Historical Events on Friday, 13th June

13/06/2025

Israeli strikes on Iran: Israel initiates air strikes against Iran.

The Twelve-Day War was an armed conflict between Iran and Israel which lasted from 13 to 24 June 2025. It began when Israel bombed military and nuclear facilities in Iran in a surprise attack, assassinating prominent military leaders, nuclear scientists, and politicians, killing civilians, and damaging or destroying air defenses. Iran retaliated with over 550 ballistic missiles and over 1,000 suicide drones, hitting civilian population centers, one hospital and at least twelve military, energy, and government sites. The United States intercepted Iranian attacks and bombed three Iranian nuclear sites on 22 June. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at a US base in Qatar. On 24 June, Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire under US pressure.

---

13/06/2023

At least 100 people are killed when a wedding boat capsizes on the Niger River in Kwara State, Nigeria.

On 12 June 2023, a vessel capsized and split in two in the Niger River near Pategi, Kwara State, Nigeria. The boat was carrying attendees of a wedding, who came initially on motorcycles, but were stranded due to heavy rain. At least 108 people have been confirmed dead. Dozens are missing.

---

Three people are killed and another three injured in an early morning stabbing and van ramming attack in Nottingham, England.

In the early morning of 13 June 2023, three people were fatally stabbed and three others were injured when a van was driven into them in three connected attacks in Nottingham in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom. At around 04:00 BST, Valdo Calocane fatally stabbed two university students in the street and subsequently a school caretaker, whose van he then stole. After driving the van into people at a nearby bus stop, Calocane was arrested.

---

13/06/2021

A gas explosion in Zhangwan district of Shiyan city, in Hubei province of China kills at least 12 people and wounds over 138 others.

2021 Shiyan pipeline explosion, officially June 13 Yanhu Community Pedlar's Market Severe Gas Explosion Accident in Zhangwan District, Shiyan, Hubei was a gas explosion took place at about 6:30 a.m. local time in Yanhu Community, Checheng Road Subdistrict, Zhangwan District, Shiyan, Hubei on 13 June 2021 in a market, which then collapsed. Locals who were buying vegetables or having breakfast at the market were trapped by the explosion. The explosion resulted in 25 deaths and 138 injuries.

---

13/06/2018

Volkswagen is fined one billion euros over the emissions scandal.

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by the German Labour Front, it was revived after World War II by British Army officer Ivan Hirst and over the 81 years since grew into the global brand it is today. As of 2025, the company had a market capitalization of approximately US$58.9 billion.The company is well known for the Beetle and serves as the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, which was the world's largest automotive manufacturer by global sales in 2016 and 2017.

---

13/06/2015

A man opens fire at policemen outside the police headquarters in Dallas, Texas, while a bag containing a pipe bomb is also found. He was later shot dead by police.

On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and shot police officers in Dallas, Texas, killing five, injuring nine others, and wounding two civilians. Johnson, a 25-year-old Army Reserve Afghan War veteran, was angry over white police shootings of black men. He shot the officers at the end of a protest against the recent killings by police of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

---

13/06/2012

A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others.

The 13 June 2012 Iraq attacks were a series of simultaneous bombings and shootings that killed 93 people and wounded over 300 others. The attacks were carried out in seven different locations throughout Iraq.

---

13/06/2010

A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth by landing in the Australian Outback.

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. Hayabusa, formerly known as MUSES-C for Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C, was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, Hayabusa studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid and collected samples in the form of tiny grains of asteroidal material, which were returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft on 13 June 2010.

---

13/06/2007

The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.

The Al-Askari Shrine, also known as the 'Askariyya Shrine and the Al-Askari Mosque, is a Twelver Shi'ite mosque and mausoleum, located in the city of Samarra, in the Saladin Governorate of Iraq.

---

13/06/2005

The jury acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of his charges for allegedly sexually molesting a child in 1993.

People v. Jackson was a 2005 criminal trial held in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, California. The American pop singer Michael Jackson was charged with molesting Gavin Arvizo, who was 13 years old at the time of the alleged abuse, at his Neverland Ranch estate in Los Olivos, California.

---

13/06/2002

The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, also known as the ABM Treaty or ABMT, was a 1972 arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against strategic ballistic missiles, which are used to deliver nuclear weapons. It was intended to reduce pressures to build more nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence. Signed in 1972, it was in force for the next 30 years. Citing purported risks of nuclear blackmail from a rogue state, the United States under the George W. Bush administration unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in June 2002, leading to its termination. In ICBM defense, the US has subsequently operated the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense ABM system based in Alaska and California, as well as the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Russia maintains the A-135 ABM system around Moscow, and has developed the S-500 missile system.

---

13/06/2000

President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.

Kim Dae-jung was a South Korean politician, activist and statesman who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003.

---

Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish former hitman for Grey Wolves. On 1 February 1979, he murdered journalist Abdi İpekçi, known for his leftist views, and was imprisoned, but escaped. He travelled illegally to Vatican City on 13 May 1981, and attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II on the same day. However, the assassination attempt failed, and he was captured and imprisoned by the Italian police.

---

13/06/1999

BMW win 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft, trading as BMW Group, is a German multinational conglomerate manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Germany. The moniker, "BMW ", first came into use when the German firm Rapp Motorenwerke changed its name to Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH in 1917. Thereafter, in 1922, the name and assets of BMW GmbH were transferred to the aircraft manufacturer Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG, thereby giving rise to the company known today as BMW AG.

---

13/06/1997

A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Timothy James McVeigh was an American domestic terrorist who masterminded and perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The bombing itself killed 167 or 168 people, injured 684 people, and destroyed one-third of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. A rescue worker was killed after the bombing when debris struck her head, bringing the total to 168–169 killed. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

---

The Uphaar Cinema Fire took place at Green Park, Delhi, resulting in the deaths of 59 people and seriously injured 103 others.

The Uphaar Cinema fire was one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history. The fire started on Friday, 13 June 1997 at Uphaar Cinema in Green Park, Delhi during the three o'clock screening of the movie Border. 59 people were trapped inside and died of asphyxiation (suffocation), while 103 were seriously injured in the resulting stampede.

---

13/06/1996

The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.

The Montana Freemen were an anti-government Christian Patriot militia based outside the town of Jordan, Montana, United States. The members of the group referred to their land as "Justus Township" and had declared their leaders and followers "sovereign citizens" no longer under the authority of any outside government. They became the center of public attention in 1996 when they engaged in a prolonged armed standoff with agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

---

Garuda Indonesia flight 865 crashes during takeoff from Fukuoka Airport, killing three people and injuring 170.

Garuda Indonesia Flight 865 was a scheduled international flight from Fukuoka, Japan, to Jakarta, Indonesia via Bali, Indonesia. On 13 June 1996, Flight 865 crashed on takeoff from runway 16 at Fukuoka Airport. Out of the 275 occupants on board, 3 were killed.

---

13/06/1994

A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 398,328 in 2020, accounting for more than half the state's population. At 1,706 sq mi (4,420 km2) of land area, the city is the fourth-largest by area in the U.S.

---

13/06/1990

First day of the June 1990 Mineriad in Romania. At least 240 strikers and students are arrested or killed in the chaos ensuing from the first post-Ceaușescu elections.

The June 1990 Mineriad was the suppression of anti-National Salvation Front (FSN) rioting in Bucharest, Romania by the physical intervention of groups of industrial workers as well as coal miners from the Jiu Valley, brought to Bucharest by the government to counter the rising violence of the protesters. This event occurred several weeks after the FSN achieved a landslide victory in the May 1990 general election, the first elections after the fall of the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Many of the miners, factory workers, and other anti-protester groups, fought with the protesters and bystanders. The violence resulted in some deaths and many injuries on both sides of the confrontations. Official figures listed seven fatalities and hundreds of injured, although media estimates of the number killed and injured varied widely and were often much higher.

---

13/06/1983

Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Pioneer 10 is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Pioneer 10 became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California. The space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.

---

13/06/1982

Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.

Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 13 June 1982 until his death in 2005. Prior to his ascension, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 1975 to 1982. He was the eighth son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia.

---

Battles of Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge, during the Falklands War.

Mount Tumbledown, Mount William, and Sapper Hill are located to the west of Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. Due to their proximity to the capital, these positions held strategic importance during the 1982 Falklands War. On the night of 13–14 June, British forces launched an offensive against Mount Tumbledown and the surrounding high ground. The operation was successful, forcing the retreat of the Argentine force. This engagement, one of several night battles during the British advance toward Stanley, allowed British troops to secure a dominant position over the town, leading to the fall of Stanley and the surrender of Argentine forces on the islands.

---

13/06/1981

At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.

Trooping the Colour is a ceremonial event performed every year on Horse Guards Parade in London, United Kingdom, by regiments of Household Division, to celebrate the official birthday of the sovereign, though the event is not necessarily held on that day. It is also known as the Sovereign's Birthday Parade or the King's Birthday Parade. Similar events are held in other Commonwealth countries. In the UK, it is the biggest event of the ceremonial calendar, and watched by millions on television, on the streets of London and in the stands at Horse Guards Parade.

---

13/06/1977

Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination, which most commonly affected African Americans.

---

13/06/1973

In a game versus the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers teammates Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Bill Russell play together as an infield for the first time, going on to set the Major League Baseball record of staying together for 8+1⁄2 years.

The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citizens Bank Park, located in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

---

13/06/1971

Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

---

13/06/1967

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 until 1969. He was Kennedy's vice president from 1961 to 1963, and a member of Congress for 26 years before. Johnson was a U.S. representative from Texas's 10th congressional district and the elder U.S. senator for Texas as a member of the Democratic Party. Born and raised in the segregationist South, Johnson had to compromise during the height of the civil rights movement.

---

13/06/1966

The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their Fifth Amendment rights before questioning them (colloquially known as "Mirandizing").

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". In 1803, the court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.

---

13/06/1952

Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.

The Catalina affair was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea.

---

13/06/1944

World War II: The Battle of Villers-Bocage: German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the British 7th Armoured Division, destroying up to fourteen tanks, fifteen personnel carriers and two anti-tank guns in a Tiger I tank.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

---

World War II: German combat elements, reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.

The 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" was a German Waffen-SS division that saw action on the Western Front during World War II. It was formed in October 1943 from Germans, Volksdeutsche, Romanians, and Belgians, and included a cadre from the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg. The division was sent into battle, destroyed, and rebuilt, before surrendering to U.S. forces near Achen Lake in May 1945. It was first stationed in southwest France before being sent to Normandy in June 1944, where it launched a counterattack against the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The 17th slowed down their advance but was practically destroyed as of July 1944. The division was rebuilt in eastern France and took part in the Battle of Metz, where it took heavy losses, and after that its remnants fought against the Western Allied invasion of Germany.

---

World War II: Germany launches the first V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs strike their targets.

The V-1 flying bomb was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and Maikäfer (maybug).

---

13/06/1927

Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade up 5th Avenue in New York City.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), setting a new flight distance world record. The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.

---

13/06/1917

World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London of the war is carried out by Gotha G.IV bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw major developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

---

13/06/1898

Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.

Yukon is a territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada's westernmost and smallest territory by land area. As of the 2021 census, Yukon is the middle of the three territories in terms of population, but the most densely populated. As of the 2025 fourth quarter estimates Yukon had a population of 48,261. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest city in northern Canada.

---

13/06/1895

Émile Levassor wins the world's first real automobile race. Levassor completed the 732-mile course, from Paris to Bordeaux and back, in just under 49 hours, at a then-impressive speed of about fifteen miles per hour (24 km/h).

Émile Constant Levassor was a French engineer and a pioneer of the automobile industry and car racing in France.

---

13/06/1893

Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.

Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Democrat elected president after the American Civil War.

---

13/06/1886

A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Great Vancouver Fire destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 13, 1886. It started as two land-clearing fires to the west of the city. The first fire was farther away from the city and was clearing land for the roundhouse of the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The second fire was clearing land to extend the city to the west. The Great Fire occurred shortly after the township of Granville had been incorporated into the City of Vancouver in April 1886.

---

13/06/1881

The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.

USS Jeannette was a naval exploration vessel which, commanded by George W. De Long, undertook the Jeannette expedition of 1879–1881 to the Arctic. After being trapped in the ice and drifting for almost two years, the ship and her crew of 33 were released from the ice, then trapped again, crushed and sunk some 300 nautical miles north of the Siberian coast. The entire crew survived the sinking, but eight died while sailing towards land in a small cutter. The others reached Siberia, but 12 subsequently perished in the Lena Delta, including De Long.

---

13/06/1855

Twentieth opera of Giuseppe Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes ("The Sicilian Vespers"), is premiered in Paris.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the modern province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron named Antonio Barezzi.

---

13/06/1850

The American League of Colored Laborers, the first African American labor union in the United States, is established in New York City.

The American League of Colored Laborers (ALCL) was a short-lived labor union established in New York City in 1850. It is notable for being the first union created for African Americans in the United States. Social reformer Frederick Douglass assisted in organizing the group, which held its first meeting at the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on June 13, 1850. Its initial officers included Samuel Ringgold Ward as president, Douglass and Lewis Woodson as vice presidents, and Henry Bibb as secretary. During the first meeting, an executive committee was organized that was composed of several notable social reformers and abolitionists. In addition to union activities, the league was also envisioned to serve as a benefit society for black tradespeople and entrepreneurs, and to this effect, its leaders planned to establish a mutual savings bank and hold an industrial fair. Despite these plans, the union faltered shortly after its creation, and it would take until 1869 that the first successful national labor union for African Americans, the Colored National Labor Union, was formed.

---

13/06/1805

Lewis and Clark Expedition: Scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Clark, along with 30 others, set out from Camp Dubois, Illinois, on May 14, 1804, met Lewis and ten other members of the group in St. Charles, Missouri, then went up the Missouri River. The expedition crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas near the Lemhi Pass, eventually coming to the Columbia River, and the Pacific Ocean in 1805. The return voyage began on March 23, 1806, at Fort Clatsop, Oregon, ending six months later on September 23.

---

13/06/1777

American Revolutionary War: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

---

13/06/1774

Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.

Rhode Island is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly more than 1.11 million residents as of 2025. The state's population, however, has continually recorded growth in every decennial census since 1790, and it is the second-most densely populated state after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though most of its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.

---

13/06/1740

Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine.

The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern Colonies in colonial-era British America. In 1775 it was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to support the American Revolution.

---

13/06/1625

King Charles I of England marries Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Navarre, at Canterbury.

Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

---

13/06/1525

Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.

Martin Luther was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Western and Christian history.

---

13/06/1514

Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.

Henry Grace à Dieu, also known as Great Harry, was an English carrack or "great ship" of the King's Fleet in the 16th century, and in her day the largest warship in the world. Contemporary with Mary Rose, Henry Grace à Dieu was even larger, and served as Henry VIII's flagship.

---

13/06/1381

In England, the Peasants' Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, comes to a head, as rebels set fire to the Savoy Palace.

The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Uprising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years' War, and instability within the local leadership of London. The revolt heavily influenced the course of the Hundred Years' War by deterring later Parliaments from raising additional taxes to pay for military campaigns in France.

---

13/06/1325

Ibn Battuta begins his travels, leaving his home in Tangiers to travel to Mecca (gone 24 years).

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan Muslim traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, commonly known as The Rihla. Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around 117,000 km (73,000 mi), surpassing Zheng He with about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo with 24,000 km (15,000 mi).

---

13/06/0313

The decisions of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, are published in Nicomedia.

The Edict of Milan was the 13 February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Mediolanum and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians following the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution but did not make it the state church of the Roman Empire, which occurred in AD 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica, when Nicene Christianity received normative status.

---