Major Events
- 1787 First Fleet headed by Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of convicts for Botany Bay, Australia [1]
- 1830 Republic of Ecuador is founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president
- 1940 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons
- 1981 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca in St Peter's Square, Vatican City
- 1989 Approximately 2,000 students begin a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China to force a dialogue with the government ahead of a visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
- More May 13 Events
May 13 in Film & TV
- 2004 The final episode of "Frasier" on NBC is watched by 33 million people
May 13 in Music
- 1767 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's first opera "Apollo et Hyacinthus", written when he was 11 years old, premieres in Salzburg
May 13 in Sport
- 1950 First ever race of the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship is run at Silverstone, England and won by Giuseppe Farina of italy in an Alfa Romeo
Did You Know?
Charles Watson-Wentworth
Witold Pilecki
Joe Louis
Jim Jones
Stevie Wonder
Robert Pattinson
Fun Fact About May 13
22-year-old UK blogger halts spread of global ransomware cyber-attack by accidentally identifying "kill switch"
Famous Weddings
- 1917 American missionary and writer Pearl Sydenstricker (24) weds fellow American missionary and economist John Lossing Buck (26), becoming Pearl S. Buck; divorce in 1935
- 1922 "Latin Lover" silent actor Rudolph Valentino (27) weds film costume and set designer Natacha Rambova (25) in Mexicali, Mexico; divorce in 1925
- 1932 Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (25) weds Russian physicist Nina Varsar (23), mostly until her death in 1954
More May 13 Weddings
Cyrus McCormick
Fridtjof Nansen
Gary Cooper
Stanislaw Ulam
Chet Baker
Doris DayArticles, Photos and Quiz
How Australia Was Born
Captain Arthur Phillip commanded a fleet of British ships carrying convicts to New South Wales on this day, effectively founding the British colony of Australia.
May 13, 1787
Nixon Attacked in Venezuela
The car of US Vice President Richard Nixon is attacked by a mob during a visit to Venezuela in 1958
May 13, 1958
Weekly Quiz for May 13 - 19
Test your knowledge of historical events in our multi-choice weekly history quiz for May 13 - 19. Number 7 will leave you truly stumped then amazed!
