Year 1232
Iltutmish, the ruler of the Slave dynasty, captured Gwalior.
DECEMBER 13
Daily Historical Chronicle
UPSC CSE • State PSC • SSC CGL Matrix
13 December: What Happened On This Day in History
Curated historical timeline of momentous political pacts, freedom struggle uprisings, constitutional developments, scientific breakthroughs, and prominent birthdays recorded on 13 December.
Year 1636
The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
Year 1772
Narayan Rao became the Peshwa at Satara.
Year 1920
International Court of the League of Nations was established in The Hague, Netherlands.
Year 1947
Nicholas Raerich, great philosopher, master-artist, prolific writer, scientist, educator, designer, poet, humanitarian, explorer, leader and social worker, died at Naggar, Kulu.
Year 1955
India and the USSR affirm the Panchsheel.
Year 1977
Air Indiana Flight 216 crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff, and boosters of the team.
Year 1984
The death toll in a toxic gas leak from an insecticide plant in Bhopal, India, now is estimated at 2,100, and tens of thousands of residents fled the city today after it was announced that the Union Carbide plant would be started up again to neutralize the effect.
Year 1989
Five terrorists were released from jail in exchange for the release of the daughter of Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed from the clutches of terrorists.
Year 1991
Justice M. H Kania of Maharashtra sworn in as the 23rd Chief Justice of India.
Year 1991
Madhukar Hiralal Kaniya became the 23rd Chief Justice of India.
Year 1996
Kofi Annan elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Year 1999
Dr. V. Kurien gets the Paulos Mar Gregorius Award 1999.
Year 1999
The Government lodges protest with the Pakistani Rangers following the discovery of a tunnel near the Indo-Pak border.
Year 1999
The Railways announces concessions for senior citizens, students upto Class X and the poor.
Year 2000
All 12 battalions of the Manipur Rifles Personnel strike from work.
Year 2000
Vijay Samuel Hazare, former Indian cricket captain, becomes the first recipient of the 'Castrol Lifetime Achievement award'.
Year 2000
Vikram Sood is appointed new RAW Chief.
Year 2000
The Lok Sabha begins the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid debate.
Year 2000
Former captain of the Indian cricket team, Vijay Samuel Hazare became the first person to receive the Castrol Lifetime Achievement Award.
Year 2001
Sansad Bhavan, the building housing the Indian Parliament, is attacked by terrorists. Twelve people are killed, including the terrorists.
Year 2003
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was arrested near his hometown Tirkit.
Born 1780
Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner, a German chemist.
Born 1804
Major Thomas Candy, a lexicographer, and educator.
Born 1816
Ernst Werner Siemens, a German electrical engineer, inventor, and industrialist.
Born 1899
Pandurang Satu Naik, famous film photographer of Indian film industry, was born.
Born 1902
Ilachandra Joshi, famous Hindi novelist, story writer, critic and journalist, was born.
Born 1934
Ramakanta Rath, modernist poets in the Odia literature.
Born 1940
Sanjaya Lall, Indian economist and academic (d. 2005)
Born 1954
Harsh Vardhan, Indian otolaryngologist and politician, Indian Minister of Science and Technology
Born 1955
Manohar Parrikar, an Indian politician, and former chief minister of Goa.
Born 1960
Venkatesh Daggubati, an Indian film actor.
Born 1989
Taylor Swift, an American singer-songwriter.
Died 1048
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, an Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age.
Died 1784
Samuel Johnson, an English writer.
Died 1922
Hans Hoffstein, Iceland’s first prime minister.
Died 1930
Fritz Pregl, an Austrian scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his analysis of the organic matter.
Died 1944
Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter, and art theorist.
Died 1978
Sayyed Avid Husain, litterateur and Padmabhushan awardee, passed away.
Died 1986
Smita Patil, an Indian actress of film, television, and theatre.
Died 1994
Vishwanath Annappa Tatyasaheb Kore, Padmashri awardee, passed away.
Died 1995
Anatoly Dyatlov, deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Died 2006
Lamar Hunt, founder of the American Football League, and World Championship Tennis.