On This Day — 13 January

2021

Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 United States Capitol attack one week prior.

President of the United States

2020

The Thai Ministry of Public Health confirms the first case of COVID-19 outside China.

Ministry of Public Health (Thailand)

2018

A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state.

2018 Hawaii false missile alert

2012

The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.

Cruise ship

2004

Uzbekistan Airways Flight 1154 crashes while landing at Tashkent International Airport, killing 37.

Uzbekistan Airways Flight 1154

2003

208996 Achlys was discovered by Chad Trujillo and Michael E. Brown at Palomar Observatory.

208996 Achlys

2001

An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.

January 2001 El Salvador earthquake

2000

A Short 360 aircraft chartered by the Sirte Oil Company crashes off the coast of Brega, Libya, killing 21.

Short 360

1998

Alfredo Ormando sets himself on fire in St. Peter's Square, protesting against homophobia.

Alfredo Ormando

1993

Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.

Space Shuttle program

1993

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed.

Chemical Weapons Convention

1993

Operation Southern Watch: U.S.A.F., U.S.N., R.A.F. and French Air Force jets attack AAA and SAM sites in Southern Iraq.

Operation Southern Watch

1991

Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others.

January Events

1990

Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office as Governor of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

Douglas Wilder

1988

Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.

Lee Teng-hui

1986

A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.

Aden

1985

A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.

Awash rail disaster

1982

Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.

Air Florida Flight 90

1978

United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.

Food and Drug Administration

1977

Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashes onto the runway during takeoff from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, killing five.

Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045

1972

Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

Kofi Abrefa Busia

1968

Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison.

Johnny Cash

1966

Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Robert C. Weaver

1964

Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, in response to anti-Hindu riots in East Pakistan. About one hundred people are killed.

Violence against Muslims in India

1964

In Manchester, New Hampshire, fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971).

Manchester, New Hampshire

1963

Coup d'état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio.

1963 Togolese coup d'état

1958

The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.

Moroccan Army of Liberation

1953

An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.

Pravda

1951

First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins.

First Indochina War

1950

British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.

HMS Truculent (P315)

1950

Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

China–Finland relations

1942

Henry Ford patents a soybean car, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.

Henry Ford

1942

World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

World War II

1939

The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

Black Friday bushfires

1935

A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to no more being a "region occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France".

1935 Saar status referendum

1920

The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history.

Reichstag Bloodbath

1915

The 6.7 Mw  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610.

1915 Avezzano earthquake

1908

The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.

Rhoads Opera House fire

1900

To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces.

Czech nationalism

1898

Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair.

Émile Zola

1895

First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.

First Italo-Ethiopian War

1893

The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.

Independent Labour Party

1893

U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.

United States Marine Corps

1888

The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

National Geographic Society

1849

Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island.

Colony of Vancouver Island

1849

Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.

Battle of Chillianwala

1847

The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.

Treaty of Cahuenga

1842

Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

William Brydon

1840

The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.

Lexington (steamship)

1833

United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.

Andrew Jackson

1822

The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.

Flag of Greece

1797

French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.

French Revolutionary Wars

1793

Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.

Nicolas Jean Hugou de Basseville

1547

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

1435

Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.

Sicut dudum

532

The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I.

Nika riots

-27

Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years.

Augustus