THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― DECEMBER 13

December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 18 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56).

NATIONAL VIOLIN DAY 

1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.

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.

1643 – English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.

1769 – Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.

1862 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats Union Major General Ambrose Burnside.

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking ― The city of Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese. This is followed by the Nanking Massacre, in which Japanese troops rape and slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.

1938 – The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.

1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate ― Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.

1941 – World War II: The Kingdoms of Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.

1943 – World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying forces in Greece.

1962 – NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.

1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon. Cernan was actually the last man to set foot on the moon prior to their return. He also left his daughter's initials drawn in the lunar dust.

1981 – General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, largely due to the actions by Solidarity.

1988 – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York. Ah, the Reagan Years: Before we started letting in every alley cat around into the country for no good reason.

2003 – Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn ― Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.

2011 – A murder–suicide in Liège, Belgium, kills six and wounds 125 people at a Christmas market.

2013 – Arapahoe High School Shooting: Murder-suicide: A female student seeking the librarian is shot dead in a hallway by another student after the librarian had demoted him on the debate team. The shooter takes his own life shortly afterwards.

TODAY'S BIRTHS

1816 – Werner von Siemens, German engineer and businessman, founded Siemens (d. 1892)

1818 – Mary Todd Lincoln, 16th First Lady of the United States (d. 1882)

1887 – Alvin C. York, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient, WWI (d. 1964)

1908 – Elizabeth Alexander, British geologist, academic, and physicist (d. 1958)

1953 – Ben Bernanke, American economist and academic

From Wikipedia and Google.