Events on May 13 56
Year 1373
Julian of Norwich has visions which are later transcribed in her Revelations of Divine Love.
Year 1515
Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, are officially married at Greenwich.
Year 1568
Battle of Langside: The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
Year 1619
Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.
Year 1779
War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
Year 1787
Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.
Year 1804
Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.
Year 1861
American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
Year 1861
The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
Year 1861
Pakistan's (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
Year 1862
The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.
Year 1864
American Civil War: Battle of Resaca: The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
Year 1865
American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.
Year 1880
In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
Year 1888
With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery.
Year 1909
The first Giro d'Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.
Year 1912
The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
Year 1917
Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
Year 1939
The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.
Year 1940
World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
Year 1940
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
Year 1941
World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
Year 1943
World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
Year 1948
Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
Year 1951
The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
Year 1952
The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
Year 1954
The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.
Year 1954
The original Broadway production of The Pajama Game opens and runs for another 1,063 performances. Later received three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Best Choreography.
Year 1958
During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
Year 1958
May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
Year 1958
Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.
Year 1960
Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Year 1967
Dr. Zakir Husain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
Year 1972
Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
Year 1972
The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.
Year 1980
An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
Year 1981
Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
Year 1985
Police release a bomb on MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing six adults and five children, and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
Year 1990
The Dinamo-Red Star riot took place at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije (fans of Red Star Belgrade).
Year 1992
Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.
Year 1995
Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
Year 1998
Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
Year 1998
India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
Year 2005
Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan; Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates.
Year 2011
Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others.
Year 2012
Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
Year 2014
An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners.