April 13
Events
Pre-1600
- 1111 - Henry V, King of Germany, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1175 - Saladin routs his Muslim opponents, the Zengids, in the battle of the Horns of Hama, consolidating his control over Syria except for Aleppo.
- 1204 - Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
- 1455 - Thirteen Years' War: the beginning of the Battle for Kneiphof.
1601–1900
- 1612 - Samurai Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō in a duel at Funajima island.
- 1613 - Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.
- 1699 - The Sikh religion is formalised as the Khalsa - the brotherhood of Warrior-Saintsby Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
- 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
- 1777 - American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.
- 1829 - The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
- 1849 - Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Union forces surrender Fort Sumter to Confederate forces.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union forces.
- 1870 - The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
- 1873 - The Colfax massacre: More than 60 to 150 black men are murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1901–present
- 1909 - The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
- 1919 - Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer kill approximately 379–1,000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India; and approximately 1,500 injured.
- 1924 - A.E.K., a major Greek multi-sport club, is established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople.
- 1941 - A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
- 1943 - World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
- 1943 - The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.
- 1945 - World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna.
- 1948 - In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.
- 1953 - CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.
- 1960 - The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.
- 1964 - At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American man to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
- 1970 - At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module while en route to the Moon.
- 1972 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
- 1972 - Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.
- 1975 - An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
- 1976 - The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.
- 1976 - Forty workers die in the Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion, the deadliest industrial accident in modern Finnish history.
- 1996 - Two women and four children are killed after Israeli helicopter fired rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon.
- 1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
- 2006 - The United Front for Democratic Change's attack on the Chadian capital of N'Djamena is repelled by the Chadian army
- 2009 - A fire destroys a homeless hostel and kills at least 22 people in Kamień Pomorski, Poland.
- 2013 - Salam Fayyad resigns as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority following an ongoing dispute with the President Mahmoud Abbas.
- 2014 - Three people are killed in a shooting in Overland Park, Kansas.
- 2023 - The house of Jack Teixeira is raided in an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents; he is arrested on the same day.
- 2024 - Six people and the perpetrator are killed and twelve others injured in a mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney, Australia.
- 2025 - Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament, becoming just the sixth person to complete the Grand Slam in golf.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1229 - Louis II, Duke of Bavaria
- 1350 - Margaret III, Countess of Flanders
- 1506 - Peter Faber, French priest and theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus
- 1519 - Catherine de' Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France
- 1570 - Guy Fawkes, English soldier, member of the Gunpowder Plot
- 1573 - Christina of Holstein-Gottorp
- 1593 - Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1601–1900
- 1618 - Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author
- 1636 - Hendrik van Rheede, Dutch botanist
- 1648 - Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic
- 1713 - Pierre Jélyotte, French tenor
- 1729 - Thomas Percy, Irish bishop and poet
- 1732 - Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain
- 1735 - Isaac Low, American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce
- 1743 - Thomas Jefferson, American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States
- 1747 - Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
- 1764 - Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French general and politician, French Minister of War
- 1769 - Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator
- 1771 - Richard Trevithick, Cornish-English engineer and explorer
- 1780 - Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer, invented the Screw-pile lighthouse
- 1784 - Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal
- 1787 - John Robertson, American lawyer and politician
- 1794 - Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist and academic
- 1802 - Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist and herpetologist
- 1808 - Antonio Meucci, Italian-American engineer
- 1810 - Félicien David, French composer
- 1824 - William Alexander, Irish archbishop, poet, and theologian
- 1825 - Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and politician
- 1828 - Josephine Butler, English feminist and social reformer
- 1828 - Joseph Lightfoot, English bishop and theologian
- 1832 - Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorian author and diplomat
- 1841 - Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic
- 1850 - Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, Irish astronomer
- 1851 - Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist
- 1851 - William Quan Judge, Irish occultist and theosophist
- 1852 - Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, founded the F. W. Woolworth Company
- 1854 - Lucy Craft Laney, American founder of the Haines Normal and Industrial School, Augusta, Georgia
- 1856 - Urania Marquard Olsen, Danish-Norwegian actress and theatre director
- 1857 - Fanny Ingvoldstad, Norwegian painter
- 1860 - James Ensor, English-Belgian painter, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism
- 1865 - Lucie Lagerbielke, Swedish writer and painter.
- 1866 - Butch Cassidy, American criminal
- 1872 - John Cameron, Scottish international footballer and manager
- 1872 - Alexander Roda Roda, Austrian-Croatian journalist and author
- 1873 - John W. Davis, American lawyer and politician, 14th United States Solicitor General
- 1875 - Ray Lyman Wilbur, American physician, academic, and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Interior
- 1879 - Edward Bruce, American lawyer and painter
- 1879 - Oswald Bruce Cooper, American type designer, lettering artist, graphic designer, and educator
- 1880 - Charles Christie, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded the Christie Film Company
- 1885 - Vean Gregg, American baseball player
- 1885 - Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician, Head of State of Estonia
- 1885 - György Lukács, Hungarian philosopher and critic
- 1885 - Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, Dutch politician
- 1887 - Gordon S. Fahrni, Canadian physician and golfer
- 1889 - Herbert Yardley, American cryptologist and author
- 1890 - Frank Murphy, American jurist and politician, 56th United States Attorney General
- 1890 - Dadasaheb Torne, Indian director and producer
- 1891 - Maurice Buckley, Australian sergeant, Victoria Cross recipient
- 1891 - Nella Larsen, Danish/African-American nurse, librarian, and author
- 1891 - Robert Scholl, German accountant and politician
- 1892 - Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, English air marshal
- 1892 - Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish engineer, invented Radar
- 1894 - Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia
- 1894 - May Brodney, Australian labour activist
- 1896 - Fred Barnett, English footballer
- 1897 - Werner Voss, German lieutenant and pilot
- 1899 - Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and game designer, created Scrabble
- 1899 - Harold Osborn, American high jumper and decathlete
- 1900 - Sorcha Boru, American potter and ceramic sculptor
- 1900 - Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer