On this day: January 13

Events on January 13

• 27 BC Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. Wikipedia
• 1435 Pope Eugene IV promulgated the papal bull Sicut dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the native Guanche of the Canary Islands by the Spanish. Wikipedia
• 1435 Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV. Wikipedia
• 1815 British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys, in the only battle of the War of 1812 to take place in the state of Georgia. Wikipedia
• 1815 War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. Wikipedia
• 1833 United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. Wikipedia
• 1842 First Anglo-Afghan War: William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British Army, was the sole European of the 14,000 people retreating from Kabul to Jalalabad who evaded capture or death. Wikipedia
• 1847 The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California. Wikipedia
• 1893 U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. Wikipedia
• 1898 Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair. Wikipedia
• 1900 To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter. Wikipedia
• 1942 Henry Ford patents a soybean car, which is 30% lighter than a regular car. Wikipedia
• 1963 Coup d'état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio. Wikipedia
• 1964 Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, in response to anti-Hindu riots in East Pakistan. About one hundred people are killed. Wikipedia
• 1969 British rock band Led Zeppelin released their first album, Led Zeppelin, in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1972 Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. Wikipedia
• 1982 Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. Wikipedia
• 1985 A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa. Wikipedia
• 1991 Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others. Wikipedia
• 2000 Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates as the chief executive officer of Microsoft. Wikipedia
• 2001 An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800. Wikipedia
• 2012 The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on a reef and capsized off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany. Wikipedia
• 2018 A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state. Wikipedia
• 2020 The Thai Ministry of Public Health confirms the first case of COVID-19 outside China. Wikipedia
• 2021 Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 United States Capitol attack one week prior. Wikipedia

Born on January 13

• 101 Lucius Aelius, Roman adopted son of Hadrian (died 138) Wikipedia
• 1864 Wilhelm Wien, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1928) Wikipedia
• 1866 Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian bassoon player and composer (died 1901) Wikipedia
• 1893 Chaïm Soutine, Belarusian-French painter (died 1943) Wikipedia
• 1924 Paul Feyerabend, Austrian-Swiss philosopher and academic (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1927 Sydney Brenner, South African biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1947 Carles Rexach, Spanish footballer and coach Wikipedia
• 1949 Rakesh Sharma, Indian commander, pilot, and cosmonaut Wikipedia
• 1952 Stephen Glover, English journalist, co-founded The Independent Wikipedia
• 1960 Eric Betzig, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1961 Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress, comedian, and producer Wikipedia
• 1966 Patrick Dempsey, American actor and race car driver Wikipedia
• 1969 Stephen Hendry, Scottish snooker player and journalist Wikipedia
• 1970 Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1970 Shonda Rhimes, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1976 Michael Peña, American actor Wikipedia
• 1976 Mario Yepes, Colombian footballer Wikipedia
• 1977 Orlando Bloom, English actor Wikipedia
• 1980 Akira Kaji, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1990 Liam Hemsworth, Australian actor Wikipedia
• 1995 Natalia Dyer, American actress Wikipedia
• 1997 Luis Díaz, Colombian footballer Wikipedia

Died on January 13

• 86 BC Gaius Marius, Roman general and politician (born 157 BC) Wikipedia
• 888 Charles the Fat, Frankish king and emperor (born 839) Wikipedia
• 1599 Edmund Spenser, English poet, Chief Secretary for Ireland (born 1552) Wikipedia
• 1691 George Fox, English religious leader, founded the Religious Society of Friends (born 1624) Wikipedia
• 1717 Maria Sibylla Merian, German entomologist and illustrator (born 1647) Wikipedia
• 1885 Schuyler Colfax, American journalist and politician, 17th Vice President of the United States (born 1823) Wikipedia
• 1906 Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and academic (born 1859) Wikipedia
• 1923 Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1842) Wikipedia
• 1941 James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1958 Jesse L. Lasky, American film producer, co-founded Paramount Pictures (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1978 Hubert Humphrey, American pharmacist, academic, and politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 1988 Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, President of the Republic of China (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 2012 Rauf Denktaş, Turkish-Cypriot lawyer and politician, 1st President of Northern Cyprus (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2020 Philip Tartaglia, Scottish prelate, Catholic archbishop of Glasgow (born 1951) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Blessed Veronica of Milan Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Elian Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hilary of Poitiers Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mungo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: St. Knut's Day or Tjugondag Knut, the last day of Christmas. (Sweden and Finland) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: January 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Mongolia) Wikipedia
• Democracy Day (Cape Verde) Wikipedia
• Gluten-free diet day Wikipedia
• Liberation Day (Togo) Wikipedia
• Old New Year's Eve (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska, North Macedonia), and its related observances: Malanka (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus) Wikipedia
• Sidereal winter solstice's eve celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; the last day of the six-month Dakshinayana period (see January 14): Bhogi (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu) Wikipedia
• Sidereal winter solstice's eve celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; the last day of the six-month Dakshinayana period (see January 14): Lohri (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh) Wikipedia
• Sidereal winter solstice's eve celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; the last day of the six-month Dakshinayana period (see January 14): Uruka (Assam) Wikipedia
• Stephen Foster Memorial Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Yennayer (Berbers) Wikipedia

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