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

Attalus III of Pergamon bequeaths his kingdom to Rome, leading to the establishment of the Roman province of Asia.

The Byzantine emperor Michael III is assassinated, leading to the ascent of Basil I to the throne.

Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Scotland, dies, eventually becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

The first documented observation of a transit of Venus is made by English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.

Mrs. Thomas J. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission calls for a ban of the "Robin Hood" book and references to it, for promoting communism because "he stole from the rich to give to the poor". The call came at a time when 50 percent of the country supported McCarthyism. The Indianapolis superintendent of schools stated that he could not find anything particularly subversive about the story. The attempt to censor Robin Hood failed. More

Karen Silkwood, an American chemical technician and whistleblower, dies under suspicious circumstances while investigating safety concerns at a nuclear facility. More

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated. The most prominent feature of the memorial is a massive wall that lists the names of the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. About 2,7 Million U.S. Service members served in Vietnam. including 265,000 women. It's the most-visited memorial on the National Mall in Washington, attracting more than 5 million people each year. More

The volcano Nevado del Ruiz, located about 130 kilometers from Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá, erupts spewing a violent mix of hot ash and lava into the atmosphere and causing nearly 30 meters high mudflows through the countryside where more than 23,000 people were killed most of them in the town of Armero. More

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, France, leave 130 people dead and hundreds injured.