May 13

May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (134th in leap
years). There are 232 days remaining.

Events

   * 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
   * 1568 - Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are
     defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart,
     Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
   * 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
   * 1779 - War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the
     Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement
     Austria receives the a part of its territory that was taken from them
     (the Inn District).
   * 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven
     ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.
   * 1830 - Ecuador gains its independence.
   * 1846 - Mexican-American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.
   * 1861 - American Civil War: Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a
     "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as
     having belligerent rights.
   * 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca - the battle begins with
     Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
   * 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch - In far south
     Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, the
     last land battle of the civil war ends with a Union victory.
   * 1880 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test
     of his electric railway.
   * 1888 - Brazil abolishes slavery.
   * 1912 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air
     Force) in established.
   * 1913 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a four engine
     aircraft.
   * 1917 - Three peasant children claim to see the Blessed Virgin Mary
     above a holmoak tree in Cova da Irianear near Fatima, Portugal.
   * 1940 - World War II: Nazi Germany's conquest of France begins as the
     German army crosses the Meuse River.
   * 1943 - World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North
     Africa surrender to Allied forces.
   * 1958 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M.
     Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
   * 1981 - Mehemet Ali Agca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II at
     St. Peter's Square in Rome.
   * 1985 - Philadelphia's mayor orders police to storm the radical group's
     MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive
     device into the headquarters killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the
     homes of 250 city residents in the resulting fire.
   * 1996 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.
   * 1998 - Following India's second round of nuclear tests the United
     States and Japan impose economic sanctions on the nation.

Births

   * 1717 - Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (+ 1780)
   * 1842 - Arthur Sullivan, composer (+ 1900)
   * 1882 - Georges Braque, painter (+ 1963)
   * 1907 - Dame Daphne du Maurier, author (+ 1989)
   * 1914 - Joe Louis, boxer (+ 1981)
   * 1923 - Bea Arthur, actress
   * 1927 - Herbert Ross, director (+ 2001)
   * 1931 - Jim Jones, cult leader (+ 1978)
   * 1934 - Adolf Muschg, author
   * 1937 - Roger Zelazny, science fiction author (+ 1995)
   * 1937 - Roch Carrier, Canadian author of fiction
   * 1939 - Harvey Keitel, actor
   * 1941 - Ritchie Valens, singer (+ 1959)
   * 1941 - Senta Berger, actress
   * 1944 - Armistead Maupin, author
   * 1945 - Magic Dick, musician ("The J. Geils Band")
   * 1950 - Stevie Wonder, singer, pianist, bassist, drummer
   * 1961 - Dennis Rodman, basketball player, actor
   * 1966 - Darius Rucker, musician ("Hootie & the Blowfish")

Deaths

   * 1884 - Cyrus McCormick, inventor
   * 1916 - Sholom Aleichem, author
   * 1930 - Fridtjof Nansen, explorer
   * 1961 - Gary Cooper, actor
   * 1972 - Dan Blocker, actor
   * 1975 - Bob Wills, country musician
   * 1988 - Willem Drees, Dutch prime-minister
   * 1999 - Gene Sarazen, golfer

Holidays and Observances

   * Roman Empire - Feast of the Lemures (See Larvae)