Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
13 July

A journey through
13 July in history

The story of 13 July runs from the fall of Haarlem in 1573 to the choice of Beijing as an Olympic host in 2001. In between come Cook’s second voyage to the South Seas, the Northwest Ordinance, the killing of Marat, the birth of the Carabinieri, Alexander Duff’s school in Calcutta, the closing of the Turkish Straits to warships, the New York draft riots, the Ems telegram, the first World Cup kick-off in Montevideo and the Live Aid concerts.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1573
A bird's-eye view of Haarlem and its surroundings during the Spanish siege, 16th-century printA bird’s-eye view of Haarlem and its surroundings during the Spanish siege, 16th-century printImage: Lafrery, Antonio (1512-1577) · CC0
world · Europe

Haarlem surrenders to Spain after a seven-month siege

When the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule spread in 1572, the Duke of Alba sent his son, Don Fadrique, to crush the rebel towns of Holland. Haarlem held out through the winter, but when a relief fleet was beaten on the Haarlemmermeer, starvation set in. The city surrendered on 13 July 1573, and much of its garrison was executed. The long siege cost Spain dearly, and the next towns it attacked, Alkmaar and Leiden, held out.

Source: Rijksmuseum: Moord te Haarlem door de Spanjaarden, 1573 ↗
1772
Resolution and Adventure at anchor in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, painted by William Hodges, the voyage's artistResolution and Adventure at anchor in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, painted by William Hodges, the voyage’s artistImage: William Hodges · Public domain
science · Oceania

Cook sails on his second voyage, with a watch to find longitude

After his first Pacific voyage, James Cook was sent back to settle an old question: whether a great southern continent, Terra Australis, lay somewhere in the unexplored southern oceans. He sailed from Plymouth on 13 July 1772 in the Resolution, with Tobias Furneaux commanding a second ship, the Adventure. On board was a new kind of instrument: K1, a copy of John Harrison’s prize-winning sea watch made by the London watchmaker Larcum Kendall. A ship could find its longitude by comparing local time with the time at home, but only if it carried a clock that kept perfect time through years of storms, heat and cold. Over three years Cook sailed further south than anyone before him, crossing the Antarctic Circle, and showed that any southern continent must lie in the ice. K1 kept such good time that Cook called it his ‘trusty friend’ and ‘never failing guide’, and its success helped make the marine chronometer standard equipment on ocean-going ships.

Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: K1 ↗
1787
A US stamp of 1937 for the ordinance's 150th anniversary, showing Manasseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam and a map of the territoryA US stamp of 1937 for the ordinance’s 150th anniversary, showing Manasseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam and a map of the territoryImage: Bureau of Engraving and Printing · Public domain
politics · Americas

Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance

On 13 July 1787, while the Constitution was still being drafted in Philadelphia, the Confederation Congress in New York adopted an ordinance to govern the lands north-west of the Ohio River. It set out how new states would be formed and admitted as equals of the original thirteen, guaranteed freedom of religion and trial by jury, and banned slavery in the territory. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were later made from it, largely at the expense of its Native American nations.

Source: National Archives: Northwest Ordinance (1787) ↗
1793
The Death of Marat, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1793The Death of Marat, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1793Image: Jacques-Louis David · Public domain
politics · Europe

Charlotte Corday stabs Marat in his bath

Jean-Paul Marat, a doctor turned journalist, was one of the fiercest voices of the French Revolution. His newspaper, L’Ami du peuple, called again and again for traitors to be hunted down and killed, and he was a leader of the radical Montagnards, who in early June 1793 drove their rivals, the Girondins, out of the National Convention. A painful skin disease forced him to spend long hours in a medicinal bath, where he read and wrote. Charlotte Corday, a 24-year-old from Normandy who sympathised with the Girondins, came to Paris convinced that killing Marat would stop the bloodshed. On the evening of 13 July 1793 she talked her way into his rooms by promising names of plotters in Caen, and as he wrote them down she stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. She was guillotined four days later. The Jacobins turned Marat into a martyr, and Jacques-Louis David’s painting of him dead in his bath became one of the most famous images of the Revolution.

Source: Britannica: Jean-Paul Marat ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1814
The plumed bicorne hat worn with the Carabinieri's full-dress uniformThe plumed bicorne hat worn with the Carabinieri’s full-dress uniformImage: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 4.0
politics · Europe

The king of Sardinia creates the Carabinieri

After Napoleon’s fall, King Victor Emmanuel I returned to his mainland kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont and found law and order in disarray. On 13 July 1814 he signed the royal letters patent founding the Corps of Royal Carabinieri, soldiers chosen for good conduct who would police the kingdom. When Italy was united under the House of Savoy they became a national force, and the Arma dei Carabinieri still serves as Italy’s military police.

Source: Arma dei Carabinieri: Le Regie Patenti ↗
1830
The main building of Scottish Church College in Kolkata, which grew from Alexander Duff's schoolThe main building of Scottish Church College in Kolkata, which grew from Alexander Duff’s schoolImage: Ami topse · CC BY-SA 4.0
culture · Asia

Alexander Duff opens his school in Calcutta

Alexander Duff was the first missionary the Church of Scotland sent overseas. He sailed for India in 1829 and was shipwrecked on the way, losing almost all his books, before he reached Calcutta in 1830. He believed that the best way to reach educated Bengalis was not street preaching but a school that taught Western learning, science and literature in English, alongside the Bible, and the reformer Ram Mohan Roy helped him find premises and pupils. On 13 July 1830 Duff opened the General Assembly’s Institution in a rented house on upper Chitpur Road, in the Jorasanko district of the city. It proved hugely popular and helped shape the English-language education that Britain later adopted across India. The school grew into Scottish Church College, one of the oldest colleges in Asia still running, whose students have included the religious teacher Swami Vivekananda and the nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose.

Source: Scottish Church College: College history ↗
1841
Istanbul and the Bosporus seen from the International Space StationIstanbul and the Bosporus seen from the International Space StationImage: NASA (ISS Expedition 8 crew), photograph ISS008-E-21752 · Public domain
politics · Middle East

The great powers close the Turkish Straits to warships

The Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the narrow waters linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, were the Ottoman Empire’s to guard, but Russia, Britain and France all wanted a say. In 1833 Russia had won special rights from the sultan. The London Straits Convention of 13 July 1841, signed by the Ottomans and the five great powers of Europe, replaced them: no foreign warships were to pass the straits while the empire was at peace. The rule lasted until after the First World War.

Source: Britannica: London Straits Convention ↗
1863
Crowds and burning buildings on Lexington Avenue during the riots, in a 19th-century engravingCrowds and burning buildings on Lexington Avenue during the riots, in a 19th-century engravingImage: Unknown engraver, from The Great Riots of New York (19th century) · Public domain
politics · Americas

The draft riots break out in New York City

In 1863, short of men for the Civil War, the United States brought in its first national draft. Men were chosen by lottery, but anyone called up could escape service by paying $300, more than half a year’s wages for a labourer. In New York, many poor workers, especially Irish immigrants, were angry at a war they now saw being fought to free enslaved people who might compete with them for jobs. The first names were drawn in the city on Saturday 11 July. On the morning of Monday 13 July 1863 a crowd attacked the draft office on Third Avenue and set it on fire. For four days mobs looted shops, fought the police and burned buildings, and they turned with terrible cruelty on the city’s Black residents: men were beaten and lynched, and the Colored Orphan Asylum was burned, though its children escaped. Troops were rushed from the battlefield at Gettysburg to restore order. More than a hundred people died, in the worst civil disorder in the country’s history.

Source: New-York Historical Society: What happened during the New York City Draft Riots? ↗
1870
The memorial stone in the spa gardens at Bad Ems marking where King William met the French ambassadorThe memorial stone in the spa gardens at Bad Ems marking where King William met the French ambassadorImage: Holger Weinandt · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
politics · Europe

Bismarck edits the Ems telegram and pushes France towards war

In the summer of 1870 Spain offered its vacant throne to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a relative of King William I of Prussia. France was alarmed at the thought of Hohenzollerns on two of its borders, and on 12 July the candidacy was withdrawn. Paris wanted more. On 13 July the French ambassador, Count Vincent Benedetti, approached the king on his morning walk at the spa town of Ems and asked for a promise that the candidacy would never be renewed. The king politely refused, and his staff sent a telegram describing the meeting to the Prussian chief minister, Otto von Bismarck, in Berlin. Bismarck, who believed a war with France would unite the German states behind Prussia, shortened the message before releasing it to the press that evening, so that it read as if the king had snubbed the ambassador. The French were outraged, and on 19 July France declared war on Prussia. The war ended in French defeat and the creation of the German Empire in January 1871.

Source: Britannica: Ems telegram ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1930
The Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, built for the 1930 World Cup, which opened five days after the first matchesThe Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, built for the 1930 World Cup, which opened five days after the first matchesImage: Unknown author · Public domain
sport · Americas

The first World Cup kicks off in Montevideo

Uruguay had won the Olympic football tournaments of 1924 and 1928, and 1930 was the hundredth anniversary of its first constitution, so FIFA gave it the first World Cup. The country promised to pay the teams’ travel costs and build a great new stadium. Only four European nations, France, Belgium, Romania and Yugoslavia, made the long journey by sea, joining nine teams from the Americas. The tournament began on 13 July 1930 with two games played at the same time in Montevideo, in winter weather. France beat Mexico 4-1, and the French forward Lucien Laurent scored the first goal in World Cup history, while the United States beat Belgium 3-0. Uruguay went on to win the final against Argentina, 4-2, at the new Estadio Centenario on 30 July.

Source: FIFA: Uruguay 1930 tournament review ↗
1985
The Live Aid stage, with its guitar-shaped map of Africa, at JFK Stadium in PhiladelphiaThe Live Aid stage, with its guitar-shaped map of Africa, at JFK Stadium in PhiladelphiaImage: Squelle · CC BY-SA 3.0
culture · Global

Live Aid plays to the world from London and Philadelphia

In 1984 television reports of the famine in Ethiopia moved the Irish singer Bob Geldof and Midge Ure of Ultravox to gather British and Irish pop stars as Band Aid to record ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’. American artists answered with ‘We Are the World’. Geldof then set out to stage the biggest concert ever, to raise money for famine relief. On 13 July 1985 Live Aid took place at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, with more than 70 acts including Queen, U2, Madonna, David Bowie and a reunited Led Zeppelin. Phil Collins played in London, flew across the Atlantic on Concorde and played again in Philadelphia. Carried by satellite to an estimated 1.5 billion viewers, the broadcast urged people to phone in donations, and it raised millions for famine relief in Africa.

Source: Britannica: Live Aid ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2001
The Beijing National Stadium, the Bird's Nest, during the 2008 Olympic GamesThe Beijing National Stadium, the Bird’s Nest, during the 2008 Olympic GamesImage: Shujianyang · CC BY 4.0
sport · Asia

Beijing is chosen to host the 2008 Olympic Games

Beijing had lost the race for the 2000 Olympics to Sydney by just two votes. On 13 July 2001, at its session in Moscow, the International Olympic Committee chose the Chinese capital for the 2008 Games after only two rounds of voting, ahead of Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka. The decision brought the Summer Games to China for the first time and set off a vast building programme, including the steel lattice of the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest.

Source: Olympics.com: The Olympic Games en route for Beijing ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 13 July, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 13 July

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY12 July
HISTORY & TIMELINE13 July
NEXT DAY →14 July