THUNDER BAY – January 13 the day in history – On this day in history, reknowned Senator Hubert Humphery of Minnesota passed away, and Japan apologized to South Korea for enslaving women during World War Two.
Significant Historical Events on January 13
- 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople.
- 888 – Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
- 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
- 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
- 1607 – The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
- 1666 – French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier arrived in Dhaka and met Shaista Khan.
- 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, lynched by a mob in Rome
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.
- 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
- 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
- 1830 – The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
- 1833 – President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina’s defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
- 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
- 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison inJalalabad, Afghanistan.
- 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
- 1869 – National convention of black leaders meets in Washington, D.C.
- 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
- 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
- 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: the war’s opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.
- 1898 – Émile Zola’s J’accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
- 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
- 1910 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, New York.
- 1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
- 1915 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
- 1934 – The Candidate of Sciences degree is established in the Soviet Union.
- 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
- 1939 – The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
- 1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
- 1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
- 1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, which will end in a major victory for France.
- 1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
- 1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
- 1960 – The Gulag system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union is officially abolished.
- 1963 – Coup d’etat in Togo results in assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio
- 1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
- 1964 – Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.
- 1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- 1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison
- 1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
- 1974 – Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
- 1978 – U.S. Food & Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled “paid” or “volunteer” donors.
- 1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet crashes into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
- 1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
- 1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
- 1988 – Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.
- 1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
- 1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
- 1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
- 2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
- 2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 32 confirmed deaths amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.
