| December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 18 days remaining.
Events
- 1545 - Council of Trent
begins
- 1577 - sr. Francis Drake sets
out from Plymouth, on his round-the-world voyage
- 1642 - Abel Janszoon
Tasman reaches New Zealand
- 1643 - The Battle of Alton
during the English Civil War
- 1862 - The Confederates win the Battle of Fredericksburg in the American Civil War.
- 1937 - Battle of
Nanjing concludes with the Japanese victory and the fall of the city which became
the site of the Nanjing Massacre
- 1938 - 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen built the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg
- 1939 - The Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval battle of World War II, began.
- 1949 - The Knesset votes to move the
capital of Israel to Jerusalem
- 1959 - Archbishop
Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus
- 1972 - A chartered Spanish airliner crashes on takeoff from the Canary Islands, killing 155
- 1974 - Malta becomes a republic
- 1977 - A United States government DC-3 crashes after takeoff at Evansville, Indiana, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team
- 1978 - First Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation
- 1981 - General Wojciech
Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland
- 1996 - Kofi Annan elected as
Secretary-General of the United Nations.
- 2000 - The Texas 7 escape from a Texas prison and go on a crime spree.
- 2001 - Parliament of
India attacked by armed militants. Attempt foiled.
- 2002 - The European Union
announces the addition of ten new members in Copenhagen: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta,
Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The countries' membership became effective May 1, 2004.
- 2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
- 2004 - A moderate 5,4 Richter
Scale earthquake is felt all over Portugal, with its epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of São Vicente's Cape (Algarve),
with no losses reported.
- 2004 - Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house-arrest,
after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter during the Operation Condor. The same day, the house-arrest is lifted by efforts of an appeal presented by Pinochet's lawyers.
- 2004 - Scott Peterson was sentenced to the death penalty in the murder case of his wife, Laci
Peterson, and unborn son, Connor.
Births
- 1521 - Pope Sixtus V, religious
leader (d. 1590)
- 1533 - King Eric XIV of
Sweden (d. 1577)
- 1553 - King Henry IV of
France (d. 1610)
- 1797 - Heinrich Heine, poet
(d. 1856)
- 1798 - Joseph Walker,
explorer
- 1813 - David
Spangler Kaufman, American politician, first Jewish Congressman from Texas (d. 1851)
- 1816 - Werner von
Siemens, engineer, inventor and industrialist (d. 1892)
- 1818 - Mary Todd
Lincoln, First Lady of the United
States (d. 1882)
- 1829 - Hugo von Ziemssen, physicist (d. 1902)
- 1836 - Franz von
Lenbach, painter (d. 1904)
- 1854 - Thomas Watson, telephone pioneer
- 1864 - Emil Seidel, politician,
mayor of Milwaukee, Socialist vice-presidential candidate (d. 1947)
- 1874 - Josef Lhévinne,
pianist (d. 1944)
- 1887 - George Polya,
mathematician (d. 1985)
- 1887 - Alvin York, U.S. soldier of
World War I, known as 'Sergeant York' (d. 1964)
- 1897 - Drew Pearson, journalist,
political columnist (d. 1969)
- 1903 - Carlos Montoya,
guitarist (d. 1993)
- 1906 - Her Royal Highness Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (d. 1968)
- 1906 - Laurens van
der Post, South African author (d. 1996)
- 1910 - Van Heflin, actor (d. 1971)
- 1911 - Kenneth Patchen,
American poet and painter (d. 1972)
- 1913 - Archie Moore, world
champion boxer (d. 1998)
- 1915 - Curd Jürgens, actor (d.
1982)
- 1915 - Ross Macdonald, author
(d. 1983)
- 1923 - Larry Doby, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2003)
- 1925 - Dick Van Dyke, actor,
comedian
- 1926 - George Rhoden, Jamaican
athlete
- 1927 - Christopher
Plummer, actor
- 1934 - Richard D.
Zanuck, American motion picture producer
- 1943 - Ferguson Jenkins,
Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1948 - Ted Nugent, musician
- 1948 - Brian Wilson (politician)
- 1950 - Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa
- 1953 - Bob Gainey, Hockey Hall of Famer
- 1957 - Steve Buscemi,
actor
- 1957 - Jean-Marie
Messier, French businessman
- 1958 - Lynn-Holly
Johnson U.S Figure Skater and actress For Your Eyes
Only
- 1961 - Harry
Gregson-Williams, film composer
- 1967 - Jamie Foxx, actor
- 1974 - Nicholas
McCarthy, guitarist Franz Ferdinand (band)
- 1975 - Tom Delonge Guitarist -
blink-182
- 1981 - Amy Lee, Evanescence frontwoman
- 1981 - Arielle Zibrak,
musical genius
- 1987 - Danielle Pridgen, Christian
Deaths
- 1124 - Pope Callixtus
II
- 1204 - Maimonides, sephardi philosopher (b. 1135)
- 1250 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1194)
- 1312 or 1313 - John Parricida of Habsburg (b. 1290)
- 1565 - Konrad von
Gesner, naturalist (b. 1516)
- 1784 - Samuel Johnson,
essayist
- 1881 - August Senoa, Croat writer (b. 1838)
- 1944 - Wassily
Kandinsky, artist (b. 1866)
- 1961 - Grandma Moses, artist
(b. 1860)
- 2001 - Leonardo Mondadori, publisher
- 2001 - Chuck Schuldiner,
musician
- 2002 - Zal Yanofsky, member of
Lovin' Spoonful music group
- 2003 - William V.
Roth, Jr., United States Senator from Delaware
- 2004 - David Wheeler, Computer
Scientist (b. 1927)
- 2004 - Andre Rodgers, Major League Baseball player (b. 1934)
- 2004 - Alex Soria, guitarist for the
Nils (b. 1965)
Holidays and observances
External links
December 12 - December
14 - November 13 - January
13 -- listing of all days
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