August 13

Events

Pre-1600

• 29 BC - Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
• 523 - John I becomes the new Pope after the death of Pope Hormisdas.
• 554 - Emperor Justinian I rewards Liberius for his service in the Pragmatic Sanction, granting him extensive estates in Italy.
• 582 - Maurice becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
• 871 - Emperor Louis II of Italy and Empress Engelberga are captured by Prince Adelchis of Benevento.
• 900 - Count Reginar I of Hainault rises against Zwentibold of Lotharingia and slays him near present-day Susteren.
• 1099 - Raniero is elected as Pope Paschal II, who would become deeply entangled in the Investiture Controversy.
• 1516 - The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
• 1521 - After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés capture Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquer the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
• 1532 - Union of Brittany and France: The Duchy of Brittany is absorbed into the Kingdom of France.
• 1536 - Buddhist monks from Kyoto, Japan's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance.
• 1553 - Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland as a heretic.

  1601–1900

• 1624 - The French king Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister.
• 1645 - Sweden and Denmark sign Peace of Brömsebro.
• 1650 - Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards.
• 1704 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim: English and Imperial forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.
• 1724 - Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, a chorale cantata on a famous tune.
• 1779 - American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• 1792 - King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.
• 1806 - Battle of Mišar during the Serbian Revolution begins. The battle ends two days later with a Serbian victory over the Ottomans.
• 1814 - The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Netherlands, is signed in London, England.
• 1868 - The 8.5–9.0 Arica earthquake struck southern Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI, causing 25,000+ deaths and a destructive basin wide tsunami that affected Hawaii and New Zealand.
• 1889 - William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut is granted United States Patent Number 408,709 for "Coin-controlled apparatus for telephones."
• 1898 - Spanish–American War: Spanish and American forces engage in a mock battle for Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands.
• 1898 - Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.
• 1900 - The steamer Deutschland of Hamburg America Lines set a new record for the eastward passage when it docked on Plymouth, England, five days, 11 hours and 45 minutes after sailing from New York, breaking by three hours, six minutes its previous mark in its maiden voyage in July.

  1901–present

• 1905 - Norwegians vote to end the union with Sweden.
• 1906 - The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged.
• 1913 - First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
• 1918 - Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha May Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
• 1918 - Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is established as a public company in Germany.
• 1920 - Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
• 1937 - Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Shanghai begins.
• 1940 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches an air operation, codenamed Adlertag, during the Battle of Britain in an attempt to destroy the British Royal Air Force.
• 1942 - Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.
• 1944 - World War II: German troops begin the pillage and razing of Anogeia in Crete that would continue until September 5.
• 1954 - Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
• 1960 - The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
• 1961 - Cold War: East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West, and construction of the Berlin Wall is started. The day is known as Barbed Wire Sunday.
• 1964 - Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West becoming the last people executed in the United Kingdom.
• 1967 - Two young women became the first fatal victims of grizzly bear attacks in the 57-year history of Montana's Glacier National Park in separate incidents.
• 1968 - Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
• 1969 - The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.
• 1973 - Aviaco Flight 118 crashes on approach to A Coruña Airport in A Coruña, Spain, killing all 85 people on the plane and one other one the ground.
• 1977 - Members of the British National Front clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.
• 1978 - One hundred fifty Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
• 1990 - A mainland Chinese fishing boat Min Ping Yu No. 5202 is hit by a Taiwanese naval vessel and sinks in a repatriation operation of mainland Chinese immigrants, resulting in 21 deaths. This is the second tragedy less than a month after Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident.
• 2004 - One hundred fifty-six Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
• 2008 - Russo-Georgian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori.
• 2014 - A Cessna Citation Excel crashes in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil killing all seven people aboard, including Brazilian Socialist Party presidential candidate Eduardo Campos.
• 2015 - At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.
• 2020 - Israel–United Arab Emirates relations are formally established.

  Births

Pre-1600

• 985 - Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph
• 1311 - Alfonso XI, king of Castile and León
• 1567 - Samuel de Champlain, French explorer
• 1584 - Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland
• 1592 - William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count, field marshal of the Dutch State Army

  1601–1900

• 1625 - Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and physicist
• 1662 - Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician, Lord President of the Council
• 1666 - William Wotton, English linguist and scholar
• 1700 - Heinrich von Brühl, Polish-German politician
• 1717 - Louis François, Prince of Conti
• 1756 - James Gillray, English caricaturist and printmaker
• 1764 - Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general
• 1790 - William Wentworth, Australian journalist, explorer, and politician
• 1803 - Vladimir Odoyevsky, Russian philosopher and critic
• 1814 - Anders Jonas Ångström, Swedish physicist and astronomer
• 1818 - Lucy Stone, American abolitionist and suffragist
• 1819 - Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet, Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist
• 1820 - George Grove, English musicologist and historian
• 1823 - Goldwin Smith, English-Canadian historian and journalist
• 1824 - John J. Robison, American politician in Michigan
• 1831 - Salomon Jadassohn, German pianist and composer
• 1841 - Johnny Mullagh, Australian cricketer
• 1842 - Charles Wells, English brewer, founded Charles Wells Ltd
• 1849 - Leonora Barry, Irish-born American social activist
• 1851 - Felix Adler, German-American religious leader and educator
• 1860 - Annie Oakley, American target shooter
• 1866 - Giovanni Agnelli, Italian businessman, founded Fiat S.p.A.
• 1867 - George Luks, American painter and illustrator
• 1871 - Karl Liebknecht, German politician, co-founded Communist Party of Germany
• 1872 - Richard Willstätter, German-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1879 - John Ireland, English composer and educator
• 1884 - Harry Dean, English cricketer and coach
• 1888 - John Logie Baird, Scottish engineer, invented the television
• 1888 - Gleb W. Derujinsky, Russian-American sculptor
• 1889 - Camillien Houde, Canadian lawyer and politician, 34th Mayor of Montreal
• 1895 - István Barta, Hungarian water polo player
• 1895 - Bert Lahr, American actor
• 1898 - Jean Borotra, French tennis player
• 1898 - Regis Toomey, American actor
• 1899 - Alfred Hitchcock, English-American director and producer
• 1899 - José Ramón Guizado, Panamanian politician, 17th President of Panama