This is a list of selected December 13 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Pope Paul III -
George Gershwin -
The Sherman Fairchild Sciences complex at Dartmouth College -
Ambrose Burnside -
Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin -
Saddam Hussein captured by U.S. forces -
William Waller -
The Army of the Potomac crossing the Rappahannock during the Battle of Fredericksburg -
Baker-Berry Library, Dartmouth College -
Haile Selassie -
Wojciech Jaruzelski
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Saint Lucy's Day in Italy and Scandinavia | refimprove section |
| Republic Day in Malta (1974) | refimprove section |
| 1545 – The Council of Trent, an ecumenical council convoked by Pope Paul III in response to the growth of Protestantism, opened in Trent, Bishopric of Trent (now in modern Italy). | refimprove |
| 1577 – Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, with five ships and 164 men on his round-the-world voyage. | unreferenced section |
| 1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organized three militia units, an act considered to be the founding of the United States National Guard. | refimprove section |
| 1642 – Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European explorer to see New Zealand. | featured on November 24 |
| 1758 – While transporting Acadians from Prince Edward Island to France, the Duke William sank in the North Atlantic with the loss of over 360 lives, one of the greatest marine disasters in Canadian history. | refimprove section |
| 1939 – Second World War: The Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles defeated the German Deutschland class cruiser Admiral Graf Spee off the estuary of the River Plate off the coast of Argentina and Uruguay. | refimprove section, outdated |
| 1974 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces launched the Spring Offensive, which culminated in the collapse of South Vietnam five months later. | CN tags |
| 1982 – An earthquake registering 6.2 Mw struck North Yemen, killing about 2,800 people. | Date not cited |
| 2003 – Post-invasion Iraq: During Operation Red Dawn, American forces found former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hiding in a spider hole and captured him. | refimprove |
| 2006 – The baiji, a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China, was announced as functionally extinct by leaders of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition. | refimprove section |
| Samuel Johnson |d|1784| | refimprove section (list of works) |
| Heinrich Heine |b|1797| | Orange banner lede too short |
Eligible
- 1643 – First English Civil War: Roundhead forces under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack in Hampshire on a winter garrison of Cavalier infantry and cavalry.
- 1769 – Dartmouth College was established by royal charter in present-day Hanover, New Hampshire.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union forces under Ambrose Burnside suffered severe casualties against entrenched Confederate defenders at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia.
- 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces, capturing the Chinese city of Nanjing, began committing numerous atrocities over the next several weeks, including looting, rape and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians.
- 1960 – With Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, out of the country, four conspirators staged a coup attempt to install Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen on the throne.
- 1981 – Polish prime minister Wojciech Jaruzelski (pictured) declared martial law.
- 1989 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army engaged in a fierce firefight with the King's Own Scottish Borderers at a vehicle checkpoint complex in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
- 2011 – A man threw grenades and fired a rifle at crowds in Liège, Belgium, causing 6 deaths and injuring more than 120 others, before killing himself.
- Born/died: | Pope Callixtus II |d|1124| Paul Speratus |b|1484| Ana Néri |b|1814| Mary Todd Lincoln |b|1818| Emily Carr |b|1871| Hans-Joachim Marseille |b|1919 | Taylor Swift |b|1989| Jill Craigie |d|1999
Notes
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appears on December 11, so Dartmouth should not appear in the same year
December 13: Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day in China (1937)
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- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: While transporting supplies to Guadeloupe, French commodore François Roquebert's expedition to the Caribbean captured the British frigate HMS Junon.
- 1928 – An American in Paris, a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by George Gershwin, premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York.
- 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Croatian Army retreated after the failure of Operation Whirlwind, destroying their tanks to avoid their capture.
- 2013 – Beyoncé (pictured) released her fifth studio album without any prior announcement or promotion; it sold 2.3 million copies before the end of the year.
- Francesco Bianchini (b. 1662)
- Athanasios Rhousopoulos (d. 1898)
- Larry Doby (b. 1923)
- Dora Marsden (d. 1960)