On This Day — 13 June
2000s
2025
Israel initiates air strikes against Iran, initiating the Twelve Day War.
Twelve-Day War
2023
At least 100 people are killed when a wedding boat capsizes on the Niger River in Kwara State, Nigeria.
Kwara boat disaster
2023
Three people are killed and another three injured in an early morning stabbing and van ramming attack in Nottingham, England.
2023 Nottingham attacks
2021
A gas explosion in Zhangwan district of Shiyan city, in Hubei province of China kills at least 12 people and wounds over 138 others.
2021 Shiyan pipeline explosion
2018
Volkswagen is fined one billion euros over the emissions scandal.
Volkswagen
2015
A man opens fire at policemen outside the police headquarters in Dallas, Texas, while a bag containing a pipe bomb is also found. He was later shot dead by police.
2016 shooting of Dallas police officers
2012
A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others.
13 June 2012 Iraq attacks
2010
A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth by landing in the Australian Outback.
Hayabusa
2007
The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.
Al-Askari Shrine
2005
The jury acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of his charges for allegedly sexually molesting a child in 1993.
Trial of Michael Jackson
2002
The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
2000
President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.
Kim Dae-jung
2000
Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
Mehmet Ali Ağca
1900s
1999
BMW win 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans
BMW
1997
A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Timothy McVeigh
1997
The Uphaar Cinema Fire took place at Green Park, Delhi, resulting in the deaths of 59 people and seriously injured 103 others.
Uphaar Cinema fire
1996
The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
Montana Freemen
1996
Garuda Indonesia flight 865 crashes during takeoff from Fukuoka Airport, killing three people and injuring 170.
Garuda Indonesia Flight 865
1994
A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
Anchorage, Alaska
1990
First day of the June 1990 Mineriad in Romania. At least 240 strikers and students are arrested or killed in the chaos ensuing from the first post-Ceaușescu elections.
June 1990 Mineriad
1983
Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Pioneer 10
1982
Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
Fahd of Saudi Arabia
1982
Battles of Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge, during the Falklands War.
Battle of Mount Tumbledown
1981
At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
Trooping the Colour
1977
Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
Martin Luther King Jr.
1973
In a game versus the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers teammates Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Bill Russell play together as an infield for the first time, going on to set the Major League Baseball record of staying together for 8+1⁄2 years.
Philadelphia Phillies
1971
Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
Vietnam War
1967
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lyndon B. Johnson
1966
The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their Fifth Amendment rights before questioning them (colloquially known as "Mirandizing").
Supreme Court of the United States
1952
Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
Catalina affair
1944
World War II: The Battle of Villers-Bocage: German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, destroying up to fourteen tanks, fifteen personnel carriers and two anti-tank guns in a Tiger I tank.
World War II
1944
World War II: German combat elements, reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.
17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen
1944
World War II: Germany launches the first V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs strike their targets.
V-1 flying bomb
1927
Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade up 5th Avenue in New York City.
Charles Lindbergh
1917
World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London of the war is carried out by Gotha G.IV bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.
World War I
1800s
1898
Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
Yukon
1895
Émile Levassor wins the world's first real automobile race. Levassor completed the 732-mile course, from Paris to Bordeaux and back, in just under 49 hours, at a then-impressive speed of about fifteen miles per hour (24 km/h).
Émile Levassor
1893
Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
Grover Cleveland
1886
A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Great Vancouver Fire
1881
The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
USS Jeannette (1878)
1855
Twentieth opera of Giuseppe Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes ("The Sicilian Vespers"), is premiered in Paris.
Giuseppe Verdi
1850
The American League of Colored Laborers, the first African American labor union in the United States, is established in New York City.
American League of Colored Laborers
1805
Lewis and Clark Expedition: Scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Before 1800
1777
American Revolutionary War: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
American Revolutionary War
1774
Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
Rhode Island
1740
Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine.
Province of Georgia
1625
King Charles I of England marries Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Navarre, at Canterbury.
Charles I of England
1525
Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.
Martin Luther
1514
Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.
Henry Grace à Dieu
1381
In England, the Peasants' Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, comes to a head, as rebels set fire to the Savoy Palace.
Peasants' Revolt
1325
Ibn Battuta begins his travels, leaving his home in Tangiers to travel to Mecca (gone 24 years).
Ibn Battuta
313
The decisions of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, are published in Nicomedia.
Edict of Milan