13 December History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1789    -    The National Guard is created in France.
  • 1812    -    The last remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé reach the safety of Kovno, Poland, after the failed Russian campaign. Napoleon's costly retreat from Moscow
  • 1814    -    General Andrew Jackson announces martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city. The Battle of New Orleans
  • 1862    -    The Battle of Fredericksburg ends with the bloody slaughter of onrushing Union troops at Marye's Heights. Maine's Colonel Chamberlain at Marye's Heights.
  • 1902    -    The Committee of Imperial Defense holds its first meeting in London.
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  • 1908    -    The Dutch take two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.
  • 1937    -    The Japanese army occupies Nanking, China. Boeing's Trailblazing P-26 Peashooters.
  • 1940    -    Adolf Hitler issues preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece.
  • 1941    -    British forces launch an offensive in Libya. A secret ear for the Desert Fox.
  • 1945    -    France and Britain agree to quit Syria and Lebanon.
  • 1951    -    After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S Truman vows to purge all disloyal government workers.
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  • 1968    -    President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mexico's President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz meet on a bridge at El Paso, Texas, to officiate at ceremonies returning the long-disputed El Chamizal area to the Mexican side of the border.
  • 1972    -    Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon.
  • 1973    -    Great Britain cuts the work week to three days to save energy.
  • 1981    -    Polish labor leader Lech Walesa is arrested and the government decrees martial law, restricting civil rights and suspending operation of the independent trade union Solidarity.
  • 1985    -    France sues the United States over the discovery of an AIDS serum.

  • 13 December Birthdays

  • 1585    -    William Drummond, Scottish poet.
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  • 1797    -    Heinrich Heine, German poet, satirist and journalist.
  • 1818    -    Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.
  • 1835    -    Phillips Brooks, Episcopal clergyman who wrote the lyrics for "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
  • 1838    -    Alexis Millardet, botanist who developed the first successful fungicide.
  • 1890    -    Marc Connelly, playwright, actor, director and journalist (The Green Pastures).
  • 1911    -    Kenneth Patchen, American poet and author (Before the Brave, Hurrah for Anything).
  • 1923    -    Phillip Anderson, physicist.