On this day: February 13

Events on February 13

• 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
• 1322 The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th–13th. Wikipedia
• 1542 Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery. Wikipedia
• 1633 Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition. Wikipedia
• 1660 The four-year-old Charles XI became King of Sweden upon his father's death. Wikipedia
• 1689 William III and Mary II are proclaimed co-rulers of England. Wikipedia
• 1692 Members of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands were massacred, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II. Wikipedia
• 1867 Work began on the covering of the Senne, burying the polluted main river of Brussels to allow for urban renewal in the centre of the city. Wikipedia
• 1880 Thomas Edison observes thermionic emission. Wikipedia
• 1891 Frances Coles was killed in the last of eleven unsolved murders of women that took place in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London. 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
• 1945 World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army. 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 at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of a nonviolent direct-action campaign to end racial segregation in the U.S. Wikipedia
• 1961 Geode prospectors near Olancha, California, discovered what they claimed to be a 500,000-year-old rock with a 1920s-era spark plug encased within. Wikipedia
• 1975 Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York. Wikipedia
• 1981 Explosions caused by the ignition of hexane vapors destroyed more than 13 miles (21 km) of sewer lines in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Wikipedia
• 1984 Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 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
• 2010 A terrorist bombing at a bakery popular among foreigners in Pune, India, killed 17 people and injured 60 others. Wikipedia
• 2012 The first Vega rocket was launched by the European Space Agency from the Guiana Space Centre. 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
• 2021 Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial. Wikipedia

Born on February 13

• 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
• 1835 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader (died 1908) 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
• 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
• 1923 Chuck Yeager, American general and pilot; first test pilot to break the sound barrier (died 2020) 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
• 1960 Pierluigi Collina, Italian footballer and referee Wikipedia
• 1974 Robbie Williams, English singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1979 Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian mass murderer Wikipedia
• 1979 Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer Wikipedia
• 1979 Mena Suvari, American actress and fashion designer Wikipedia
• 1994 Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer Wikipedia

Died on February 13

• 858 Kenneth MacAlpin, Scottish king (probable; b. 810) 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
• 1662 Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia (born 1596) Wikipedia
• 1787 Roger Joseph Boscovich, Croatian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (born 1711) Wikipedia
• 1883 Richard Wagner, German composer (born 1813) Wikipedia
• 1964 Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish footballer and manager (born 1896) Wikipedia
• 1996 Martin Balsam, American actor (born 1919) 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
• 2018 Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, French-born Danish royal (born 1934) 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “February 13” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/February 13” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

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 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for February 13 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.