April 13

Historic Events

2025

Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament, becoming just the sixth person to complete the Grand Slam in golf. ›

2024

Six people and the perpetrator are killed and twelve others injured in a mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney, Australia. ›

2023

The house of Jack Teixeira is raided in an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents; he is arrested on the same day. ›

2014

Three people are killed in a shooting in Overland Park, Kansas. ›

2013

Salam Fayyad resigns as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority following an ongoing dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas. ›

2013

Lion Air Flight 904 crashes on approach to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Indonesia, injuring 40 people. ›

2009

A fire destroys a homeless hostel and kills at least 22 people in Kamień Pomorski, Poland. ›

2006

The United Front for Democratic Change's attack on the Chadian capital of N'Djamena is repelled by the Chadian army ›

1997

Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. ›

1996

Two women and four children are killed after an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon. ›

1976

The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration. ›

1976

Forty workers die in the Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion, the deadliest industrial accident in modern Finnish history. ›

1975

Beirut bus massacre: A confrontation between Phalangist paramilitaries and PLO militia marks the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War. ›

1972

The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan. ›

1972

Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins. ›

1970

At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed "Odyssey") while en route to the Moon. ›

1964

At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American man to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field. ›

1960

The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system. ›

1953

CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra. ›

1948

In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre. ›

1945

World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany. ›

1945

World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna. ›

1943

World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility. ›

1943

The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth. ›

1941

A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed. ›

1924

A.E.K., a major Greek multi-sport club, is established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople. ›

1919

Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer kill approximately 379–1,000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India. Approximately 1,500 are injured. ›

1909

The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. ›

1873

The Colfax massacre: More than 60 to 150 black men are murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. ›

1870

The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded. ›

1865

American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union forces. ›

1861

American Civil War: Union forces surrender Fort Sumter to Confederate forces. ›

1849

Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly. ›

1829

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament. ›

1777

American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey. ›

1742

George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland. ›

1699

The Sikh religion is formalised as the Khalsa – the brotherhood of Warrior-Saints – by Guru Gobind Singh in northern India, in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar. ›

1613

Samuel Argall, having captured Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father. ›

1612

Samurai Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō in a duel at Funajima island. ›

1455

Thirteen Years' War: the beginning of the Battle for Kneiphof. ›

1204

Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire. ›

1175

Saladin routs his Muslim opponents, the Zengids, in the battle of the Horns of Hama, consolidating his control over Syria except for Aleppo. ›

1111

Henry V, King of Germany, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by pope Paschal II. ›

1055

Election of Pope Victor II following the death of Pope Leo IX in the previous year. ›

989

The death of Bardas Phokas the Younger in the battle of Abydos ends his second rebellion against Byzantine Emperor Basil II. ›