September 13 - Definition and Overview

September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). There are 109 days remaining in the year.

Events

• 533 - Belisarius and the Roman Empire defeat Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimium.
• 1440 - Gilles de Rais is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes.
• 1743 - England, Austria and Savoy-Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.
• 1759 - Battle of the Plains of Abraham: British defeat French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War
• 1788 - The United States Constitutional Convention sets the date for the first American presidential election, and New York City becomes the temporary capital of the US.
• 1791 - King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution
• 1813 - The British fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland. Turning point in the War of 1812.
• 1847 - American General Winfield Scott captures Mexico City in the Mexican-American War
• 1862 - Union soldiers find Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland
• 1898 - Hannibal Williston Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film
• 1899 - Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
• 1906 - First airplane flight in Europe
• 1940 - German bombs damage Buckingham Palace
• 1940 - Italy invades Egypt
• 1943 - Chiang Kai-shek elected president of the Republic of China
• 1948 - Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate
• 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev appointed secretary-general of the Soviet Union
• 1956 - The dyke around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed
• 1968 - Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact
• 1970 - First running of the New York City Marathon
• 1971 - State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to end a prison revolt. 42 people die in the assault.
• 1979 - South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognized outside South Africa)
• 1985 - The popular Super Mario Bros. video game is released by Nintendo.
• 1987 - Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and leading some to die from radiation poisoning.
• 1988 - Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere (based on barometric pressure)
• 1989 - Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu
• 1993 - Public unveiling of the Oslo Accords, an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement initiated by Norway.
• 1994 - Ulysses probe passes the Sun's south pole
• 1999 - Bomb explodes in Moscow, Russia. At least 119 people are killed.
• 2001 - Civilian airplane traffic in the U.S., which had been grounded following the September 11, 2001 attacks, is allowed to resume.
• 2004 - The anime InuYasha finishes its run in Japan with episode 167.

Births

• 1739 - Grigori Potemkin, Russian statesman (d. 1791)
• 1819 - Clara Schumann, pianist, composer (d. 1896)
• 1860 - John J. Pershing, American general (d. 1948)
• 1851 - Walter Reed, physician, biologist (d. 1902)
• 1842 - John H. Bankhead, United States Senator (d. 1920)
• 1857 - Milton S. Hershey, chocolate entrepreneur and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company (d. 1945)
• 1857 - Michał Drzymała, famous Polish peasant fighting with German bureaucracy (d. 1937)
• 1874 - Arnold Schoenberg, composer (d. 1951)
• 1876 - Sherwood Anderson, writer (d. 1941)
• 1887 - Lavoslav Ruzicka, Croat chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1939 (d. 1976)
• 1893 - Larry Shields, jazz musician (d. 1953)
• 1894 - J.B. Priestley, playwright, novelist (d. 1984)
• 1894 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (d. 1953)
• 1903 - Claudette Colbert, actress (d. 1996)
• 1911 - Bill Monroe, bluegrass and country music singer (Bluegrass band) (d. 1996)
• 1916 - Roald Dahl, writer (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) (d. 1990)
• 1917 - Robert Ward, composer (d. 1994)
• 1924 - Maurice Jarre, composer
• 1925 - Mel Torme, singer (d. 1999)
• 1932 - Barbara Bain, actress
• 1938 - Don Bluth, animator
• 1938 - Judith Martin ("Miss Manners"), etiquette writer
• 1941 - David Clayton-Thomas, singer ("Blood, Sweat & Tears")
• 1944 - Jacqueline Bisset, actress
• 1944 - Peter Cetera, singer and bass guitarist (Chicago)
• 1948 - Nell Carter, actress, singer (d. 2003)
• 1952 - Randy Jones, musician (The Village People)
• 1952 - Don Was, singer, composer
• 195_ - Jean Smart, American television actress (Listed as 1959 but if you read the biography, it could not possibly be. She would have graduated university at 15.)
• 1961 - Dave Mustaine, musician (Megadeth)
• 1967 - Michael Johnson, American track and field athlete
• 1969 - Shane Warne, Australian cricketer
• 1971 - Goran Ivanisevic, Croat tennis player
• 1971 - Stella McCartney, British fashion designer
• 1977 - Fiona Apple, singer
• 1977 - Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (b. 1882)
• 1980 - Ben Savage, actor
• 1982 - Nenê, Brazilian NBA player

Deaths

• 81 - Roman Emperor Titus
• 1321 - Dante Alighieri, writer (La Divina Commedia)
• 1438 - King Duarte of Portugal
• 1592 - Michel de Montaigne, French writer
• 1598 - King Philip II of Spain
• 1632 - Archduke Leopold V of Austria, Regent of Tyrol
• 1759 - British General James Wolfe, at Battle of the Plains of Abraham
• 1881 - Ambrose Burnside, American Civil War general and politician (b. 1824)
• 1899 - Henry Bliss, businessman and the first automobile accident fatality in the U.S.
• 1959 - Gilbert Adrian, Hollywood fashion designer
• 1977 - Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (b. 1882)
• 1987 - Mervyn LeRoy, film director
• 1996 - Tupac Shakur, American rap musician, actor and poet
• 1998 - George Wallace, American politician
• 2001 - Dorothy McGuire, actress
• 2003 - Frank O'Bannon, governor of Indiana

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of St John Chrysostom

Fiction

• During the 1970s science fiction TV series Space: 1999, September 13, 1999, was the day when the Moon broke away its orbit around the Earth and began its voyage across the Universe, taking the inhabitants of Moon Base Alpha with it.
• In the television series Sliders, the Mallory character invented sliding (travel between alternate realities) on September 13.
• "Second Impact", a critical event in the popular anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, was said to have occured September 13, 2000.

September 12 · September 14 · August 13 · October 13 · more historical anniversaries