July 13
432BC Origin of the Metonic Cycle.
1099 The Crusades: The Crusaders launch their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem. "Then our leaders planned to attack the city with machines, in order to enter it and adore the sepulchre of our Saviour. They made two wooden towers and many other machines...Day and night on the fourth and fifth days of the week we vigorously attacked the city on all sides; but before we made our assault....."
1105 Death: Rashi (b.1040), medieval Jewish Bible scholar whose name is a Hebrewacrostic for Rabbi Shelomoh ben Isaac. Rashi was the leading rabbinic commentator in his day on the Old Testament and Talmud.
1396 Birth: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
1527 Birth: John Dee, alchemist, astrologer, mathematician. "While performing the duties of Rector, with the assurance of a home and steady income, Dee exclusively devoted himself to astrological studies. However, upon the accession of Queen Mary, also known as Bloody Mary in 1553 he was accused of using enchantments against the queen's life and imprisoned at Hampton Court. Such accusations of witchcraft and sorcery plagued Dee all his life, despite his many scientific achievements....."
1534 The Ottoman armies capture Tabriz in northwestern Persia.
1558 Led by the court of Egmont, the Spanish army defeats the French at Gravelines, France.
1568 The Case For The Church: The Dean of St Paul's Cathedral perfects a way to bottle beer.
Grenville
1585 Manifesting Destiny: A group of 108 English colonists in two ships, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reach Roanoke Island, NC. Note: Originally the expedition was made up of 600 men and seven ships, but crossing the Atlantic took a high toll.
Roanoke Island
1643 What's In A Name: In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, are defeated by royalist troops (The Cavaliers) under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.
Parker Statue
1729 Birth: Captain John Parker, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Parker played a prominent role in the first battle of the American War for Independence, as leader of the volunteer American militia known as the Minutemen. Died in September 1775. Note: Captain John Parker was a colonial farmer elected by fellow farmers to lead the minutemen in the first battle of the Revolutionary War at Lexington, Massachusetts. John Parker's order to the 77 minutemen facing the 700 disciplined troops of the King of England was "Stand your ground. Don't fire until fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Captain Parker's small band of colonials stood their ground. A single shot rang out on that fateful day of April 19, 1775, which set off the Revolutionary War. Although accounts vary as to which side fired the first shot, it was nonetheless immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the shot heard 'round the world."
1787 Manifesting Destiny: The US Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacts the Northwest Ordinance, which establishes the rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.
1793 French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat is stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday. She is executed four days later.
1815 President John Adams writes in a letter: 'The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist...I should still believe fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.'
Forrest
1821 Birth: Nathan Beford Forrest, in Forrest, Tennessee, brilliant cavalry leader, Lieutenant General, and slave trader, Forrest was accused of directing the massacres of blacks during the war.
1832 Ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft discovers the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Schoolcraft is the first white person to arrive at the source of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca, Minnesota. A pioneer in Native American studies, Schoolcraft conducted ethnological research among the Ojibwa in the Great Lakes region.
1835 John Ruggles receives patent #1 from the US Patent Office for a traction wheel used in locomotive steam engines. Note: All of the first 9,957 previous patents were not numbered.
1837 Queen Victoria becomes the first monarch to live at Buckingham Palace.
1854 Anti-Catholics riot in Buffalo, New York.
1854 US forces shell and burn San Juan del Norte, in Nicaragua.
1863 US Civil War: Deadly rioting against the Civil War military draft erupts in New York City. Mobs lynched blacks, killing about 1,000.
Greeley
1865 Manifesting Destiny: Horace Greeley advises his readers to 'Go west young man'. "While much admired, Greeley was also regarded as eccentric and odd, in both his personal appearance and his reformist ideas. His behavior during and after the war raised widespread doubts about his judgment. When in 1872, the anti-Grant Liberal Republicans and the Democrats nominated Greeley to challenge Grant for the Presidency, Greeley was attacked as a fool and a crank. So merciless was the assault that Greeley commented later that he sometimes wondered whether he was running for the presidency or the penitentiary...."
1868 Reconstruction: Oscar J. Dunn, a former slave, is installed as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.
1878 The Treaty of Berlin amends the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, as the Congress of Berlin divides the Balkans among the European powers.
1886 Birth: Father Edward Joseph Flanagan, American Catholic parish priest. Believing there was 'no such thing as a bad boy,' in 1922 he organized Boys Town near Omaha, Nebraska. Died in 1948.
1890 Death: John C. 'The Pathfinder' Fremont, declared Republic of California, aged 76.
1897 21 year old Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives a US patent for the radio (or wireless telegraphy). Two years earlier, at the age of 19, he had experimented with sending and receiving radio signals from different parts of his house. Marconi's invention is first rejected in Italy, but is later well received in England and the US.
1916 WW1: The second German line in the Somme is cracked, but little advantage is gained.
1917 A vision of the Virgin Mary reportedly appears to children of Fatima, Portugal.
1919 On this date British airship R-34 crossed the Atlantic both ways in 13 days, with a stowaway on board.
1930 Sarnoff reports in the New York Times that 'TV would be a theater in every home'.
1931 A major German financial institution, Danabank, fails. This leads to the closing of all banks in Germany until August 5.
1933 Church and Reich: The reorganized German Evangelical Church announces that it will not apply the "Aryan Clause" to its membership requirements.
1934 Blood Purge: Hitler defends his purge of the SA in a speech at the Kroll Opera House. An excerpt: "The content of this speech will be ruthless frankness. Only in its scope do I fell bound to impose upon myself some limitation, and the limitations is on the ones side conditioned by the interests of the Reich and on the other side by bounds which are set by the sentiment of shame......"-Hitler
Hitler and Kirdorf
1938 Death: Emil Kirdorf (1847-1938) Industrialist tycoon from the Ruhr who was one of the first prominent German entrepreneurs to join the Nazis and obtain financial support for Hitler. Cofounder of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and other large concerns, Kirdof was a ruthless exploiter and foe of the labor unions.
1938 Hybrid Entertainment: Spectators pay 25 cents to witness the first television theater in Boston, Massachusetts. The variety show with dancing and song lasts 45 minutes and is attended by 200 people. The acts are performed on a floor above the theater and transmitted downstairs by TV.
1939 Holocaust: Italy enacts an "Aryanization" program similar to the one in Germany.
1940 WW2: Hitler issues Directive 15 on the air war with Britain. The offensive is to begin at full strength on August 5, with the intention of driving the RAF from the skies.
1941 WW2: Britain and Russia conclude a mutual aid treaty. Russia prepares to receive Lend-Lease assistance. (Freedman)
1942 WW2: President Franklin 'Give A Carrot To Stalin' Roosevelt overrides the sensible objections of his American planners and orders that Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, is to take place, if possible, by October 30. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed to command the joint Allied operation.
Benedicta
1942 Holocaust: Sister Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein) is removed from a Dutch monastery, where she had sought refuge. She is later gassed at Auschwitz. (Lewy)
1943 WW2 Operation Citadel: Hitler calls an end to Citadel. Both sides suffered extremely heavy losses of tanks, but the Russians will make up their losses in a few months production. The Wehrmarcht will never again assemble a force capable of taking the initiative back from the Red Army. (Clark II)
1943 WW2: Round-the-clock bombing of German cities by the Allies steadily mounts until all Germany is subjected to massive air raids. As the effectiveness of the US fighter escorts increases, the Luftwaffe becomes less and less able to counter the air attacks.
1944 WW2: Soviet troops approach Shauliai, Kovno, Vilna and Lublin. Many Jewish partisans are active behind the lines. (Atlas)
1944 WW2: July 13-22 A Soviet Army encircles and destroys German and Ukrainian forces (including SS-Galizien division) at Brody.
1947 Cold War: Europe accepts Marshall Aid, the US financial package to help recovery after the Second World War (WWII).
1954 Cold War: In Geneva, the United States, Great Britain and France reach an accord on Indochina which divides Vietnam into two countries, North and South, along the 17th parallel.
1960 At the Democratic National convention in Los Angeles, Senator John F. Kennedy wins the Democratic presidential nomination.
1967 Summer Of Love: Race-related rioting breaks out in Newark, NJ. At the end of four days of violence 27 people will have been killed.
1974 Watergate: The Senate Watergate Committee proposes sweeping reforms in an effort to prevent another Watergate scandal.
1976 July 13-14 Former SS Colonel Joachim 'Everyone Wants Me Dead' Peiper is murdered at his home near Traves, France, and his house is burned down around him. One of his arms and a leg are missing; the body can only be identified by his watch and dental records. It is rumored that French patriots, communists, or a Jewish revenge squad are responsible. (Secrets)
1978 Cold War: Alexander Ginzburg is sentenced by a Soviet court to 8 years.
1990 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev closes the Communist Party's 28th congress by saying he will welcome Western aid without political strings.
2001
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