On This Day
What Happened on December 13 in History
8 events that happened on December 13, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
Colonial America and the Revolution
1577 (Julian calendar)
Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, England, on the voyage that circled the globe.
Drake left with five ships and 164 men to raid Spanish holdings along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Only his ship the Golden Hind reached the Pacific, and his return in 1580 made him the first Englishman to sail around the world.
Source: history.com
1636 (Old Style date)
The Massachusetts Bay Colony organized its militia into regiments, the origin of the National Guard.
Three regiments were formed to defend the colony's settlements against the Pequot. Units descended from them are still counted among the oldest in the U.S. military, and the date is celebrated as the National Guard's birthday.
Source: nationalguard.mil; history.com
The Young Republic and the Civil War Era
1862
Robert E. Lee's army repulsed repeated Union assaults at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Waves of Ambrose Burnside's troops charged entrenched Confederates on Marye's Heights and were cut down. Union losses topped 12,600 in one of the worst defeats of the Civil War.
Source: history.com; millercenter.org
The Early 1900s and the World Wars
1916
An avalanche buried an Austrian army barracks on Mount Marmolada in the Italian Alps.
Hundreds of soldiers died at the barracks on a day remembered as White Friday. Avalanches across the Alpine front killed thousands of Austrian and Italian troops that December.
Source: history.com
1918
Woodrow Wilson arrived in France for the peace talks that followed World War I.
Wilson sailed aboard the George Washington and was escorted into the port of Brest by U.S. battleships. He hoped to win support for a League of Nations.
1937
Japanese troops captured Nanking, China's capital, and began a campaign of mass atrocities.
Over the following weeks, Japanese soldiers killed huge numbers of prisoners and civilians and raped at least 20,000 women and girls in what became known as the Nanjing Massacre. The commander, General Matsui Iwane, was later executed for war crimes.
Source: history.com
The Modern Era
2001
President George W. Bush announced U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Bush formally notified Russia that the United States would leave the 1972 treaty so it could build a national missile defense system. The withdrawal took effect six months later.
Source: georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov; millercenter.org
2003
U.S. forces captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein near Tikrit.
Saddam had been on the run for nine months after the U.S.-led invasion toppled his government. Troops found him during an operation called Red Dawn outside his hometown.
Source: history.com