January 13 - Events

Events

• 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople.
• 888 – Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
• 1328 – Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault.
• 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of black natives in Canary Islands by Spanish natives, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
• 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
• 1605 – The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison.
• 1607 – The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
• 1733 – James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1785 – John Walter publishes the first issue of the Daily Universal Register (later renamed The Times).
• 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 ashore, resulting in the death of over 900.
• 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.
• 1832 – 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 in Jalalabad, 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.
• 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 – Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 deaths (and a few people still missing) amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.