Events on December 13 35
Year 902
Battle of the Holme: Anglo-Saxon forces are defeated by Danish Vikings under Æthelwold (a son of Æthelred of Wessex) who is killed in battle.
Year 1294
Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
Year 1577
Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
Year 1636
The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
Year 1758
The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.
Year 1769
Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.
Year 1862
American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats Union Major General Ambrose Burnside.
Year 1937
Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: The city of Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese. This is followed by the Nanking Massacre, in which Japanese troops rape and slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Year 1938
The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.
Year 1939
World War II: Battle of the River Plate: Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.
Year 1960
While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
Year 1962
NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
Year 1967
Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels.
Year 1968
Brazilian President Artur da Costa e Silva issues AI-5 (Institutional Act No. 5), enabling government by decree and suspending habeas corpus.
Year 1972
Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
Year 1977
Air Indiana Flight 216 crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff, and boosters of the team.
Year 1981
General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, largely due to the actions by Solidarity.
Year 1982
The 6.0 Ms North Yemen earthquake shakes southwestern Yemen with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 2,800, and injuring 1,500.
Year 1988
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York.
Year 1989
The Troubles: Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches an attack on a British Army temporary vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea, Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are killed and two others are wounded.
Year 2001
Sansad Bhavan, the building housing the Indian Parliament, is attacked by terrorists. Twelve people are killed, including the terrorists.
Year 2002
European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
Year 2003
Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
Year 2011
A murder-suicide in Liège, Belgium, kills six and wounds 125 people at a Christmas market.
Year 2013
Arapahoe High School shooting: Murder-suicide: A female student seeking the librarian is shot dead in a hallway by another student after the librarian had demoted him on the debate team. The shooter takes his own life shortly afterwards.