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“If you ever get trial by television or guilt by accusation, that day freedom dies because you have not had it done with all of the careful rules that have developed in a court of law. Press and television rely on freedom. Those who rely on freedom must uphold the rule of law and have a duty and a responsibility to do so and not try to substitute their own system for it.”
~ Margaret Thatcher
Wikiquote (Margaret Thatcher (LG OM PC FRS (née Roberts, October 13, 1925 – April 8, 2013) was a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.)
October 13th, 54
Roman Empire:
54 - Roman Emperor Claudius is poisoned to death under mysterious circumstances. His 17-year-old stepson Nero succeeds him to the Roman throne.
409 - Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
Painting: The Play Scene in Hamlet by Daniel Maclise (1842). Hamlet, prince of Denmark, arranges for strolling players to re-enact the murder of his father, the king, by his brother, Claudius; Claudius had succeeded to the throne. The ghost of Hamlet’s father had revealed the murder at the beginning of the play. Tate Gallery, London.
October 13th, 1307
On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into a 'confession' of heresy.
Wikipedia Image: Philip IV of France; Philip the Fair portrait; Templar Knights being Burned at the Stake in France.
October 13th, 1332
Mongol Empire:
1332 - Rinchinbal Khan, Emperor Ningzong of Yuan becomes the Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty , reigning for only 53 days.
Wikipedia Image: Map of Mongol Empire at its height; Genghis Khan, credit The Field Museum in Chicago; Genghis Khan various Mongolian tribes joined together in 1206; Mongol warriors was created for an Islamic history book, Rashid al-Din's History of the World of 1307, courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland.
October 13th, 1644
Action of October 13th, 1644: A Swedish–Dutch fleet defeats the Danes and captures about 1,000 prisoners.
Wikipedia Painting: Danish recapture of Scania, 1676.
October 13th, 1710
Siege of Port Royal: Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, falls in a siege by British forces.
Wikipedia Painting: Port-Royal's period as the French capital of Acadia - Siege of Port Royal, credit Parks Canada (Fort Anne National Historic Site of Canada).
October 13th, 1773
Whirlpool Galaxy is discovered by Charles Messier.
Wikipedia Painting: Charles Messier / Whirlpool Galaxy M51's spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy, NASA Hubble.
October 13th, 1775
United States Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).
Wikipedia Painting: Continental Congress
October 13th, 1792
First Washington, D.C.: the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid.
Wikipedia Painting: George Washington Laying the Cornerstone of the United States Capital
October 13th, 1812
1812 - War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights; as part of the Niagara campaign in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaer are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.
Wikipedia Painting: Damage to the US Capitol after the Burning of Washington; HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate USS Chesapeake into Halifax, Nova Scotia (1813); USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere; the death of Tecumseh at Moraviantown; Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; "Andrew Jackson leads the defence of New Orleans; The mortally wounded Isaac Brock spurs troops on at the Queenston Heights.
October 13th, 1884
Greenwich in London, England, is established as Universal Time meridian of longitude.
Wikipedia Photo: Greenwich Mean Time, London, Englnd.
October 13th, 1915
World War I: Battle of Loos; Battle for the Hohenzollern Redoubt, marks the end of the Battle of Loos in northern France.
Wikipedia Photo: Battle of Loos; British infantry advancing through gas at Loos, 25 September 1915.
October 13th, 1917
The "Miracle of the Sun" is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal.
Wikipedia Photo: Miracle of the Sun is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal; Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima.
October 13th, 1943
World War II:
1943 - The new government of Italy sides with the Allies, and declares war on Germany.
1944 - Riga the capital of Latvia is occupied by the Red Army.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943. "The Big Three": Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meeting at the Tehran Conference in 1943.
October 13th, 1983
Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T) launched the first U.S. cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
Wikipedia Image: Cellular Networks
October 13th, 2010
Copiapó mining accident: 33 Chilean miners trapped, comes to an end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue.
Wikipedia Photo: Copiapó mining accident; A group of trapped miners waving to a video camera at mine San Jose, near of Copiapo, Chile EPA ● Chilean miner Yonni Barrios hugs his lover after being brought to the surface from the San Jose mine, near Copiapo, Chile. Picture: AFP ● Chilean miners freed as rescue operation goes on, The Telegraph
October 13th, 2013
Madhya Pradesh stampede: Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India - A stampede breaks out on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 people and injuring more than 110.
Wikipedia Image: Madhya Pradesh stampede: Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India - A stampede breaks out on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 people and injuring more than 110.