SomeFacts | December 13

On this day - December 13

1076 — The city of Salerno surrenders to Robert Guiscard. Duke Gisulf ...

1294 — Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to ...

1545 — The Council of Trent begins as the embodiment of the ...

1577 — Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his ...

1623 — The Plymouth Colony establishes the system of trial by 12-men ...

1636 — The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments ...

1642 — Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New ...

1643 — English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in ...

1758 — The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North ...

1769 — Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, ...

1818 — Cyril VI of Constantinople resigns from his position as ...

1862 — American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, ...

1864 — American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: The ...

1937 — Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: The city of ...

1938 — The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the ...

1939 — The Battle of the River Plate is fought off the coast of ...

1943 — World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying ...

1949 — The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv ...

1957 — The Mw 6.5 Farsinaj earthquake strikes Iran with a maximum ...

1959 — Archbishop Makarios III becomes the first President of Cyprus.

1960 — While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his ...

1962 — NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater ...

1967 — Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup ...

1968 — Brazilian President Artur da Costa e Silva issues AI-5 ...

1972 — Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the ...

1974 — In the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese forces launch their ...

1974 — Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.

1977 — Air Indiana Flight 216 crashes near Evansville Regional ...

1981 — General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, ...

1982 — The 6.0 Ms North Yemen earthquake shakes southwestern Yemen ...

1988 — PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General ...

1989 — The Troubles: Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional ...

1994 — Flagship Airlines Flight 3379 crashes in Morrisville, North ...

1995 — Banat Air Flight 166 crashes in Sommacampagna near Verona ...

2001 — Indian Parliament attack: Sansad Bhavan, the building housing ...

2002 — European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the ...

2003 — Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam ...

2007 — The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by the EU member states to ...