and anthropologist (born 1840) Wikipedia
  • 1935 Victor Grignard, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1871) Wikipedia
  • 1944 Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-French painter and theorist (born 1866) Wikipedia
  • 1947 Nicholas Roerich, Russian archaeologist, painter, and philosopher (born 1874) Wikipedia
  • 1955 Egas Moniz, Portuguese psychiatrist and neurosurgeon, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874) Wikipedia
  • 2018 Noah Klieger, Holocaust survivor who became an award-winning Israeli journalist (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 13” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.