August 13

• August 13, 604
  Chinese emperor Wen is murdered by Yang, his son, who succeeds the throne
• August 13, 1415
  King Henry V of England takes his army across the English Channel and lays siege on Port Harfleur in Normandy
• August 13, 1521
  Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez conquers the Mexican city of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City, after an 85-day battle and completes conquest of Aztec Empire
• August 13, 1624
  French King Louis XIII names Cardinal Richelieu his first minister who becomes the world's first Prime Minister and begins to transform France into a centralized state
• August 13, 1630
  Emperor Frederick II fires Albrecht von Wallenstein, his best military commander
• August 13, 1642
  Christiaan Huygens, a prominent Dutch mathematician, discovers the Martian south polar cap
• August 13, 1645
  At Brömsebro peace is signed between Sweden and Denmark. Sweden gains the islands of Gotland and Halland from Denmark, Norway cedes to Sweden the northern provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen
• August 13, 1704
  The Battle of Blenheim, the turning point of the War of the Spanish Succession, results in decisive English and Austrian forces victory under Prince Eugene of Savoy and Duke of Marlborough over the Franco-Bavarian army
• August 13, 1787
  The Russian ambassador to the Ottomans, Yakov Bulgakov, is thrown into prison and the Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia starting the Russo–Turkish War of 1787–1792
• August 13, 1792
  Louis XVI of France is declared an enemy of the people and imprisoned with the French royal family, including Marie Antoinette, by revolutionaries
• August 13, 1814
  Netherland is signed to stop the transport of slaves and returns its colonial possessions before the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars by Treaty of London
• August 13, 1826
  Alexander Gordon Laing, British Army Major, crosses on camel the Sahara Desert from Tripoli and becomes the first European to enter the fabled city of Timbuktu in Mali
• August 13, 1849
  Hungary's General Artúr Görgey surrender to the Russian forces, who invaded Hungary to help Austrian Empire in struggle against Hungarian rebellions
• August 13, 1868
  In Arica, Peru, a magnitude 8.5-9.0 earthquake occurs, with catastrophic tsunamis killing 25,000 in South America
• August 13, 1876
  Richard Wagner's monumental epic, "Der Ring des Nibelungen" is first performed in its entirety at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany
• August 13, 1898
  Manila, the capital of the Philippines, falls to the United States Army under Admiral George Dewey
• August 13, 1913
  Harry Brearley, an English metallurgist, produces the first stainless steel
• August 13, 1918
  Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is established as a public company for aircraft-engine production in Germany
• August 13, 1923
  Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is elected president of the newly established Republic of Turkey
• August 13, 1960
  Central African Republic proclaims independence from France
• August 13, 1961
  The units of the East German army close the border and begin building of the Berlin Wall