TODAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 13

 

January 13

 

27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years.

532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I.

1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.

1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England.

1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.

1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.

1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.

1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.

1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.

1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.

1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.

1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island.

1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.

1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.

1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.

1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair.

1900 – To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces.

1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.

1915 – The 6.7 M_w  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610.

1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history.

1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.

1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

1942 – Henry Ford patents a soybean car, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.

1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1950 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.

1950 – Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins.

1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.

1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.

1963 – Coup d'état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio.

1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, in response to anti-Hindu riots in East Pakistan. About one hundred people are killed.

1964 – In Manchester, New Hampshire, fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971).

1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison.

1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

1977 – Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashes onto the runway during takeoff from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, killing five.

1978 – United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.

1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.

1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.

1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.

1988 – Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.

1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office as Governor of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others.

1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.

1993 – The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed.

1993 – Operation Southern Watch: U.S.A.F., U.S.N., R.A.F. and French Air Force jets attack AAA and SAM sites in Southern Iraq.

1998 – Alfredo Ormando sets himself on fire in St. Peter's Square, protesting against homophobia.

2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.

2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.

2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state.

2020 – The Thai Ministry of Public Health confirms the first case of COVID-19 outside China.

2021 – Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 United States Capitol attack one week prior.