1913 CE
The Second Balkan War sees former allies fight over territory, escalating tensions in Southeast Europe; The Battle of Bud Bagsak ends the Moro Rebellion as U.S. forces defeat Moro fighters in the southern Philippines; At the Epsom Derby, suffragette Emily Davison is fatally struck by King George V's horse, drawing global attention to women's rights; The Senghenydd colliery disaster kills 440 miners in Wales, Britain’s worst mining tragedy; The Great Flood of 1913 devastates the American Midwest, killing hundreds and causing massive damage; The 1913 Ottoman coup d'état places the Committee of Union and Progress in power, consolidating control under the Three Pashas.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- January 13 – Edward Carson founds the Ulster Volunteer Force, by unifying several existing loyalist militias to resist home rule for Ireland.source
- February 3 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes on all sources of income.source
- February 13 – Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, declares the independence of Tibet from Qing dynasty China.source
- February 18 – Mexican Revolution: President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez are forced to resign.source
- February 19 – Mexican Revolution: With Madero and Pino Suárez removed, Pedro Lascuráin serves as President for less than an hour, before General Victoriano Huerta, leader of the coup, takes office.source
- March 13 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the United States.source
- March 20 – The city of Canberra, the centre of the Australian Capital Territory, becomes the official capital of the Commonwealth of Australia.source
- March 23 – Supporters of Phan Xích Long begin a revolt against colonial rule in French Indochina.source
- April 8 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.source
- May 30 – First Balkan War: The Treaty of London is signed, ending the war. Greece is granted those parts of southern Epirus which it does not already control, and the independence of Albania is recognised.source
- June 1 – The Greek–Serbian Treaty of Alliance is signed, paving the way for the Second Balkan War.source
- June 18 – The Arab Congress of 1913 opens, during which Arab nationalists meet to discuss desired reforms under the Ottoman Empire.source
- June 19 – The Parliament of South Africa passes the Natives Land Act, limiting land ownership for blacks to black territories.source
- August 4 – Republic of China: The city of Chongqing (Chungking) declares independence; Republican forces crush the rebellion in a couple of weeks.source
- August 10 – Second Balkan War: The Treaty of Bucharest is signed, ending the war. Macedonia is divided, and Northern Epirus is assigned to Albania.source
- September 29 – Second Balkan War: The Treaty of Constantinople is signed in Istanbul, between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria.source
- October 10 – Yuan Shikai is elected President of the Republic of China.source
- December 1 – Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.source
- December 23 – The Federal Reserve System is created as the central banking system of the United States, by Woodrow Wilson's signature of the Federal Reserve Act.source
Conflict & Security
- January 3 – First Balkan War: Greece completes its capture of the eastern Aegean island of Chios, as the last Ottoman forces on the island surrender.source
- January 18 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the war.source
- January 23 – 1913 Ottoman coup d'état: Enver Pasha comes to power.source
- February 9 – Mexican Revolution: "La Decena Trágica", the rebellion of some military chiefs against the President Francisco I. Madero, begins.source
- February 22 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and José María Pino Suárez are assassinated.source
- March 4–6 – First Balkan War: Battle of Bizani – Forces of the Kingdom of Greece capture the forts of Bizani (covering the approaches to Ioannina) from the Ottoman Empire.source
- March 18 – King George I of Greece is assassinated after 50 years on the throne; he is succeeded by his son Constantine I.source
- March 26 – Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza announces his Plan of Guadalupe, and begins his rebellion against Victoriano Huerta's government, as head of the Constitutionals.source
- March 26 – Balkan Wars: The Siege of Adrianople ends, when Bulgarian forces take Adrianople from the Ottomans.source
- Following the assassination of his rival Song Jiaoren, Yuan Shikai uses military force to dissolve China's parliament, and rules as a dictator.source
- May 24–25 – Adolf Hitler moves from Vienna to Munich.source
- June 11 – Battle of Bud Bagsak: Armed with guns and heavy artillery, U.S. and Philippine troops under General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing fight a four-day battle against 500 Moro rebels, who are armed mostly with kampilan swords. The rebels are killed in a final desperate charge on June 15.source
- June 29 – The Second Balkan War begins with Bulgaria attacking Serbia and Greece.source
- August 31 – Dublin Lock-out: "Bloody Sunday": The dispute escalates when the Dublin Metropolitan Police kill one demonstrator and injure 400, in dispersing a demonstration.source
- October 1 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa's troops take Torreón after a 3-day battle, when government troops retreat.source
- October 18 – The Monument to the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, Germany is finished.source
- November 5 – King Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III.source
Exploration & Expansion
- June 13 – The predecessor of the Aldi store chain opens in Essen, Germany.source
- July 27 – The town of San Javier, Uruguay, is founded by Russian settlers.source
- September 23 – French aviator Roland Garros crosses the Mediterranean in an airplane flying from Fréjus, France to Bizerte, Tunisia.source
- Prada is established as a leather goods dealer in Milan, by Mario Prada and his brother.source
Religion & Belief
Economy & Finance
- January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his Marxism and the National Question. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city, as also are Freud and Jung.source
- March 4 – The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established, by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor. The Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey form part of the Department of Commerce.source
Technology & Infrastructure
- February 1 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest railroad station.source
- March 17 – The Military Aviation Academy (Escuela de Aviación Militar) is founded in Uruguay, to become the Military Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Militar) on 4 December 1952 (the Uruguayan Air Force (FAU) will grow from this foundation).source
- April 21 – Cunard ocean liner , built by John Brown & Company, is launched on the River Clyde.source
- April 24 – The Woolworth Building opens in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it is the tallest building in the world on this date, and for more than a decade after.source
- May 26 (May 13 O.S.) – Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a 4-engine fixed-wing aircraft.source
- August 13 – Harry Brearley invents stainless steel in Sheffield.source
- September 9 – Imperial Russian Army pilot Pyotr Nesterov becomes the first person to loop an airplane, flying a Nieuport IV monoplane over Syretzk Aerodrome near Kiev.source
- September 9 – In Germany, BASF starts the world's first plant for the production of fertilizer based on the Haber-Bosch process.source
- October 7–December 1 – The Ford Motor Company adopts a moving assembly line for chassis production, reducing assembly time from 12½ hours to 2 hours 40 minutes, a landmark in mass production.source
- October 10 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.source
- October 16 – The British Royal Navy's is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard as the first oil-fired battleship.source
- October 31 – The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.source
- December 1 – Buenos Aires Underground, the first in South America, opens.source
- Camel cigarettes are introduced by R. J. Reynolds in the United States (the first packaged cigarettes).source
- The State Security Investigations Service, the Middle East's first internal security service, is established in Egypt.source
Science & Discovery
Health & Medicine
Crime & Justice
- February 23 – Joseph Stalin is arrested by the Russian secret police, the Okhrana, in Petrograd, and exiled to Siberia.source
- September 7–8 – The Fourth Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association (the last occasion on which Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud will meet) takes place in Munich.source
- November 6 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested, while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.source
- December 12 – Vincenzo Peruggia tries to sell the Mona Lisa in Florence, and is arrested.source
- Between the two Balkan Wars, a group of Bulgarian teachers and priests including teacher Gligor Zisov are deported by the newly established Greek authorities to Bulgaria but killed by Greek soldiers.source
Disasters & Accidents
- March 7 – Alum Chine explosion: British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in the harbour of Baltimore, Maryland.source
- c. March 1 – British steamship Calvados disappears in the Sea of Marmara, with 200 on board.source
- May 9–July 11 – A major industrial strike occurs in the Black Country of England, involving 25,000 workers, and threatening preparations for World War I in naval and steel industries. The workers demand 23 shillings minimum wage.source
- August 20 – After his airplane fails at an altitude of 900 ft m, aviator Adolphe Pégoud becomes the first person to bail out from an airplane and land safely.source
- September 9 – Helgoland Island air disaster: The first fatalities aboard a German airship occur, when the Imperial German Navy Zeppelin dirigible LZ 14 is forced down into the North Sea off Heligoland during a thunderstorm, killing 16 of the 22 men on board.source
- October 9 – Canadian-owned ocean liner , carrying passengers (mostly immigrants) and a chemical cargo from Rotterdam to New York City, catches fire in a North Atlantic gale; 136 die, but 521 are saved by ships summoned by SOS messages to the scene.source
- October 14 – Senghenydd colliery disaster: An explosion at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd in South Wales kills 439 miners, the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom.source
- November 7–11 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 in North America claims 19 ships, and more than 250 lives.source
- December 24 – Italian Hall disaster: seventy-three people – mostly striking mine workers and their families – are crushed to death in a stampede in Calumet, Michigan.source
Climate & Environment
- March 25 – The Great Dayton Flood, after four days of rain in the Miami Valley, kills over 360 and destroys 20,000 homes (chiefly in Dayton, Ohio).source
- July 10 – Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C), the all-time highest temperature recorded on Earth (although its validity has been challenged, and in 2020 a temperature of 54.4 °C °F was recorded at the same location, which would make it the world's highest verified air temperature, subject to confirmation).source
Culture & Society
- March 3 – The Woman Suffrage Procession takes place in Washington, D.C. led by Inez Milholland on horseback.source
- The House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of its succession to the throne, amidst an outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia.source
- April 5 – The United States Soccer Federation is formed.source
- May 3 – Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.source
- May 14 – New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.source
- May 24 – Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia marries Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover in Berlin, ending the decades-long rift between the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hanover and marking the last great gathering of European sovereigns.source
- May 29 – The ballet The Rite of Spring (music by Igor Stravinsky, conducted by Pierre Monteux, choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and design by Nicholas Roerich) is premiered by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris; its modernist style provokes one of the most famous classical music riots in history. The audience includes Gabriele D'Annunzio, Coco Chanel, Marcel Duchamp, Harry Graf Kessler and Maurice Ravel.source
- August 23 – The Little Mermaid statue is finished in Copenhagen, Denmark.source
- September 10 – Jean Sibelius's tone poem Luonnotar is premiered in Gloucester Cathedral, England, with soprano Aino Ackté.source
- September 17 – In Chicago, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith is founded, with Sigmund Livingston as its first president.source
Births
- January 6 – Edward Gierek, Polish politician, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (d. 2001)source
- January 28 – Arlette Vassy, French geophysicist, identified a hole in the ozone layer in 1961 (d. 2000)source
- February 4 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)source
- March 30 – Richard Helms, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 2002)source
- May 19 – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Indian politician, 6th President of India (d. 1996)source
- June 21 – Kid Azteca, Mexican boxer (d. 2002)source
- July 18 – Red Skelton, American comedian (d. 1997)source
- July 29 – Erich Priebke, German war criminal, leader of the 1944 Ardeatine massacre (d. 2013)source
- August 14 – Fred Davis, English snooker and billiards player (d. 1998)source
- September 12 – Jesse Owens, American athlete (d. 1980)source
- September 27 – Alexandru Drăghici, Romanian communist activist and politician (d. 1993)source
- October 22 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-born American photojournalist (d. 1954)source
- October 27 – Otto Wichterle, Czech inventor of the modern contact lens (d. 1998)source
- November 7 – Albert Camus, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)source
Deaths
- January 3 – Jeff Davis, American politician, 20th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1862)source
- January 16 – Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, American aeronaut, scientist and inventor (b. 1832)source
- February 9 – Manuel Enrique Araujo, 23rd President of El Salvador (b. 1865)source
- February 22 – Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist and semiotician (b. 1857)source
- March 25 – Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, British field marshal (b. 1833)source
- April 18 – Lester Frank Ward, American botanist, paleontologist and sociologist (b. 1841)source
- June 4 – Emily Davison, a British suffragette, runs out in front of the King's horse, Anmer, at The Derby. She is trampled and dies four days later in hospital, never having regained consciousness.source
- July 11 – Charles Lavigne, Ceylonese Roman Catholic and Syro-Malabar Catholic bishop and Servant of God (b. 1840)source
- July 30 – Warren F. Daniell, American politician, U.S. Representative from New Hampshire (b. 1826)source
- August 13 – August Bebel, German Social Democratic politician (b. 1840)source
- October 10 – Adolphus Busch, German-American brewer, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch (b. 1839)source
- November 3 – Sava Grujić, Serbian diplomat, general and politician, 5-time Prime Minister of Serbia (b. 1840)source
- November 7 – Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh biologist (b. 1823)source
- December 26 – Ambrose Bierce, American writer, journalist (disappeared on this date) (b. 1842)source