August 13 - Events

Events

• 1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
• 1521 – Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés.
• 1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyoto, Japan's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
• 1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva. Switzerland as a heretic.
• 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim – English and Imperial forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.
• 1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.
• 1806 – Battle of Mišar during the Serbian Revolution begins. The battle will end two days later, with a decisive Serbian victory over the Ottomans.
• 1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London, England.
• 1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believes is a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
• 1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: Spanish and American forces engaged in a mock battle for Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands.
• 1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.
• 1906 – The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged.
• 1913 – Otto Witte, an acrobat, is purportedly crowned King of Albania.
• 1913 – First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
• 1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
• 1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.
• 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: the Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
• 1937 – The Battle of Shanghai begins.
• 1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.
• 1954 – Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
• 1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
• 1961 – East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
• 1962 – Representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church and Vatican City meet in Metz, France, and come to an agreement wherein the Russian church would send observers to the Second Vatican Council and in exchange, the Roman Catholic Church would refuse to condemn Communism.
• 1964 – Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the Murder of John Alan West becoming the last people executed in the United Kingdom.
• 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York, New York. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.
• 1977 – Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.
• 1978 – 150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
• 1979 – The roof of the uncompleted Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois collapses, killing 5 workers and injuring 16.
• 2004 – Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida and devastates the surrounding area.
• 2004 – 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
• 2008 – South Ossetian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori.
• 2010 – The MV Sun Sea docks in CFB Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada, carrying 492 Sri Lankan Tamils.