What Happened on October 13th in History
30 historical events on this date
War of 1812: Sir Isaac Brock's British and native forces repel an invasion of Canada by General Rensselaer's United States forces.
The Battle of Queenston Heights was the first major engagement of the War of 1812. The battle took place on 13 October 1812, at Queenston in Upper Canada and was a decisive British victory. United...
The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is publicly proclaimed.
The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is the document by which Mexico declared independence from Spain's Spanish Empire. This founding document of the Mexican nation was drafted in...
In New York City, B'nai B'rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is founded.
B'nai B'rith International is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish service organization and was formerly a cultural association for German Jewish immigrants to the United States. B’nai B’rith...
First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends.
The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and the Southern Levant toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from the...
The Georgia Institute of Technology is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the largest student enrollment of the...
Edward Emerson Barnard is first to discover a comet by photographic means.
206P/Barnard–Boattini was the first comet to be discovered by photographic means. First observed by Edward Emerson Barnard in 1892, it was subsequently lost for 116 years until it was rediscovered...
The Boston Red Sox win the first modern World Series, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth game.
The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. It matched the American League (AL) champion Boston Americans against the National League (NL) champion...
Margaret Travers Symons bursts into the UK parliament and becomes the first woman to speak there.
Margaret Ann Travers Symons was a British suffragette. On 13 October 1908, she became the first woman to speak in the House of Commons when she broke away from her escort into the debating chamber...
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, becomes the first Governor General of Canada of royal descent.
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He served as Governor General...
First World War: The Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt marks the end of the Battle of Loos.
The Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt took place on the Western Front in World War I from 13 to 19 October 1915, at the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Auchy-les-Mines in France. In the aftermath of the...
The "Miracle of the Sun" is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Portugal.
The Miracle of the Sun, also known as the Miracle of Fátima, is a series of events reported to have occurred miraculously on 13 October 1917, attended by a large crowd who had gathered in Fátima,...
Soviet republics sign the Treaty of Kars to formalize the borders between Turkey and the South Caucasus states.
The Treaty of Kars was a treaty that established the borders between Turkey and the three Transcaucasian Soviet republics, which are now the independent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan....
Ankara becomes the capital of Turkey.
Ankara is the capital city of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of over 5.3 million residents in its urban center, out of 6 million residents in Ankara...
World War II: Marshal Pietro Badoglio announces that Italy has officially declared war on Germany.
Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino, was an Italian general during both world wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regime,...
World War II: The Soviet Riga Offensive captures the city.
The Riga offensive was part of the larger Baltic offensive on the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place late in 1944, and drove German forces from the city of Riga.
France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
A constitutional referendum was held in France on 13 October 1946. Voters were asked whether they approved of a new constitution proposed by the Constituent Assembly elected in June. Unlike the May...
The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Category 3 hurricane, with winds above 150 mph. Forty-six people die.
The Columbus Day storm of 1962 was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, 1962. Typhoon Freda was the...
Aeroflot Flight 217 crashes outside Moscow, killing 174.
Aeroflot Flight 217 was a non-scheduled international passenger flight from Orly Airport in Paris to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, with a stopover at Shosseynaya Airport in...
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains. Twenty-eight survive the crash. All but 16 succumb before rescue on December 23.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina on 13 October 1972. The...
The flag of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, was officially adopted.
The flag of Okinawa Prefecture is a white field charged in the center with the prefectural emblem, which consists of three circles stacked on top of each other. The two inner circles are positioned...
The first electron micrograph of an Ebola virus is taken at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Dr. F. A. Murphy.
A micrograph is an image, captured photographically or digitally, taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an object. This is opposed to a macrograph or...
A Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano Boeing 707 crashes after takeoff from El Trompillo Airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, killing 91.
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB), internationally known as LAB Bolivian Airlines, was the flag carrier and principal airline of Bolivia for much of the 20th century. It was founded on 15 September 1925...
Hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner named Landshut, was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma...
Ameritech Mobile Communications launches the first US cellular network in Chicago.
Ameritech Mobile Communications, LLC was the first telecommunications company in the U.S. to provide cellular mobile phone service to the general public. Cell service became publicly available in...
Syrian forces attack free areas of Lebanon, removing General Michel Aoun from the presidential palace.
Michel Naim Aoun is a Lebanese politician and former general who served as the 13th president of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 to 30 October 2022.
At least 60 people die in eastern Papua New Guinea when a series of earthquakes rock the Finisterre Range, triggering massive landslides.
The 1993 Finisterre Range earthquakes began on October 13 with a Mw 6.9 mainshock, followed by Mw 6.5 and 6.7 earthquakes. These earthquakes struck beneath the Finisterre Range, north of Markham...
The mining accident in Copiapó, Chile ends as all 33 trapped miners arrive at the surface after a record 69 days underground.
A mining accident began on 5 August 2010 with a cave-in at the San José copper–gold mine in the Atacama Desert, 45 kilometers (28 mi) north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern Chile....
A stampede occurs in India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 and injuring more than 110.
On 13 October 2013, during the Hindu festival of Navratri, a stampede broke out on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India, killing 115 people and injuring...
The Maldives announces its decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an archipelagic country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean, near the southeastern...
Kenyan Brigid Kosgei sets a new world record for a woman runner with a time of 2:14:04 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon.
Brigid Jepchirchir Kosgei is a Kenyan long-distance runner who specialises in the marathon. She won the 2018 and 2019 Chicago Marathons, the 2019 and 2020 London Marathons and the 2021 and 2026...