2024 Calendar

August 13 is the 225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 140 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

3113 B.C. – Maya Calendar, started on this date (some sources give August 11). It ends either on December 21 or 23, 2012. Although some people thought the world would end in 2012, life continued as normal.
29 BC – Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
523 – John succeeds Hormisdas as Pope.
582 – Maurice becomes Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
1099 – Paschal II is elected Pope.
1315 – Louis X of France marries Clemence d'Anjou.
1326 – Aradia de Toscano, according to legend/folklore, is initiated into a Dianic witchcraft cult, subsequently founds the tradition of Stregheria later known as the Malandanti.
1415 – Henry V of England lands at Chef-en-Caux, France with 8000 men.
1516 – Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain signed. In it, Francis recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
1521 – Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés
1532 – The Duchy of Brittany absorbed into the Kingdom of France.
1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
1553 – Michael Servetus arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.
1624 – Louis XIII of France appoints Cardinal Richelieu as Prime Minister.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.
1762 – Seven Years' War: British forces take Havana in the then-Spanish colony of Cuba.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of US Naval Forces before the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
1792 – Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal and declared an enemy of the people.
1806 – The United Kingdom takes control of the Cape Colony in present-day South Africa from the Netherlands.
1809 – Battle of Bergisel: Tyroleans under Andreas Hofer defeat the French.
1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.
1826 – Scotsman Alexander Gordon Laing enters Timbuktu, at the first time that a European is known to have arrived there.
1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse which he believes is a sign of God. 8 days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
1868 – A large earthquake strikes near Arica (then in Peru, now in Chile), causing an estimated 25,000 casualties and a tsunami that causes damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
1878 – The Luray Caverns in Northwest Virginia are discovered.
1898 – Spanish-American War: Spanish and US forces engage in a mock battle in Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrenders in order to keep the city out of Filipino hands.
1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.

1901 – 2000

1905 – Norway holds a referendum in favour of dissolving the union with Sweden.
1913 – Otto Witte, an acrobat, is crowned King of Albania.
1913 – Invention 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 – BMW is founded as a public company in Germany.
1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw begins, lasts till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
1923 – First major seagoing ship arrives at Gdynia, newly constructed Polish seaport.
1923 – Gustav Stresemann forms Germany's first "Grand Coalition" government.
1935 – The wall of the dam Alla Sella Zerbino breaks in the Ligurian Appenines in Italy. Flooding in Molare and Ovada kills over 100 or more.
1937 – The Japanese attack Shanghai, China.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain begins - The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.
1942 – Walt Disney's fifth animated feature, Bambi, premiers.
1948 – Austria joins UNESCO.
1952 – West Germany and Japan join the International Monetary Fund.
1954 – The national anthem of Pakistan - Qaumi Taranah - is broadcast for the first time.
1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
1961 – The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to stop its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West. The Berlin Wall is built as a result.
1964 – Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West, becoming the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.
1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate Greek military leader George Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
1969 – The three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, are released from a 3-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.
1977 – Members of the British National Front clash with anti-National Front demonstrators in Lewisham, London. 111 people are injured and 214 arrested.
1978 – 150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
1984 – The new International Airport of Jakarta is opened.
1987 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan assumes responsibility for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.
1996 – Marc Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin and Lelièvre were arrested.
1997 – South Park debuts on Comedy Central.
1999 – The rising sun flag, already in use since 1868, becomes the official Flag of Japan.

From 2001

2001 – The Arena auf Schalke is opened, as the home of the football team FC Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
2002 – Major flooding occurs in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in what is referred to there as the "Flood of the Century".
2004 – Games of the XXVIII Olympiad opens in Athens, Greece.
2004 – Hurricane Charley, a category 4 storm, strikes the Fort Myers, Florida, area.
2004 – Black Friday crackdown by NSS on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé.
2004 – 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the Olympic Games' individual gold medal record.
2008 – South Ossetian War: Russian troops occupy the Georgian city of Gori.
2014 – English film producer, Norman Spencer, becomes a centenarian.

Births

Up to 1900

582 – Arnulf of Metz, French bishop and saint (d. 640)
1311 – King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon (d. 1350)
1625 – Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician and physicist (d. 1698)
1651 – Balthasar Permoser, German sculptor (d. 1732)
1666 – William Wotton, English scholar (d. 1727)
1700 – Heinrich von Bruhl, German politician (d. 1763)
1717 – Louis François, Prince of Conti, French prince (d. 1776)
1743 – Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (d. 1808)
1752 – Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily (d. 1814)
1757 – James Gillray, British caricaturist (d. 1815)
1762 – Therione de Mericourt, French revolutionary (d. 1817)
1790 – William Wentworth, Australian explorer and politician (d. 1872)
1792 – Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen consort of William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1849)
1800 – Ippolito Rosellini, Italian Egyptologist (d. 1843)
1802 – Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian writer (d. 1850)
1803 – Vladimir Odoyevsky, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1869)
1810 – Christian C. A. Lange, Norwegian historian and archivist (d. 1861)
1814 – Anders Jonas Angstrom, Swedish astronomer and physicist (d. 1874)
1818 – Lucy Stone, American Women's Rights activist (d. 1893)
1819 – Aurelio Saffi, Italian politician (d. 1890)
1819 – George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist (d. 1903)
1820 – George Grove, English musicologist (d. 1900)
1842 – Albert Sorel, French writer and historian (d. 1906)
1851 – Felix Adler, German-born American educator (d. 1933)
1852 – Christian Krohg, Norwegian painter (d. 1925)
1853 – Antonio Salandra, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1931)
1857 – Henri Pittier, Swiss-Venezuelan naturalist and biologist (d. 1950)
1860 – Annie Oakley, American sharp shooter (d. 1926)
1866 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian industrialist and founder of Fiat (d. 1945)
1867 – William Craigie, Scottish philologist and lexicographer (d. 1957)
1867 – George Luks, American painter (d. 1933)
1869 – Tony Garnier, French architect and urban planner (d. 1948)
1871 – Karl Liebknecht, German political activist (d. 1919)
1872 – Richard Willstaetter, German chemist (d. 1942)
1873 – Christian Rakovsky, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1941)
1879 – John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
1887 – Julius Freed, American investor and banker (d. 1952)
1888 – John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor (d. 1946)
1889 – Camillien Houde, 34th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1958)
1890 – Li Zongren, Chinese politician (d. 1969)
1895 – Bert Lahr, American actor (d. 1967)
1898 – Jean Borotra, French tennis player (d. 1994)
1898 – Regis Toomey, American actor (d. 1991)
1899 – Alfred Hitchcock, English movie director (d. 1980)
1899 – Soledad Mexia, Mexican-American supercentenarian (d. 2013)

1901 – 1950

1904 – Felix Wankel, German engineer and inventor (d. 1988)
1904 – Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, American actor (d. 1999)
1907 – Basil Spence, Scottish architect (d. 1976)
1907 – William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, English politician (d. 1966)
1908 – Gene Raymond, American actor (d. 1998)
1911 – Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza (d. 2003)
1912 – Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist (d. 1991)
1913 – Makarios III, Archbishop and President of Cyprus (d. 1977)
1913 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (d. 1998)
1914 – Luis Mariano, Basque operetta singer (d. 1970)
1918 – Frederick Sanger, English chemist and two-time Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
1918 – Noor Hassanali, 2nd President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2006)
1919 – Norman Spencer, English film producer
1919 – George Shearing, British jazz pianist (d. 2011)
1920 – Neville Brand, American actor (d. 1992)
1921 – Jimmy McCracklin, American blues musician (d. 2012)
1925 – Benny Bailey, American jazz trumpeter
1925 – José Sazatornil, Spanish actor (d. 2015)
1926 – Fidel Castro, President of Cuba (d. 2016)
1928 – Pedro Pedrossian, Brazilian politician (d. 2017)
1930 – Tomás Borge, Nicaraguan politician (d. 2012)
1930 – Bernard Manning, English comedian (d. 2007)
1930 – Eddie Marlin, American wrestler and promoter (d. 2019)
1931 – Norman Read, New Zealand athlete (d. 1994)
1933 – Madhur Jaffrey, Indian actress and cookery writer
1933 – Joycelyn Elders, 15th Surgeon General of the United States
1934 – Gyoji Matsumoto, Japanese footballer
1936 – Vyjayanthimala, Indian actress, dancer, singer and politician
1937 – James David Santini, American politician (d. 2015)
1938 – Dave "Baby" Cortez, American pianist
1940 – Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (d. 2000)
1940 – Dirk Sager, German journalist (d. 2014)
1941 – Ambrogio Fogar, Italian sailor, writer, rally driver and all-round adventurer and television presenter (d. 2005)
1941 – Henning Voscherau, German politician (d. 2016)
1941 – Susan Jameson, English actress
1942 – Sheila Armstrong, English soprano
1944 – Kevin Tighe, American actor
1945 – Lars Engqvist, Swedish politician
1945 – Howard Marks, Welsh drug smuggler (d. 2016)
1946 – Janet Yellen, American economist, 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve
1947 – Margareta Winberg, Swedish politician
1948 – Roberto Micheletti, Honduran politician
1949 – Philippe Petit, French high wire artist
1949 – Bobby Clarke, Canadian ice hockey player

1951 – 1975

1951 – Dan Fogelberg, American musician (d. 2007)
1952 – Hughie Thomasson, American guitarist
1953 – Carla Bodendorf, German athlete
1953 – Thomas Pogge, German philosopher
1955 – Mulgrew Miller, American pianist (d. 2013)
1955 – Paul Greengrass, American director
1958 – Feargal Sharkey, Northern Irish singer
1959 – Andreas Ravelli, Swedish footballer
1959 – Thomas Ravelli, Swedish footballer
1959 – Michael Bradley, Irish musician
1960 – Phil Taylor, English darts player
1960 – Janusz Kurtyka, Polish historian (d. 2010)
1961 – Christos Christodolou, Greek basketball player
1961 – Cary Stayner, American serial killer
1961 – Chad Brown, American poker player and actor (d. 2014)
1962 – Manuel Valls, Spanish-born French politician, Prime Minister of France
1962 – John Slattery, American actor
1963 – Valerie Plame, American CIA agent and author
1963 – Sridevi, Indian actress (d. 2018)
1964 – Debi Mazar, American actress
1965 – Hayato Matsuo, Japanese composer and conductor
1966 – Shayne Corson, Canadian ice hockey player
1966 – Scooter Barry, American basketball player
1969 – Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
1970 – Casiano Delvalle, Paraguayan footballer
1970 – Alan Shearer, English footballer
1971 – Moritz Bleibtreu, German actor
1972 – Michael Sinterniklaas, French-American actor, director and screenwriter
1972 – Hani Hanjour, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001)
1975 – Joe Perry, English snooker player
1975 – Marty Turco, Canadian ice hockey goaltender

From 1976

1978 – Benjani Mwaruwari, Zimbabwean footballer
1980 – Irina Berezhna, Ukrainian politician (d. 2017)
1982 – Sarah Huckabee Sanders, 29th White House Press Secretary
1982 – Sebastian Stan, Romanian-American actor
1982 – Shani Davis, American speed skater
1982 – Kalenna Harper, American singer-songwriter
1983 – Thomas Schwall, American ski jumper
1984 – Niko Kranjcar, Croatian footballer
1984 – James Morrison, British singer
1984 – L'Aura, Italian singer-songwriter, composer, violinist and pianist
1984 – Alona Bondarenko, Ukrainian tennis player
1984 – Colin Fleming, Scottish tennis player
1985 – Olubayo Adefemi, Nigerian footballer
1985 – Lacey Brown, American singer-songwriter
1985 – Mattia Pasini, Italian motorcycle racer
1988 – Keith Benson, American basketball player
1989 – Justin Greene, American basketball player
1990 – Shila Amzah, Malaysian singer-songwriter and actress
1990 – Elise Christie, Scottish short-track speed skater
1990 – DeMarcus Collins, American basketball player
1990 – Sae Miyazawa, Japanese singer (AKB48)
1991 – Alexander Kacaniklic, Swedish footballer
1993 – Johnny Gaudreau, American ice hockey player
1994 – Filip Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player
2000 – Piper Reese, American internet celebrity and actress

Deaths

Up to 1900

586 – Radegund, Queen consort of Clotaire I
604 – Emperor Wen of Sui of China (b. 541)
612 – Eudokia, Byzantine Empress (b. 580)
900 – Zwentibold, last King of Lotharingia (b. 870)
1134 – Irene of Hungary (b. 1088)
1382 – Eleanor of Aragon, queen of John I of Castile (b. 1358)
1447 – Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (b. 1392)
1667 – Jeremy Taylor, Irish writer and bishop (b. 1613)
1686 – Louis Maimbourg, historian (b. 1610)
1744 – John Cruger, Dutch-born American politician and 39th Mayor of New York City (b. 1678)
1749 – Johann Elias Schlegel, German poet and critic (b. 1719)
1826 – René Laënnec, French physician (b. 1781)
1863 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter (b. 1798)
1865 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Austrian-Hungarian physician (b. 1818)
1884 – Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington (b. 1807)

1901 – 2000

1910 – Florence Nightingale, English nurse (b. 1820)
1912 – Jules Massenet, French composer (b. 1842)
1913 – August Bebel, German politician (b. 1840)
1917 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist (b. 1860)
1933 – Hasan Prishtina, Albanian politician (b. 1873)
1934 – Mary Hunter Austin, American writer (b. 1868)
1946 – H. G. Wells, English writer (b. 1866)
1948 – Elaine Hammerstein, American actress (b. 1897)
1958 – Francis J. McCormick, American football player, basketball player and coach (b. 1903)
1958 – Otto Witte, German acrobat and claimant to the throne of Albania (b. 1868)
1965 – Ikeda Hayato, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1899)
1977 – Henry Williamson, English writer (b. 1895)
1982 – Joe Tex, American musician (b. 1933)
1984 – Tigran Petrosian, Armenian chess player (b. 1929).
1989 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (b. 1955)
1991 – James Roosevelt, American politician (b. 1907)
1994 – Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer (b. 1905)
1995 – Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer (b. 1963)
1995 – Mickey Mantle, American Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1931)
1995 – Jan Křesadlo, Czech-born writer (b. 1926)
1996 – David Tudor, pianist and composer (b. 1926).
1996 – António de Spínola, Portuguese general and politician (b. 1910)
1998 – Nino Ferrer, Italian-French singer and composer (b. 1934)
1998 – Waneta Hoyt, American serial killer (b. 1946)
1999 – Ignatz Bubis, German Jewish leader (b. 1927)

From 2001

2003 – Lothar Emmerich, German footballer (b. 1941)
2004 – Julia Child, American chef and television personality (b. 1912)
2005 – David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1942)
2007 – Yone Minegawa, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1893)
2007 – Phil Rizzuto, American baseball player (b. 1917)
2008 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1904)
2008 – Sandy Allen, American, world's tallest woman (b. 1953)
2009 – Les Paul, American musician (b. 1915)
2010 – Lance Cade, American professional wrestler (b. 1981)
2012 – Helen Gurley Brown, American writer, publisher and businesswoman (b. 1922)
2012 – Johnny Pesky, American baseball player and coach (b. 1919)
2013 – Lothar Bisky, German politician (b. 1941)
2013 – Jean Vincent, French footballer (b. 1930)
2014 – Eduardo Campos, Brazilian politician (b. 1965)
2014 – Robert Bruce Smith, IV, American music expert, writer, historian and poet (b. 1945)
2015 – Bob Fillion, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1920)
2016 – Kenny Baker, British actor (b. 1934)
2016 – Joyce Carol Thomas, American poet and playwright (b. 1938)
2016 – Françoise Mallet-Joris, Belgian writer (b. 1930)
2017 – Aung Shwe, Burmese politician and general (b. 1918)
2017 – Joseph Bologna, American actor (b. 1934)
2018 – Somnath Chatterjee, Indian politician (b. 1929)
2018 – Jim Neidhart, American professional wrestler (b. 1955)
2018 – Powell A. Moore, American politician (b. 1938)
2019 – Cecilia Caballero Blanco, First Lady of Colombia (b. 1913)
2019 – Nadia Toffa, Italian journalist and television presenter (b. 1979)

Observances

Independence Day (Central African Republic)
International Lefthanders Day
Lao Issara - Day of the Free Laos
Women's Day (Tunisia)