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Made for the 250thOn this day › May 13
What happened on May 13 in American history
May 13 is the 133rd day of the year (the 134th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 12 stories from May 13 spanning 1780 to 1999. Among them: in 1780, 256 settlers sign a constitution at French Lick; judges' pay set in animal skins; and in 1846, Congress declares war on Mexico; Polk tells the nation its blood was shed on its own soil.
1780
256 settlers sign a constitution at French Lick; judges' pay set in animal skins
Robertson and Donelson lead the compact at Fort Nashborough, electing a twelve-judge council the people may remove from office.
1846
Congress declares war on Mexico; Polk tells the nation its blood was shed on its own soil
The vote formalizes three weeks of open conflict rooted in a disputed border, the annexation of Texas, and a decade of unresolved claims between two nations.
1862Member story · 1776 Club
Robert Smalls steals the CSS Planter; in the captain's hat, he sails past five Confederate forts
He brings out his family, seven crewmen and their families, four artillery pieces, and the Confederate signal codebook and harbor mine charts.
1940Member story · 1776 Club
Churchill offers blood, toil, tears and sweat; German armor punches through the Meuse at Sedan
Three days into his premiership, Churchill promises Commons nothing but sacrifice, as panzer divisions crack French lines through the Ardennes in a thrust the Allies called impossible.
1943Member story · 1776 Club
British First Army drives into Tunisia on a front-wide assault; Axis armor ground to 69 tanks
Operation Vulcan stretches from Longstop Hill to Hill 609, battering a quarter-million trapped Axis troops whose fuel lines are already cut.
1945Member story · 1776 Club
Ogoniok prints the flag photo; the smoke was added, the watch erased, the cloth was a Moscow tablecloth
Khaldei carried the flag to Berlin himself and staged the shot over the ruined Reichstag; readers see the finished image eight days after the city fell.
1958Member story · 1776 Club
Caracas mob surrounds Nixon's car; Secret Service draws weapons as crowd tries to overturn the limousine
For twelve minutes, hundreds rock and pound the Vice President's vehicle; Nixon orders his agents to hold fire. Rose Mary Woods is cut by flying glass in a trailing car.
1960Member story · 1776 Club
Police fire-hose students on City Hall steps; HUAC hearings draw mass protest in San Francisco
Hundreds of Bay Area college students pack the building; witnesses are dragged down marble steps, some seriously hurt, as William Mandel denounces the committee from the witness chair.
1980Member story · 1776 Club
F3 tornado cuts 11 miles through downtown Kalamazoo in 16 minutes; 5 are dead, 1,200 homeless
St. Augustine Elementary is rubble, but all 328 students had been sent home an hour before the twister arrived, sparing them.
1985
Philadelphia police drop a bomb on a row house; fire spreads for hours, killing 11
Commissioner Sambor ordered the strike on 6221 Osage Ave; officials let the blaze run until 61 homes are ash and 250 people have nowhere to sleep.
1998Member story · 1776 Club
Three devices detonate at once under the Rajasthan desert; India joins the thermonuclear club
Shafts code-named White House, Taj Mahal, and Kumbhkaran fire simultaneously at 3:45 PM; Pakistan warns it will take "appropriate action."
1999Member story · 1776 Club
NATO bombs kill 87 Albanian refugees near Koriša; pilots struck what they believed was a military convoy
Yugoslavia accuses the alliance of deliberate targeting; NATO has not yet responded to the charge.
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