Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on December 13th?

The Buddhist monk Fadeng begins a journey to India, which would later contribute to Chinese Buddhist scholarship.

President Abraham Lincoln announces a grant of amnesty for Emilie Todd Helm, his wife Mary Lincoln’s half sister, widow of a Confederate general. The pardon was one of the first given under Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, announced the week before as part of the president’s plan for the reintegration of the South into the Union. Amnesty grant was available for former Confederates, except he highest officials of the Confederacy, to be granted amnesty if they took an oath to the United States. Lincoln's sister-in-law received the pardon, but never took the required oath.

President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act into law, creating the Federal Reserve. More

The Massacre of Nanjing (Eng. Nanking) also known as the Rape of Nanjing takes place. A six week carnage as the Japanese Imperial Army marches into China's then capital city of Nanjing and murders 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. It is believed to be the single worst atrocity during the World War II era. Beijing became the national capital when China became the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949. More

Singapore gains independence from Malaysia and becomes a sovereign nation.

Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq, is captured by U.S. forces near Tikrit. after 9 months of hiding.