May 13

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

Events

Up to 1900

• 1497 – Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
• 1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk are officially marry at Greenwich.
• 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.
• 1572 – Pope Gregory XIII is elected. During his time, some countries in Europe would become the first to use the Gregorian calendar, which is named after him.
• 1607 – Jamestown, Virginia, is settled as an English colony.
• 1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason.
• 1647 – 12,000 people are killed in an earthquake in Santiago, Chile.
• 1648 – Building work on the Red Fort in Delhi, India, is completed.
• 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 part of its territory that was taken from them (the Inn District).
• 1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with the First Fleet, 11 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.
• 1848 – First performance of Finland's national anthem.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of Britain issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
• 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
• 1861 – The first railway line in present-day Pakistan, then-part of British India, is opened between Karachi and Kotri.
• 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 Confederate victory.
• 1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
• 1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.

1901 – 2000

• 1909 – The first Giro d'Italia took place in Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the winner.
• 1912 – In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established.
• 1913 – Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft.
• 1917 – Three peasant children claim to see the Blessed Virgin Mary above a holmoak tree in Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal.
• 1940 – World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse River. Churchill makes his "blood, tears, toil and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
• 1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees the Nazi invasion in the Netherlands to Britain. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
• 1943 – World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
• 1948 – First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan
• 1948 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
• 1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone racecourse in Northamptonshire.
• 1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, holds it first sitting.
• 1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first, and only, person to circumnavigate (travel round) the world in an amphibious vehicle, a vehicle that can travel both in water and on land.
• 1958 – May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers, demanding a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle as its head, in order to defend French control in Algeria.
• 1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
• 1958 – Pierre Pflimlin becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1958 – Velcro's trade mark is registered.
• 1960 – First ascent of Dhaulagiri, world's seventh-highest mountain.
• 1967 – Zakir Hussain becomes President of India, as the first person of Islamic faith to hold the post of President in India.
• 1969 – Race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, later known as the 13 May Incident.
• 1972 – A nightclub fire in Osaka kills 119 people.
• 1972 – The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Ulster Volunteer Force and the British Army, killing 7 people and injuring 66.
• 1976 – The New York Nets defeat the Denver Nuggets and win the American Basketball Association championship, 112–106, in the final ABA game ever played.
• 1980 – A Force-2 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
• 1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome.
• 1985 – The mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 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.
• 1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, and begin a hunger strike.
• 1994 – Johnny Carson makes his last television appearance.
• 1995 – In Dublin, Ireland, Secret Garden win the fortieth Eurovision Song Contest for Norway performing "Nocturne".
• 1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
• 1997 – Storms in Yunnan and Guangdong kill 290 people.
• 1998 – Following India's second round of nuclear tests the United States and Japan impose economic sanctions.
• 1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped. The country's President, Suharto, resigns a week later.
• 2000 – In Stockholm, Sweden, the Olsen Brothers win the forty-fifth Eurovision Song Contest for Denmark singing "Fly On The Wings of Love".
• 2000 – In Enschede, the Netherlands, a fireworks factory explodes, killing 22 people, wounding 950, and resulting in approximately f 1,000,000,000 (€450,000,000) damage.

From 2001

• 2005 – The Binh Bridge opens to traffic in Hai Phong, Vietnam.
• 2005 – The final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise airs in the United States, bringing to a close an 18-year uninterrupted television franchise.
• 2005 – The Andijan Massacre occurs in Uzbekistan.
• 2008 – Bombings in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, kill dozens of people.
• 2011 – The Charsadda bombing in Pakistan occur, as two bombs explode, killing 98 people, and injuring 140.
• 2012 – Pastor Maldonado becomes the first Venezuelan to win a Formula One Grand Prix, in Spain.
• 2014 – A mine explosion in Soma, Western Turkey, kills around 300 people.
• 2015 – Discord releases, a instant messaging software.
• 2016 – President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro declares a 60-day state of emergency.
• 2017 – Salvador Sobral wins the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv for Portugal, with the song "Amar Pelos Dois".
• 2018 – Manchester City F.C. becomes the first team in the English Premier League to achieve 100 points in a single league season.

Births

Up to 1900

• 1024 – Hugh of Cluny, French saint (d. 1109)
• 1221 – Alexander Nevsky, Russian prince and saint (d. 1263)
• 1254 – Maria of Brabant, Queen of France (d. 1321)
• 1588 – Ole Worm, Danish physician and archaeologist (d. 1654)
• 1655 – Pope Innocent XIII (d. 1724)
• 1699 – Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal, Portuguese statesman (d. 1782)
• 1713 – Alexis Clairault, French mathematician, astronomer and geophysicist (d. 1765)
• 1717 – Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (d. 1780)
• 1730 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1782)
• 1742 – Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (d. 1798)
• 1750 – Lorenzo Mascheroni, Italian mathematician (d. 1800)
• 1753 – Lazare Carnot, French general, mathematician and politician (d. 1823)
• 1767 – John VI of Portugal (d. 1826)
• 1778 – Honoré V, Prince of Monaco (d. 1841)
• 1785 – Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, German historian and statesman (d. 1860)
• 1792 – Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)
• 1795 – Gerard Paul Deshayes, French geologist (d. 1875)
• 1822 – Francis of Assisi of Bourbon, King Consort of Spain (d. 1902)
• 1830 – Zebulon Baird Vance, three-time Governor of North Carolina (d. 1894)
• 1840 – Alphonse Daudet, French novelist (d. 1897)
• 1842 – Arthur Sullivan, English composer (d. 1900)
• 1850 – Modest Tchaikovsky, Russian dramatist, librettist and translator (d. 1916)
• 1851 – Laza Lazarevic, Serbian writer, psychiatrist and neurologist (d. 1891)
• 1857 – Ronald Ross, English doctor, won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1932)
• 1868 – Sumner Paine, American sports shooter (d. 1904)
• 1878 – Muriel Robb, British tennis player (d. 1907)
• 1881 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian writer (d. 1922)
• 1882 – Georges Braque, French painter (d. 1963)
• 1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor and inventor (d. 1962)
• 1885 – Mikiel Gonzi, Maltese archbishop (d. 1984)
• 1888 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist (d. 1993)
• 1894 – Asgeir Asgeirsson, second President of Iceland (d. 1972)
• 1898 – Justin Tuveri, Italian-French World War I veteran (d. 2007)

1901 – 1950

• 1901 – Witold Pilecki, Polish general and Resistance activist (d. 1948)
• 1901 – William S. Beardsley, 31st Governor of Iowa (d. 1954)
• 1901 – Murilo Mendes, Brazilian poet (d. 1975)
• 1903 – Lennox Berkeley, English composer (d. 1989)
• 1905 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, President of India (d. 1977)
• 1907 – Daphne du Maurier, British writer (d. 1989)
• 1908 – Eugen Kapp, Estonian composer (d. 1996)
• 1909 – Ken Darby, American composer, songwriter and conductor (d. 1992)
• 1912 – Gil Evans, Canadian pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader (d. 1988)
• 1913 – William Tolbert, President of Liberia (d. 1980)
• 1914 – Joe Louis, American boxer (d. 1981)
• 1922 – Bea Arthur, American actress (d. 2009)
• 1924 – Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer and politician (d. 2010)
• 1927 – Herbert Ross, American choreographer and movie director (d. 2001)
• 1928 – Enrique Bolaños, former President of Nicaragua (d. 2021)
• 1928 – Theo Saat, Dutch sprinter (d. 2015)
• 1928 – Edouard Molinaro, French actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 2013)
• 1929 – John Galvin, American general (d. 2015)
• 1929 – Fred Martin, Scottish footballer (d. 2013)
• 1930 – Sammy Baird, Scottish footballer (d. 2010)
• 1930 – Vernon Shaw, former President of Dominica (d. 2013)
• 1930 – Mike Gravel, United States Senator (d. 2021)
• 1930 – José Jiménez Lozano, Spanish writer
• 1931 – Jim Jones, American religious cult leader (d. 1978)
• 1934 – Adolf Muschg, Swiss writer
• 1935 – Jan Saudek, Czech photographer and painter
• 1935 – Kaja Saudek, Czech author and illustrator (d. 2015)
• 1937 – Trevor Baylis, English stuntman and inventor (d. 2018)
• 1939 – Harvey Keitel, American actor
• 1940 – Bruce Chatwin, British writer (d. 1989)
• 1941 – Ritchie Valens, American musician (d. 1959)
• 1941 – Senta Berger, Austrian actress
• 1942 – Pal Schmitt, Hungarian fencer and politician, former President of Hungary
• 1944 – Uwe Barschel, German politician (d. 1987)
• 1944 – Sir Crispin Agnew, 11th Baronet, Scottish judge and explorer
• 1945 – Sam Anderson, American actor
• 1945 – Lasse Berghagen, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
• 1945 – Lou Marini, American saxophonist and composer
• 1946 – Tim Pigott-Smith, British actor (d. 2017)
• 1949 – Jane Glover, British conductor
• 1949 – Zoe Wanamaker, American-British actress
• 1950 – Stevie Wonder, American singer
• 1950 – Danny Kirwan, British musician (Fleetwood Mac) (d. 2018)

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Paul Thompson, British musician (Roxy Music)
• 1951 – Selina Scott, British broadcast journalist
• 1952 – Wang Xiaobo, Chinese writer
• 1952 – John Kasich, 69th Governor of Ohio
• 1954 – Johnny Logan, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist and composer
• 1956 – Richard Madeley, British TV presenter
• 1956 – Sri Sri Ravishankar, Indian spiritual leader
• 1957 – Alan Ball, American screenwriter
• 1957 – Andrea Klump, former Red Army Faction member
• 1957 – Carrie Lam, 4th Chief Executive of Hong Kong
• 1957 – Koji Suzuki, Japanese writer
• 1958 – Frances Barber, British actress
• 1961 – Danny Leiner, American actor (d. 2018)
• 1961 – Dennis Rodman, American basketball player
• 1962 – Roxana Baldetti, Guatemalan Vice President
• 1963 – Wally Masur, Australian tennis player, coach and sportscaster
• 1963 – Andrea Leadsom, English politician
• 1964 – Stephen Colbert, American comedian
• 1964 – Ronnie Coleman, American bodybuilder
• 1964 – Masha Rasputina, Russian pop singer
• 1965 – Hikari Ota, Japanese writer
• 1966 – Alison Goldfrapp, English musician
• 1966 – Staffan Hellstrand, Swedish singer
• 1967 – Chuck Schuldinger, American singer-songwriter and musician
• 1967 – Melanie Thornton, American-German singer (d. 2001)
• 1968 – Miguel Angel Blanco, Spanish politician (d. 1997)
• 1968 – Scott Morrison, Australian politician, 30th Prime Minister of Australia
• 1968 – Dmitriy Shevchenko, Russian discus thrower
• 1968 – Sonja Zietlow, German television host
• 1969 – Buckethead, American musician
• 1972 – Darryl Sydor, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1975 – Brian Geraghty, American actor

From 1976

• 1976 – Ana Popovic, Serbian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1977 – Samantha Morton, English actress
• 1977 – Ilse DeLange, Dutch singer (The Common Linnets)
• 1977 – Neil Hopkins, American actor
• 1977 – Aleksei Terentjev, Estonian ice hockey player
• 1978 – Mike Bibby, American basketball player
• 1979 – Prince Carl Philip of Sweden
• 1979 – Michael Madden, American musician (Maroon 5)
• 1979 – Lauren Phoenix, Canadian pornographic actress
• 1981 – Luciana Berger, English politician
• 1982 – Albert Crusat, Spanish footballer
• 1982 – Oguchi Onyewu, American soccer player
• 1982 – Casey Stoney, English footballer
• 1983 – Grégory Lemarchal, French singer (d. 2007)
• 1983 – Yaya Touré, Ivorian footballer
• 1983 – Johnny Hoogerland, Dutch cyclist
• 1983 – Anita Gorbicz, Hungarian handball player
• 1985 – Jaroslav Halak, Slovakian ice hockey player
• 1985 – Iwan Rheon, Welsh actor and singer
• 1986 – Robert Pattinson, English actor
• 1986 – Alexander Rybak, Norwegian singer, fiddler and composer
• 1986 – Lena Dunham, American movie maker and actress
• 1987 – Candice Accola, American actress and musician
• 1987 – Hunter Parrish, American actor and singer
• 1987 – Laura Izibor, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist and producer
• 1987 – Marianne Vos, Dutch cyclist
• 1988 – Casey Donovan, Australian singer
• 1993 – Romelu Lukaku, Belgian footballer
• 1993 – Debby Ryan, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1950

• 1176 – Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1119)
• 1312 – Theobald II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1263)
• 1573 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese warlord (b. 1521)
• 1619 – Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch statesman (b. 1547)
• 1646 – Maria Anna of Spain (b. 1606)
• 1742 – Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (b. 1719)
• 1759 – Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, French sculptor (b. 1700)
• 1782 – Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
• 1832 – Georges Cuvier, French zoologist (b. 1769)
• 1835 – John Nash, architect (b. 1752)
• 1884 – Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b. 1809)
• 1885 – Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German physician (b. 1809)
• 1901 – Leopoldo Alas, Spanish novelist (b. 1851)
• 1903 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister of the Philippines (b. 1864)
• 1916 – Sholom Aleichem, writer (b. 1859)
• 1921 – Jean Aicard, French author, poet and playwright (b. 1848)
• 1926 – Libert H. Boeynaems, ss.cc., Roman Catholic prelate
• 1930 – Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer and diplomat (b. 1861)
• 1937 – Ekaterina Geladze, mother of Joseph Stalin (b. 1858)
• 1938 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, Swiss physicist (b. 1861)
• 1941 – Onishiki Uichiro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1891)
• 1945 – Tubby Hall, American jazz musician (b. 1895)
• 1947 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Indian–Bengali poet and playwright (b. 1926)

From 1951

• 1957 – Michael Fikete, Hungarian-Israeli mathematician (b. 1886)
• 1961 – Gary Cooper, American actor (b. 1901)
• 1963 – Alois Hudal, Austrian Roman Catholic bishop, helped Nazi war criminals escape (b. 1885)
• 1972 – Dan Blocker, actor (b. 1928)
• 1975 – Bob Wills, American country musician (b. 1905)
• 1977 – Mickey Spillane, gangster (b. 1934)
• 1982 – Billy Steel, Scottish footballer (b. 1923)
• 1988 – Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1929)
• 1999 – Gene Sarazen, American golfer (b. 1902)
• 2001 – R.K. Narayan, Indian novelist (b. 1906)
• 2002 – Valeriy Lobanovskiy, Ukrainian footballer and coach (b. 1939)
• 2003 – John Savage, former Premier of Nova Scotia
• 2005 – George Dantzig, American mathematician
• 2008 – Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Sheikh of Kuwait (b. 1930)
• 2009 – Achille Compagnoni, Italian mountain climber (b. 1914)
• 2009 – Monica Bleibtreu, German actress (b. 1944)
• 2011 – Derek Boogaard, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1982)
• 2011 – Bernard Greenhouse, American cellist (b. 1916)
• 2012 – Nguyen Van Thien, Vietnamese bishop (b. 1906)
• 2012 – Donald "Duck" Dunn, American musician (b. 1941)
• 2013 – Kenneth Waltz, American political scientist (b. 1924)
• 2013 – Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and TV personality (b. 1927)
• 2014 – David Malet Armstrong, Australian philosopher (b. 1926)
• 2014 – Malik Bendjelloul, Swedish moviemaker and actor (b. 1977)
• 2015 – Derek Davis, Irish broadcaster (b. 1948)
• 2015 – Gainan Saidkhuzhin, Russian cyclist (b. 1937)
• 2015 – Anna Levinson, German zoologist (b. 1939)
• 2016 – Sammy Ellis, American baseball player (b. 1941)
• 2016 – David McNiven Gardner, New Zealand oceanographer (b. 1928)
• 2016 – Baba Hardev Singh, Indian spiritual guru (b. 1954)
• 2017 – John Cygan, American actor (b. 1954)
• 2017 – Yanko Daucik, Czech footballer (b. 1957)
• 2017 – Alain Delfossé, French novelist and translator (b. 1957)
• 2017 – Marcel Pelletier, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Edgardo Angara, Filipino politician (b. 1934)
• 2018 – Glenn Branca, American composer and guitarist (b. 1948)
• 2018 – Steve Hogan, American politician (b. 1948)
• 2018 – Margot Kidder, Canadian-American actress (b. 1948)
• 2018 – Baadur Tsuladze, Georgian actor, film director and screenwriter (b. 1935)
• 2018 – Balkavi Bairagi, Indian poet and politician (b. 1931)
• 2018 – Epitácio Cafeteira, Brazilian politician (b. 1924)
• 2019 – Unita Blackwell, American civil rights activist (b. 1933)
• 2019 – Doris Day, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
• 2019 – Lajos Faragó, Hungarian footballer (b. 1932)
• 2019 – Jörg Kastendiek, German politician (b. 1964)
• 2019 – Hayat Saif, Bangladeshi poet and literary critic (b. 1942)
• 2025 – José Mujica, Urguayan politician (b. 1935)

Observances

• Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima (Roman Catholicism)