On this day: February 13

Events on February 13

• 962 Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope John XII co-sign the Diploma Ottonianum, recognising John as ruler of Rome. Wikipedia
• 1258 Siege of Baghdad: Hulegu Khan, a prince of the Mongol Empire, orders his army to sack and plunder the city of Baghdad, which they had just captured. Wikipedia
• 1633 Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition. Wikipedia
• 1820 The Assassination of the Duke of Berry takes place in Paris. The Duke of Berry, nephew of Louis XVIII, is stabbed to death while attending the Paris Opera. Wikipedia
• 1880 Thomas Edison observes thermionic emission. Wikipedia
• 1913 The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiates a period of almost four decades of independence. Wikipedia
• 1931 The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi. Wikipedia
• 1935 A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. Wikipedia
• 1955 Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls. Wikipedia
• 1960 African-American college students staged the first of the Nashville sit-ins (sign at protest pictured) at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of a nonviolent direct-action campaign to end racial segregation in the U.S. Wikipedia
• 1967 American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain. Wikipedia
• 1975 Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York. Wikipedia
• 1983 A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people. Wikipedia
• 1987 Federal agents began to issue indictments against county-level supervisors in Mississippi after Operation Pretense exposed massive corruption in the state's local governments. Wikipedia
• 1991 Gulf War: The United States Air Force dropped two laser-guided "smart bombs" on an air-raid shelter in Baghdad, Iraq, which was believed to be a military command site, killing at least 408 civilians. Wikipedia
• 1991 Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed. Wikipedia
• 2001 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 315. Wikipedia
• 2004 The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Wikipedia
• 2007 Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. Wikipedia
• 2010 A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more. Wikipedia
• 2017 Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was assassinated using VX nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Wikipedia
• 2017 Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Wikipedia
• 2021 A major winter storm causes blackouts and kills at least 82 people in Texas and northern Mexico. Wikipedia
• 2021 Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial. Wikipedia

Born on February 13

• 1457 Mary of Burgundy, Sovereign Duchess regnant of Burgundy, married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1482) Wikipedia
• 1599 Pope Alexander VII (died 1667) Wikipedia
• 1766 Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and scholar (died 1834) Wikipedia
• 1769 Ivan Krylov, Russian author, poet, and playwright (died 1844) Wikipedia
• 1805 Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (died 1859) Wikipedia
• 1834 Heinrich Caro, Sephardic Jewish Polish-German chemist and academic (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1855 Paul Deschanel, Belgian-French politician, 11th President of France (died 1922) Wikipedia
• 1873 Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1879 Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (died 1949) Wikipedia
• 1885 Bess Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1892 Robert H. Jackson, American politician, 57th United States Attorney General, Nuremberg prosecutor, and Supreme Court justice (died 1954) Wikipedia
• 1903 Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1910 William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1913 Khalid of Saudi Arabia (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1915 Aung San, Burmese general and politician, 5th Premier of British Crown Colony of Burma (died 1947) Wikipedia
• 1933 Paul Biya, Cameroon politician, 2nd President of Cameroon Wikipedia
• 1933 Kim Novak, American actress Wikipedia
• 1950 Peter Gabriel, English singer-songwriter and musician Wikipedia
• 1974 Robbie Williams, English singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1979 Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian mass murderer Wikipedia
• 1979 Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer Wikipedia
• 1994 Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer Wikipedia

Died on February 13

• 106 Emperor He of Han (Han Hedi) of the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty (born AD 79) Wikipedia
• 858 Kenneth MacAlpin, Scottish king (probable; b. 810) Wikipedia
• 936 Xiao Wen, empress of the Liao dynasty Wikipedia
• 1130 Honorius II, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1060) Wikipedia
• 1332 Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (born 1259) Wikipedia
• 1542 Catherine Howard, Queen Consort of England and English wife of King Henry VIII (executed; b. 1521) Wikipedia
• 1571 Benvenuto Cellini, Italian painter and sculptor (born 1500) Wikipedia
• 1660 Charles X Gustav, king of Sweden (born 1622) Wikipedia
• 1787 Roger Joseph Boscovich, Croatian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (born 1711) Wikipedia
• 1883 Richard Wagner, German composer (born 1813) Wikipedia
• 1942 Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian lawyer, judge, and politician, 11th President of Brazil (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1967 Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 2016 Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 2017 Kim Jong-nam, North Korean politician (born 1971) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Black Love Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (Myanmar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Absalom Jones (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Agostina Camozzi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Benignus of Todi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Agabus (for catholics) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Castor of Karden Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dyfnog Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ermenilda of Ely Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fulcran Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jordan of Saxony Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paul Liu Hanzuo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: February 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• World Radio Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 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.