January 13: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – January 13 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 13th Jan 1404: The English Parliament passed the Act of Multipliers. The act forbids alchemists to use their knowledge to create precious metals. It was feared that should the alchemist succeed in doing so it would bring ruin to the state.
2. 13th Jan 1607: After the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, The Bank of Genoa fails.
3. 13th Jan 1610: Astronomer and Physicist Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, the fourth satellite of Jupiter.
4. 13th Jan 1620: On this day letters of Patent were issued to Plymouth Colony.
18th Century – What Happened on January 13 – The 1700s
5. 13th Jan 1785: The first issue of the London Times was published by John Walter.
6. 13th Jan 1794: The US flag was changed by the Congress. It now has 15 stars and 15 strips.
19th Century – January 13 This Day That Year – The 1800s
7. 13th Jan 1822: The First National Assembly at Epidaurus adopts the design of the Greek flag.
8. 13th Jan 1830: There was a great fire in New Orleans. It was thought to be set by rebel slaves.
9. 13th Jan 1840: On this day 139 people lost their lives when steamship Lexington caught fire and sank four miles off the coast of Long Island.
10. 13th Jan 1842: Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon of the British Army during the Anglo-Afghan War, returned to the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad as a lone survivor.
11. 13th Jan 1849: Vancouver Island was granted to Hudson’s Bay Co.
12. 13th Jan 1854: On this day the accordion was patented by Anthony Foss.
13. 13th Jan 1869: The first Black labor convention the Colored National Labor Union met in Washington DC.
14. 13th Jan 1874: Hundreds were injured in New York City in the battle between the jobless and the police.
15. 13th Jan 1874: On this day the US troops land in Honolulu to protect the King.
16. 13th Jan 1888: On this day the National Geographic Society was founded in Washington DC.
17. 13th Jan 1893: This day marks the formation of the British Independent Labor Party.
18. 13th Jan 1894: Government troops crush the Revolution in Sicily.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day January 13th – The 1900s
19. 13th Jan 1902: Textile workers go on strike in Enschede Netherlands. The strike lasted for close to five months.
20. 13th Jan 1906: This day marks the first-ever advertisement of the radio set in Scientific American. It claimed to receive signals from up to one mile.
21. 13th Jan 1908: The French pilot Henry Farman became the first European to fly the 1 km circuit.
22. 13th Jan 1912: Oakland, Maryland records the lowest temperature. It recorded -40°C (-40F).
23. 13th Jan 1913: The world’s largest Black Women’s Sorority “Delta Sigma Theta” was founded on this day at Howard University in Washington DC.
24. 13th Jan 1915: Earthquake strikes Italy. An earthquake in Avezzano Italy kills 29,800 people.
25. 13th Jan 1915: The First Lord of Admiralty, Winston Churchill presents a plan for an assault on Dardanelles.
26. 13th Jan 1920: The New York Times editorial falsely reports that rockets can never fly.
27. 13th Jan 1922: Marks the end of the Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments.
28. 13th Jan 1924: The Parliament Elections in Egypt were won by the Nationalist Wafd-Party.
29. 13th Jan 1927: The United States and Mexico battle over oil interests.,
30. 13th Jan 1928: The Radio Corporation of America and GE installed three television sets in Schenectady, New York City to enable its inventor E.F.W.Alexanderson to demonstrate the first home television receiver. The pictures were not steady and were of poor quality.
31. 13th Jan 1929: On this day the Humanist Society was established in Hollywood, California.
32. 13th Jan 1930: The comic strip “Mickey Mouse” appears for the first time.
33. 13th Jan 1934: On this day USSR established The Candidate of Science degree.
34. 13th Jan 1938: The theory of evolution was accepted by the Church of England.
35. 13th Jan 1939: The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 Sq Km of land in Australia. It claimed 71 lives.
36. 13th Jan 1939: Prime Minister of Belgium signs Burgos-treaty for trade relations with Franco.
37. 13th Jan 1942: Allied hold a conference on war trials.
38. 13th Jan 1942: Shipping on the east coast was harassed by German U-boats.
39. 13th Jan 1942: Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford patents the method of constructing plastic auto bodies.
40. 13th Jan 1942: The St. James Declaration was published by the Interallied War trial conference.
41. 13th Jan 1942: The aircraft ejection seat was deployed for the first time by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280, jet fighter.
42. 13th Jan 1943: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca.
43. 13th Jan 1943: Russian offensive at Don led by General Golikov.
44. 13th Jan 1943: On this day Hitler declared “Total War”.
45. 13th Jan 1950: Soviet UN representative Jacob Malik stormed out of a Security Council meeting in a huff. He was angry that his proposal to expel the Nationalist Chinese representative was defeated.
46. 13th Jan 1953: There was a gas explosion in a Belgium coal mine. 14 people were killed in the explosion.
47. 13th Jan 1953: Marshal Josip Tito was chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
48. 13th Jan 1954: Military rule established in Egypt. 318 Mohammedan Brotherhood arrested.
49. 13th Jan 1957: The first Frisbee was produced by Wham-O Company.
50. 13th Jan 1957: Allen Tate was awarded the Bollingen Prize for poetry.
51. 13th Jan 1958: The U.S. newspaper “Daily Worker” ceases publication on this day.
52. 13th Jan 1958: The United Nations was petitioned by 9000 scientists from 43 countries for a nuclear test ban.
53. 13th Jan 1958: Spanish patrol ambushed by Moroccan Liberation Army in the Battle of Edchera.
54. 13th Jan 1959: President De Gaulle grants amnesty to 130 Algerian death row convicts.
55. 13th Jan 1959: King Boudouin promises Belgian Congo independence.
56. 13th Jan 1964: In the 52nd Australian Open Championship, Margret Court beats Lesley Turner (6-3,6-2).
57. 13th Jan 1964: In the 52nd Australian Open men’s championship Roy Emerson beats Fred Stole (6-3, 6-4, 6-2).
58. 13th Jan 1964: There was a religious violence involving Hindu-Muslim rioting in the Calcutta, India. It left 100 dead and 438 injured. 7000 people were arrested and a 24-hour curfew was clamped.
59. 13th Jan 1966: A nuclear test was performed by the US at the Nevada Test Site.
60. 13th Jan 1966: President Lyndon B Johnson selects Rober C Weaver for the Cabinet. He was the first black to be selected to the president’s cabinet.
61. 13th Jan 1967: There was a Coup in Tongo.
62. 13th Jan 1970: Riots begin in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast.
63. 13th Jan 1972: An army commander stages a bloodless coup in Ghana. The Prime Minister of Ghana was in London.
64. 13th Jan 1973: A female West Virginia University student had filed a discrimination complaint through the West Virginia Human Rights Division. She was denied resident tuition prices because her husband was attending an out-of-state school.
65. 13th Jan 1973: Efskind creates a new world record in skating by skating 1000m in 1:17.6.
66. 13th Jan 1974: Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and the entire Greece.
67. 13th Jan 1975: Henry Kissinger hints at military action against oil-procuring countries in the event of actual strangulation of the Industrialized world.
68. 13th Jan 1976: Sarah Caldwell leads an orchestra in a performance of “La Traviata”. She became the first woman to conduct at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.
69. 13th Jan 1980: The constitution of Togo comes into effect on this day.
70. 13th Jan 1980: The head of the narcotics brigade was arrested for drug smuggling in Belgium.
71. 13th Jan 1981: May Swenson and Howard Nemerov were awarded the Bollingen Prize for poetry.
72. 13th Jan 1982: Air Florida 737 took off in a snowstorm. It crashed into the 14th St. Bridge in Washington D.C. and fell into the Potomac River. 78 people were killed.
73. 13th Jan 1985: An express train derails in Ethiopia, killing at least 428 people.
74. 13th Jan 1985: Cerebral Palsy telethon raises $17,100,000.
75. 13th Jan 1985: 99-year-old Otto Bucher scores a hole-in-one at the Spanish golf course.
76. 13th Jan 1985: Czechoslovakia beats USA (2-1) in the 23rd Tennis Federation Cup at Nagoya Japan.
77. 13th Jan 1986: South Yemen President Ali Nasser Mohammed’s bodyguard shoots opponents.
78. 13th Jan 1987: West German police arrest Mohammed Ali Hamadi a suspect in a 1985 hijacking.
79. 13th Jan 1987: Seven top New York Mafia bosses were sentenced to 100 years each in prison.
80. 13th Jan 1988: Supreme Court rules (5-3) that public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays, and other expressive activities.
81. 13th Jan 1989: Hundreds of IBM computers struck by “Friday the 13th “virus in Britain.
82. 13th Jan 1990: The first elected black governor was inaugurated on this day.
83. 13th Jan 1991: The United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar meets Saddam Husain.
84. 13th Jan 1991: There was a soccer stadium riot in Orkney South Africa. At least 40 people died in the riot.
85. 13th Jan 1991: 42 people were killed in an exhibition match in Johannesburg South Africa.
86. 13th Jan 1991: Portugal re-elects Mario Soares as President.
87. 13th Jan 1991: Golfer and five-time Major Championship Winner Phil Mickelson won the PGA Northern Telecom Golf Open.
88. 13th Jan 1991: Soviet troops continue their attack on Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, killing 13 and injuring 140 people.
89. 13th Jan 1992: Excavation begins at the new ballpark at Gateway(Jacobs Field).
90. 13th Jan 1992: US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane.
91. 13th Jan 1992: Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
92. 13th Jan 1993: US spacecraft Endeavour “STS-54 launched into orbit.
93. 13th Jan 1993: The American, British, and French bombers carried out bombing raids over southern Iraq because of Iraq’s repeated violation of the “no-fly zone”.
94. 13th Jan 1994: Italian government at Ciampi resigns.
21st Century – January 13 This Day In History – The 2000s
95. 13th Jan 2000: Microsoft founder Bill Gates steps aside as Chief executive and promotes company president Steve Ballmer to the position.
96. 13th Jan 2004: Harold Shipman, a British General Practitioner who is believed to have killed more than 200 of his patients in Manchester found hanging in his prison cell.
97. 13th Jan 2007: Two-thirds of Venus’s southern hemisphere suddenly brightened as something triggered aerosols to form at a furious rate.
98. 13th Jan 2009: Global shipping trade experienced a downtrend as exports from South Korea dropped by 30%. Taiwan and Japan experienced a 42% and 27% drop respectively.
99. 13th Jan 2012: Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia runs aground at Isola de Giglio in Italy. It caused 32 deaths.
100. 13th Jan 2014: An explosion in an illegal gambling hall in Kaili City China killed 14 and injured 7.
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