January 13, 532 – Nika riots began in Constantinople and half of the city was ultimately destroyed. 888 – Odo, Count of Paris became King of the Franks. 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, was promulgated by Pope Eugene IV. 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was sentenced to death. 1607 – The Bank of Genoa failed after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain. 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, was lynched by a mob in Rome. 1797 – A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ended with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths. 1815 – British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys, GA, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. 1830 – The Great fire of New Orleans began. 1833 – President Andrew Jackson wrote to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolinas defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, became 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. 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ended the Mexican–American War in California. 1893 – U.S. Marines landed in Honolulu from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. 1898 – Émile Zolas Jaccuse exposes the Dreyfus affair. 1910 – The 1st public radio broadcast took place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana was sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. 1915 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy killed 29,800. 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland showed that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany. 1942 – Henry Ford patented a plastic automobile, 30% lighter than a regular car. 1942 – 1st use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter. 1960 – The Gulag system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union was officially abolished. 1964 – Anti-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths. 1966 – Robert C. Weaver became the 1st black Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 1985 – A passenger train plunged into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa. 1986 – A month-long violent struggle began in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties. 1990 – Douglas Wilder became the 1st elected black governor as he takes office in Richmond, VA. 1991 – Soviet Union troops attacked Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 07:24:28 +0000
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