Yesterday Files

On This Day: November 13

Key moments from history that happened on November 13.

1. 1956

   The Supreme Court upheld a ruling that bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, was unconstitutional.

   The decision affirmed a lower court ruling in Browder v. Gayle, a case brought on behalf of four Black women. The Montgomery bus boycott continued until the order took effect and the buses were desegregated.

2. 1974

   Karen Silkwood, a plutonium plant worker who had raised safety concerns, died in a car crash in Oklahoma.

   Silkwood had complained to the Atomic Energy Commission about conditions at the Kerr-McGee plant and was driving to meet a union official and a reporter. Documents she reportedly carried were never found in the wreck.

3. 1982

   The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington after thousands of veterans marched to the site.

   Designed by Yale architecture student Maya Lin, the black granite wall lists the names of the Americans who died in the war in the order they were lost, not by rank.

4. 2001

   Taliban forces abandoned Kabul, and U.S.-backed Northern Alliance fighters entered the Afghan capital.

   The withdrawal came about five weeks after the United States began airstrikes in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks. The Taliban pulled back without fighting for the city.