On this day: June 13

Events on June 13

• 313 The decisions of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, are published in Nicomedia. Wikipedia
• 1325 Ibn Battuta begins his travels, leaving his home in Tangiers to travel to Mecca (gone 24 years). Wikipedia
• 1381 In England, the Peasants' Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, comes to a head, as rebels set fire to the Savoy Palace. Wikipedia
• 1514 Henry Grace à Dieu, the largest warship ever built at the time, was launched from Woolwich Dockyard, England. Wikipedia
• 1525 Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, beginning the practice of clerical marriage in Protestantism. Wikipedia
• 1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition: Meriwether Lewis became the first white American to sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River. Wikipedia
• 1850 The American League of Colored Laborers, one of the first labor unions for African Americans, was established in New York City. Wikipedia
• 1878 Start of the Congress of Berlin in which the major powers of Europe revise the Treaty of San Stefano, signed on March 3 the same year, that Russia had imposed on a defeated Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1881 The Jeannette expedition to reach the North Pole from the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait came to an end when the USS Jeannette, after having been trapped in ice for almost two years, was crushed and sank. Wikipedia
• 1893 Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death. Wikipedia
• 1907 The Workers' Federation of Chile declares a general strike in solidarity with an ongoing rail workers' strike. Wikipedia
• 1916 World War I: The Battle of Mont Sorrel in the Ypres Salient came to an end as a Canadian assault led German forces to withdraw to their original lines. Wikipedia
• 1935 In one of the biggest upsets in championship boxing, the underdog James J. Braddock defeated Max Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Wikipedia
• 1944 Second World War: At the Battle of Villers-Bocage, German tank commander Michael Wittmann destroyed around 30 Allied vehicles in less than 15 minutes. Wikipedia
• 1952 Soviet aircraft shot down a Swedish military plane carrying out signals-intelligence gathering operations, followed three days later by the shootdown of a second plane searching for the first one. Wikipedia
• 1969 Preston Smith, Governor of Texas, signed a law converting a research arm of Texas Instruments into the University of Texas at Dallas. Wikipedia
• 1970 "The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' twentieth and final number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Wikipedia
• 1971 The New York Times published the first excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in the Vietnam War. Wikipedia
• 1981 English teenager Marcus Sarjeant fired six blanks at Queen Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony. Wikipedia
• 1982 Battles of Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge, during the Falklands War. Wikipedia
• 1983 Pioneer 10 passed the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to leave the proximity of the major planets of the Solar System. Wikipedia
• 2005 The jury acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of all charges for allegedly sexually abusing a child in 2003. Wikipedia
• 2007 Insurgents carried out a second bombing at the al-Askari Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. Wikipedia
• 2011 A 6.0 Mw earthquake caused up to NZ$6 billion of additional damage to Christchurch, New Zealand, which was still recovering from an earthquake four months earlier. Wikipedia
• 2013 Some of the closest advisors and collaborators of Czech prime minister Petr Nečas were arrested for corruption. Wikipedia
• 2025 Israel initiates air strikes against Iran, initiating the Twelve Day War. Wikipedia

Born on June 13

• 40 Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman general (died 93) Wikipedia
• 823 Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor (died 877) Wikipedia
• 839 Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor (died 888) Wikipedia
• 1773 Thomas Young, English physicist and physiologist (died 1829) Wikipedia
• 1831 James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist and mathematician (died 1879) Wikipedia
• 1865 W. B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1939) Wikipedia
• 1870 Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1888 Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet and critic (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1897 Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner and coach (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1911 Luis Walter Alvarez, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1928 John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1943 Malcolm McDowell, English actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1944 Ban Ki-moon, South Korean politician and diplomat, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations Wikipedia
• 1951 Stellan Skarsgård, Swedish actor Wikipedia
• 1953 Tim Allen, American actor, comedian, and producer Wikipedia
• 1954 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian economist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Nigeria Wikipedia
• 1959 Klaus Iohannis, Romanian educator and politician, 5th President of Romania Wikipedia
• 1959 Boyko Borissov, Bulgarian footballer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Bulgaria Wikipedia
• 1966 Grigori Perelman, Russian mathematician Wikipedia
• 1981 Chris Evans, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1986 Keisuke Honda, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Måns Zelmerlöw, Swedish singer Wikipedia

Died on June 13

• 1231 Anthony of Padua, Portuguese priest and saint (born 1195) Wikipedia
• 1645 Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese samurai (born 1584) Wikipedia
• 1861 Henry Gray, English anatomist and surgeon (born 1827) Wikipedia
• 1886 Ludwig II, king of Bavaria (born 1845) Wikipedia
• 1918 Michael Alexandrovich, Russian Grand Duke (born 1878) Wikipedia
• 1931 Kitasato Shibasaburō, Japanese medical doctor and bacteriologist (born 1851) Wikipedia
• 1948 Osamu Dazai, Japanese author (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 1965 Martin Buber, Austrian-Israeli philosopher and theologian (born 1878) Wikipedia
• 1972 Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1986 Benny Goodman, American clarinet player, songwriter and bandleader (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 1987 Geraldine Page, American actress (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2012 Roger Garaudy, French philosopher and author (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2021 Ned Beatty, American actor (born 1937) Wikipedia
• 2023 Cormac McCarthy, American author (born 1933) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aquilina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cetteus (Peregrinus) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eulogius of Alexandria Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Felicula Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: G. K. Chesterton (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gerard of Clairvaux Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Marianna Biernacka Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Psalmodius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ragnebert (Rambert)
• Christian feast day: Blessed Thomas Woodhouse Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Triphyllius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: June 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Inventors' Day (Hungary) Wikipedia
• Suleimaniah City Fallen and Martyrs Day (Iraqi Kurdistan) Wikipedia
• International Albinism Awareness Day (international) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “June 13” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/June 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 “June 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 June 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.