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 - Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage
• 1642 - Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand.
• 1643 - English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
• 1862 - American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Army of Northern Virginia under Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Army of the Potomac under Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.
• 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 build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg
• 1939 - The Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval battle of World War II, begins.
• 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 - The 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 is 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, German poet (d. 1856)
• 1798 - Joseph Walker, explorer
• 1813 - David Spangler Kaufman, American politician, first Jewish Congressman from Texas (d. 1851)
• 1816 - Werner von Siemens, German 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

Deaths

• 1048 - Al-Biruni, Persian mathematician (b. 973)
• 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

• Republic Day in Malta (1974)
• Catholicism - Saint Lucy's day.
• In the Irish calendar the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following the Feast of Saint Lucy were observed as Quarter tense.
• St. Lucia Day in Sweden

External links

• BBC: On This Day

December 12 - December 14 - November 13 - January 13 -- listing of all days