Historical Events on February 13

Events 1 - 200 of 212

• 528 Roman Emperor Justinian appoints a commission to compile a single code of imperial constitutions (Justinian Code published 529)
• 1130 Gregorio de' Papareschi elected as Pope Innocent II

• 1349 Jews are expelled from Burgdorf, Switzerland, accused of spreading the Bubonic Plague
• 1502 Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, new Governor of the Indies sets sail for the Indies with fleet of 30 ships, largest-ever fleet to the New World
• 1503 Disfida di Barletta - Famous challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta, Southern Italy
• 1510 Charles of Gelre conquers Oldenzaal
• 1575 Henry III of France is crowned at Rheims

• 1601 Fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on their 1st voyage from London, led by Sir James John Lancaster commanding the "Red Dragon"; journey takes nearly 16 months

• 1651 Flemish missionary Joris van Geel departs to Congo
• 1668 Treaty of Lisbon: Spain recognizes Portugal
• 1689 Parliament of England adopts the Bill of Rights which establishes the rights of parliament and places limits on the crown
• 1692 Glencoe Massacre: about 38 MacDonalds killed early in the morning by rival Campbell clan members, allegedly for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange
• 1693 College of William & Mary opens in Williamsburg, Virginia
• 1706 Battle at Fraustadt: Swedish army beats Russia and Saxon forces, one of Swedish's Greatest victories in the Great Northern War
• 1741 Andrew Bedford publishes 1st American magazine (American Magazine)
• 1755 Rebel leader Mangkubuni signs Treaty of Gianti Java

• 1782 French fleet occupies St Christopher
• 1786 Abraham Baldwin selected president of University of Georgia
• 1795 1st state university in US opens, University of North Carolina
• 1799 1st US law regulating insurance passed by Massachusetts legislature
• 1809 French take Saragossa, Spain after a long siege
• 1815 The Cambridge Union Society is founded.
• 1816 -14] Teatro San Carlo in Naples destroyed by fire
• 1826 American Temperance Society forms in Boston
• 1832 First appearance of cholera in London
• 1837 Riot in New York due to a combination of poverty and increase in the cost of flour

• 1860 King Basse Kajuara departs Boni South-Celebes

• 1861 First military action to result in Medal of Honor, as Bernard J.D. Irwin volunteers to lead rescue of 60 soldiers from Chiricahua Indians at Apache Pass, Arizona
• 1862 -Feb 16th) Siege of Ft Donelson, Tennessee
• 1864 Miridian Campaign fighting at Chunky Creek & Wyatt, Mississippi

• 1867 Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards
• 1881 The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by activist Hubertine Auclert

• 1895 Moving picture projector patented
• 1899 -16°F (-27°C), Minden Louisiana (state record)
• 1899 -1°F (-18°C) New Orleans, La
• 1899 -2°F (-19°C) Tallahassee, Florida (state record)
• 1905 -29°F (-34°C) Pond, Arkansas (state record)
• 1905 -40°F (-40°C) Lebanon, Kansas (state record)
• 1905 -40°F (-40°C) Warsaw, Missouri (state record)
• 1907 English suffragettes storm British Parliament & 60 women are arrested
• 1912 Olympic boxing gold medallist Johnny Douglas takes 5/46 as England cricket team regains Ashes with an innings and 225 run 4th Test win over Australia in Melbourne
• 1914 American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) founded at Hotel Claridge in NYC
• 1915 The French try to drive the Germans forces back into the Champagne region

• 1920 Baseball Hall of Famer “Rube” Foster and 7 other team owners create the first Negro National League (NNL) at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA
• 1920 League of Nations recognizes perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, allowing Switzerland to rejoin the League
• 1923 1st Black pro Basketball team, "Renaissance", organizes
• 1925 US Congress makes Supreme Court appeals more difficult
• 1927 Uprising against Portuguese regime of Gen Carmona defeated

• 1928 Legendary Norwegian speed skater Ivar Ballangrud wins the first of 2 straight 5,000m Olympic gold medals when he beats Julius Skutnabb of Finland by 9 seconds in St. Moritz
• 1929 Cruiser Act, USA, approves the construction of 19 new cruisers & an aircraft carrier
• 1929 Vladimir Mayakofsky's "Klop" premieres in Moscow
• 1932 "Free Eats" introduces George "Spanky" McFarland to "Our Gang"
• 1932 A 2-2 final round tie with the US is good enough for Canada to clinch its 4th consecutive Olympic ice hockey gold medal at Lake Placid; Canadian center Walter Monson is tournament top scorer with 11 points
• 1932 Finland goes 1-2 in the 50k cross country event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics; Veli Saarinen wins gold ahead of teammate Väinö Liikkanen
• 1934 The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
• 1935 1st US surgical operation for relief of angina pectoris, Cleveland
• 1935 Bruno Hauptmann found guilty of kidnap & murder of Lindbergh infant. He proclaimed his innocence to the end.
• 1936 Ivar Ballangrud of Norway narrowly misses winning all 4 speed skating events at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics; finishes 2nd in 1,500m just 1.0s behind teammate Charles Mathiesen
• 1937 "Prince Valiant" comic strip appears; known for historical detail
• 1937 Boston Redskins receive approval from NFL to move to Washington, D.C; to share baseball's Griffith Stadium with first Washington Senators of the American League

• 1941 Nazi leaders attack Dutch Jewish Council

• 1943 Women's US Marine Corps created

• 1945 Gerbrandy Dutch government refuses Dutch Jewish right to buy
• 1945 Soviet forces capture Budapest after a 49-day battle with Nazi Germany that killed 159,000 people
• 1948 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Lannoy & Baugniet of BEL
• 1948 West Indian batsman Andy Ganteaume scores 112 for W Indies in his only Test Cricket innings
• 1948 Wright Flyer, 1st plane to fly, returns to US from England

• 1953 Philadelphia A's change name of Shibe Park to Connie Mack Stadium
• 1954 American college basketball player Frank Selvey scores a record 100 points for Furman beating Newberry 149-95
• 1955 Israel acquires 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls
• 1955 KRCG TV channel 13 in Jefferson City, MO (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1956 KYW-AM in Philadelphia Penn gives calls to WTAM (now WWWE) Cleveland
• 1959 Miro Cardon, premier of Cuba, resigns
• 1960 France becomes the 4th nuclear nation by exploding their 1st device, a 70 kilo-ton "Gerboise Bleue" atomic bomb in the French Algerian Sahara desert [1]

• 1961 Soviet Union fires a rocket from Sputnik V to Venus
• 1966 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1967 Capitol Records releases the Beatles' double "A" side single "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields" in the US
• 1968 After winning giant slalom in Innsbruck (1964) French skier Marielle Goitschel takes out the slalom gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Olympics
• 1968 Swedish 10k cross country champion Toini Gustafsson wins her 2nd gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 5k event ahead of Soviet pair Galina Kulakova and Alvetina Kolchina
• 1968 US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam

• 1969 Suriname government of Pengel resigns
• 1970 Man-eating tiger is reported to have killed 48, 80 km from New Delhi
• 1970 NL offices begins move from Cincinnati to San Francisco (completed Feb 23)
• 1971 12,000 South Vietnamese troops cross into Laos

• 1972 XI Winter Olympic Games close at Sapporo, Japan
• 1973 Musical "El Grande de Coca-Cola" premieres in NYC
• 1973 US dollar devalues 10%

• 1975 Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash proclaims Turkish-Cypriot Federation

• 1976 Major-General Olusegun Obasanjo becomes military ruler of Nigeria
• 1976 Peter Casserly of NZ hand-sheers record 353 lambs in 9 hours
• 1978 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1979 Formation of Guardian Angels crime fighters in New York City
• 1979 Washington State's Hood Canal Bridge breaks up in windstorm
• 1980 Apollo Computer Inc incorporated
• 1980 NZ beats West Indies by one wicket in cricket at Dunedin
• 1980 XIII Winter Olympic Games open in Lake Placid, New York
• 1981 A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
• 1981 Longest sentence published by "The New York Times" - 1286 words

• 1984 6-year-old Texan Stormie Jones gets 1st heart and liver transplant
• 1984 Karin Enke of East Germany wins her 2nd gold medal of the Sarajevo Winter Games, winning the women's 1,000m in Olympic record 1:21.61; also wins 1,500m gold

• 1984 Swedish cross country skier Gunde Svan wins 15k event, the first of 2 gold medals at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 4 x 10k relay gold
• 1985 Dow Jones closes at 1297.92 (record high) after topping 1300 earlier
• 1985 Polish police arrests 7 Solidarity leaders

• 1988 Christine Wachtel runs world record 800m indoor (1:56:40)
• 1988 European Community plans removal of internal boundaries on Jan 1, 1992
• 1988 Heike Dreschler long jumps world record indoor (7.37m)
• 1988 Ronald Weigel runs unofficial world record speed walking (18:11.41)
• 1988 XV Winter Olympic Games open in Calgary, Canada
• 1989 Kidnapped Belgian Premier Vanden Boeynants freed
• 1989 Oklahoma football player Charles Thompson is charged with selling cocaine; he is later sentenced to 2 years in prison
• 1989 Salvadoran army attacks Encuentros hospital, rapes, kills patients
• 1990 50 killed at Inkatha-UDF battle in Natal, South Africa

• 1990 US, Britain & France give Germany OK to reunify
• 1991 Syria tells Germany they are ready to recognize Israel
• 1991 US air raid on the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad kills more than 408 civilians
• 1991 US bombs Iraqi air raid shelter, killing 334

• 1992 West beats East 14 to 9 in Major Soccer League all star game
• 1993 Ljubow Kremljowa runs world record 1000m indoor (2:34:84)
• 1993 Merlene Ottey runs world record 200m indoor (21.87 sec)
• 1993 Sergei Bubka pole vaults indoor record (6.14 m)
• 1994 Inna Lassovskaya jumps world record 14.9m
• 1994 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 5000m 6:34,96
• 1994 Ship disaster near Ranong Thailand, kills 200

• 1995 Howard Stern radio show premieres in San Diego CA on XTRA-FM

• 1996 "The Score" second studio album by Fugees is released (Billboard no. 1 year end Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums 1996)

• 1996 Howard Stern announces he will be making the film "Private Parts"
• 1996 Rock musical "Rent" by Jonathan Larson opens off-Broadway
• 1997 "Three Sisters" opens at Criterion Theater NYC
• 1997 Discovery captures Hubble Space Telescope

• 2001 An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
• 2004 The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093
• 2004 The WB Network announces that "Angel" would not be brought back for a sixth season
• 2005 47th Grammy Awards: "Here We Go Again" and Maroon 5 win
• 2007 Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted by Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on charges of embezzlement when mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for 2008 presidential election.
• 2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes an historic apology to Indigenous Australians, especially to the Stolen Generations who suffered forced child removal and assimilation [1]
• 2008 The LZR Racer Suit is unveiled in NYC; line of competition swimsuits made by Speedo using high-tech fabric of woven elastane-nylon & polyurethane; times went down dramatically; rules changed 2010
• 2009 The Dutch Statistics agency confirms the Netherlands are in recession
• 2009 Unix time passed 1,234,567,890 seconds February 13, 2009 at exactly 23:31:30 (UTC).
• 2010 A bombing at the German Bakery in Pune, India, kills 10 and injures 60 more

• 2013 10 civilians, including 3 children, are killed by a NATO airstrike in the Kunar Province, Afghanistan
• 2013 16 Muslim insurgents are killed in an attack on a Narathiwat military base, Thailand
• 2013 Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, says he believes "a recovery is in sight" after fears raised about a triple dip recession
• 2014 French biathlete Martin Fourcade wins his 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics in the individual competition; also claims the pursuit title

• 2014 Polish cross country skier Justyna Kowalczyk follows her Vancouver (2010) Olympic women's 30k classical title with a gold medal in the 10k classical in Sochi
• 2014 Slopestyle freestyle skiing event makes Olympic debut at Sochi Winter Games; American Joss Christensen is inaugural men's gold medallist
• 2014 Women's luge singles champion Natalie Geisenberger and men's doubles winners Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt earn their 2nd Olympic gold medals in Sochi in team relay event; Germany sweeps 4 events

• 2016 Ninth Republican presidential candidates debate held in Greenville, South Carolina

• 2018 After winning Olympic gold in the women's curling in Sochi (2014), Canadian Kaitlyn Lawes wins the mixed doubles with dual gold medallist John Morris in Pyeongchang
• 2018 Austrian alpine skier Marcel Hirscher wins the men's combined gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; goes on to also win giant slalom gold
• 2018 Dutch speed skater Kjeld Nuis wins the men's 1,500m gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; also takes 1,000m gold

• 2018 South Africa declares a three-year drought a National Disaster, though pushes Cap Town's "Day Zero" to June 4

• 2019 Flinders River swells to 37 miles wide (60km) creating its own weather system after intense flooding in Queensland, Australia
• 2019 Iran marks 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution with huge street marches and protests against the US

• 2019 Suicide attack on bus carrying Iranian military's Revolutionary Guard kills 23 in Sistan-Baluchestan province, separatist group Jaish al-Adl claim responsibility

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next