January 13

Events

Pre-1600

27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years.

532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I.

1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.

1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England.

1601–1900

1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.

1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.

1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.

1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.

1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.

1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.

1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.

1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island.

1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

1901–present

1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.

1915 – The 6.7 Mw Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610.

1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history.

1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to no more being a "region occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France".

1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

1942 – Henry Ford patents a soybean car, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.

1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1950 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.

1950 – Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins.

1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.

1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.

Births

Pre-1600

5 BC – Guangwu of Han, Chinese emperor (died 57)

101 – Lucius Aelius, Roman adopted son of Hadrian (died 138)

915 – Al-Hakam II, Umayyad caliph (died 976)

1334 – Henry II, king of Castile and León (died 1379)

1338 – Chŏng Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar (died 1392)

1381 – Colette of Corbie, French abbess and saint in the Catholic Church (died 1447)

1400 – Infante John, Constable of Portugal (died 1442)

1477 – Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland (died 1527)

1505 – Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (died 1571)

1562 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier (died 1601)

1596 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter and illustrator (died 1656)

1601–1900

1610 – Maria Anna of Bavaria, archduchess of Austria (died 1665)

1616 – Antoinette Bourignon, French-Flemish mystic and author (died 1680)

1651 – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English soldier and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 1694)

1672 – Lucy Filippini, Italian teacher and saint (died 1732)

1683 – Christoph Graupner, German harpsichord player and composer (died 1760)

1720 – Richard Hurd, English bishop (died 1808)

1749 – Maler Müller, German poet, painter, and playwright (died 1825)

1787 – John Davis, American lawyer and politician, 14th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1854)

1804 – Paul Gavarni, French illustrator (died 1866)

1805 – Thomas Dyer, American lawyer and politician, 18th Mayor of Chicago (died 1862)

1808 – Salmon P. Chase, American jurist and politician, 6th Chief Justice of the United States (died 1873)

1810 – Ernestine Rose, American suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker (died 1892)

1812 – Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (died 1883)

1832 – Horatio Alger, Jr., American novelist and journalist (died 1899)

1901–present

1901 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American novelist, screenwriter, historian (died 1991)

1901 – Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish priest and historian (died 1978)

1902 – Karl Menger, Austrian-American mathematician from the Vienna Circle (died 1985)

1904 – Richard Addinsell, English composer (died 1977)

1904 – Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian-American violinist and composer (died 1992)

1904 – Dick Rowley, Irish footballer (died 1984)

1905 – Kay Francis, American actress (died 1968)

1905 – Jack London, English sprinter and pianist (died 1966)

1906 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist, sinologist, and academic (died 2017)

1909 – Helm Glöckler, German race car driver (died 1993)

1910 – Yannis Tsarouchis, Greek painter and illustrator (died 1989)

1911 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, New Zealand-Australian farmer and politician, 31st Premier of Queensland (died 2005)

1914 – Osa Massen, Danish-American actress (died 2006)

1914 – Ted Willis, Baron Willis, English author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1992)

1919 – Robert Stack, American actor (died 2003)

Deaths

Pre-1600

86 BC – Gaius Marius, Roman general and politician (born 157 BC)

533 – Remigius, French bishop and saint (born 437)

614 – Mungo, English-Scottish bishop and saint

703 – Jitō, Japanese empress (born 645)

858 – Æthelwulf, king of Wessex

888 – Charles the Fat, Frankish king and emperor (born 839)

927 – Berno of Cluny, Frankish monk and abbot

1001 – Fujiwara no Teishi, Japanese empress (born 977)

1147 – Robert de Craon, Grand Master of the Knights Templar

1151 – Suger, French historian and politician (born 1081)

1177 – Henry II, count palatine and duke of Austria (born 1107)

1321 – Bonacossa Borri, Italian noblewoman (born 1254)

1330 – Frederick I, duke and king of Germany

1363 – Meinhard III, German nobleman (born 1344)

1400 – Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester, English politician (born 1373)

1599 – Edmund Spenser, English poet, Chief Secretary for Ireland (born 1552)

1601–1900

1612 – Jane Dormer, English lady-in-waiting (born 1538)

1625 – Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flemish painter (born 1568)

1684 – Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk, English nobleman (born 1628)

1691 – George Fox, English religious leader, founded the Religious Society of Friends (born 1624)

1717 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German entomologist and illustrator (born 1647)

1775 – Johann Georg Walch, German theologian and author (born 1693)

1790 – Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, French admiral (born 1712)

1796 – John Anderson, Scottish philosopher and educator (born 1726)

1832 – Thomas Lord, English cricketer, founded Lord's Cricket Ground (born 1755)

1838 – Ferdinand Ries, German pianist and composer (born 1784)

1860 – William Mason, American surgeon and politician (born 1786)

1864 – Stephen Foster, American composer and songwriter (born 1826)

1872 – William Scamp, English architect and engineer (born 1801)

1882 – Juraj Dobrila, Croatian bishop and national revivalist (born 1812)

1882 – Wilhelm Mauser, German engineer and businessman, co-founded the Mauser Company (born 1834)

1901–present

1906 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and academic (born 1859)

1907 – Jakob Hurt, Estonian theologist and linguist (born 1839)

1915 – Mary Slessor, Scottish-Nigerian missionary (born 1848)

1916 – Victoriano Huerta, Mexican military officer and president, 1913–1914 (born 1850)

1923 – Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1842)

1924 – Georg Hermann Quincke, German physicist and academic (born 1834)

1928 – Earle Nelson, American serial killer

1929 – Wyatt Earp, American police officer (born 1848)

1929 – H. B. Higgins, Irish-Australian judge and politician, 3rd Attorney-General for Australia (born 1851)

1934 – Paul Ulrich Villard, French physicist and chemist (born 1860)

1941 – James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1882)

1943 – Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss painter and sculptor (born 1889)

1949 – Aino Aalto, Finnish architect and designer (born 1894)

1956 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (born 1871)

1957 – A. E. Coppard English poet and short story writer (born 1878)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:

Blessed Veronica of Milan

Elian

Hilary of Poitiers

Mungo

St. Knut's Day or Tjugondag Knut, the last day of Christmas. (Sweden and Finland)

January 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Constitution Day (Mongolia)

Democracy Day (Cape Verde)

Gluten-free diet day

Liberation Day (Togo)

Old New Year's Eve (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska, North Macedonia), and its related observances:

Malanka (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus)

Sidereal winter solstice's eve celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; the last day of the six-month Dakshinayana period (see January 14):

Bhogi (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu)

Lohri (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh)

Uruka (Assam)

Stephen Foster Memorial Day (United States)

Yennayer (Berbers)