13 July History
- 1099 - The Crusaders launch their final assault on Jerusalem.
- 1534 - Ottoman armies capture Tabriz in northwestern Persia.
- 1558 - Led by the court of Egmont, the Spanish army defeats the French at Gravelines, France.
- 1585 - A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reaches Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
- 1643 - In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, are defeated by Royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.
- 1754 - George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to the French, leaving them in control of the Ohio Valley.
- 1787 - Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacts the Northwest Ordinance, establishing rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.
- 1798 - English poet William Wordsworth visits the ruins of Tintern Abbey.
- 1832 - Henry Schoolcraft discovers the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.
- 1862 - Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
- 1863 - Opponents of the draft begin three days of rioting in New York City.
- 1866 - The Great Eastern begins a two week voyage to complete a 12-year effort to lay telegraph cable across the Atlantic between Britain and the United States.
- 1878 - The Congress of Berlin divides the Balkans among European powers.
- 1939 - Frank Sinatra records his first song, "From the Bottom of my Heart," with the Harry James Band.
- 1941 - Britain and the Soviet Union sign a mutual aid pact, providing the means for Britain to send war materiel to the Soviet Union.
- 1954 - In Geneva, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and France reach an accord on Indochina, dividing Vietnam into two countries, North and South, along the 17th parallel.
- 1971 - The Army of Morrocco executes 10 leaders accused of leading a revolt.
13 July Birthdays
- 1793 - John Clare, English poet.
- 1886 - Edward J. Flanagan, Catholic priest, founder of Boys' Town.
- 1928 - Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., first African-American chief justice of a state supreme court.
- 1933 - David Storey, English novelist (The Sporting Life).
- 1934 - Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright.
- 1935 - Jack Kemp, football player, politician.