On May 13th...

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1568 Mary Queen of Scots was defeated in the Battle of Langside.

1588 King Henri III fled Paris, France.

1607 English colonists arrived at the site of what became Jamestown, Virginia.

1643 English Parliamentary forces defeated Royalist forces in the Battle of Grantham.
1643 An earthquake killed one-third of the population of Santiago, Chile.

1717 Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was born.

1742 Manasseh Cutler, American minister, physician, scientist, and politician, was born.

1753 French military strategist and politician L.M.N. Carnot was born.

1819 Inventor Oliver Evans died.

1830 The Republic of Ecuador was founded, with Juan Jose Flores as its first President.

1832 Zoologist Georges Cuvier died.

1835 British town planner/architect John Nash died.

1842 Composer Arthur Sullivan was born.

1846 The U. S. Congress approved a declaration of war against Mexico.

1869 Robert Dalton, "Wild West" outlaw, was born.

1882 Toba Indians killed 20 members of a French expedition in Argentina.

1884 Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, died.

1891 Isaac Murphy rode Kingman to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1911 George Archibald rode Meridian to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1913 Igor Sikorsky successfully demonstrated the first four-engine airplane.

1914 Boxer Joe Louis was born.

1916 Johnny Loftus rode George Smith to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1917 Three children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.

1918 The first U.S. airmail stamps were introduced.

1922 Albert Johnson rode Morvich to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
1922 Actress Beatrice Arthur was born.

1927 Critic Clive Barnes was born.

1930 A farmer was killed by hail in Lubbock, Texas.
1930 Fridtjof Nansen, Arctic explorer and winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Peace, died.

1938 Actor Buck Taylor was born.

1939 Actor Harvey Keitel was born.

1941 Martin Bormann was named head of the Nazi Chancellery.

1942 The first cross-country flight of a helicopter in the United States was completed.

1947 Author Charles Baxter was born.

1949 The first British-produced jet bomber, the Canberra, made its first test flight.
1949 Actor Franklyn Ajaye was born.
1949 Actress Zoe Wanamaker was born.

1950 Diner's Club issued its first credit cards.
1950 Singer Stevie Wonder was born.

1952 Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister of India.

1954 U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation authorizing construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

1958 U. S. Vice-President Richard Nixon and his wife were spat upon and their limousine battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
1958 The French Army, led by General Jacques Massu, seized control of Algeria.
1958 The trademark "Velcro" was registered.

1961 Basketball player Dennis Rodman was born.

1964 Actor-comedian Stephen Colbert was born.
1964 Actor Tom Verica was born.
1961 Actor Gary Cooper died.

1965 Singer Lari White was born.

1966 Singer Darius Rucker was born.

1967 Actor Frank McGrath died.

1968 French labor unions staged a nationwide general strike.
1968 The first official peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam were held in Paris, France.
1968 Actress Susan Floyd was born.

1972 Actor Dan Blocker died.

1974 Golfer Denny Shute died.

1975 Musician Bob Wills died.

1978 Joie Chitwood drove a Chevette on just 2 wheels for 5.6 miles.

1981 Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square.

1982 Braniff Airlines filed for bankruptcy.
1982 Terri Lea Utley (Miss Arkansas) was crowned Miss USA.

1985 A confrontation between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group's headquarters; 11 people died in the resulting fire.
1985 Laura Elena Martinez-Herring (Miss Texas) was crowned Miss USA.
1985 Actress Selma Diamond died.

1992 For the first time ever, three astronauts "walked" in space simultaneously.
1992 The final episode of "Night Court" aired on NBC-TV.

1993 A methane gas explosion in a Secunda, South Africa, coal mine killed 50 persons.

1996 Severe thunderstorms and a tornado killed 600 people in Bangladesh.

1997 Race riots broke out in Jakarta, Indonesia.

1999 Golfer Gene Sarazen died.

2000 A fireworks factory in Enschede, Netherlands, exploded, killing 22 persons and wounding 950.

2004 The last episode of "Frasier" aired on NBC-TV.

2008 Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Sheikh of Kuwait, died.
2008 Television news reporter Ron Stone died.

2012 Torrential rain in Hunan Province, China, destroyed a bridge and 3,500 homes, and displaced 28,000 people.

2013 Psychologist Joyce Brothers died.

2014 An underground explosion and fire in the Soma Mine at Manisa, Turkey, killed 301 miners.

2017 A bus plunged off a cliff near Marmaris, Turkey, killing 23 persons and injuring 11 others.

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This page was last updated on May 13, 2018.