December 13 in History

The U.S. Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, placing a real woman's face on American currency for the first time. This move forced the public to confront the exclusion of women from national symbols and sparked decades of debate over representation that eventually led to the modern series honoring female figures.

Seven inmates overpowered guards, stole 16 rifles, and walked out of a Texas maximum-security prison on December 13th wearing stolen prison uniforms. They'd planned for months. The guards they left behind were bound with duct tape in an electrical room. For six weeks, the Texas Seven robbed stores across the state — until they hit an Oshman's sporting goods shop on Christmas Eve. Officer Aubrey Hawkins, working security, confronted them. They shot him 11 times, then ran him over. Hawkins was 29, married eight months. Six of the seven were captured within weeks on *America's Most Wanted*. The seventh killed himself during arrest. Four got death sentences.

Gore stood at the podium for four minutes and twelve seconds. Thirty-six days after election night, after Florida recounts and Supreme Court arguments, after leading the popular vote by 543,895 votes, he ended it. "Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him." The Court had ruled 5-4 to stop the recount with Bush ahead by 537 Florida votes—one vote per precinct. Gore urged unity, quoted his father on bitter defeats, never mentioned the popular vote margin. And that was it. The closest presidential race in 124 years decided by 0.009% in one state. Democracy held. But hanging chads, butterfly ballots, and "Brooks Brothers riot" entered the permanent vocabulary of American elections gone sideways.

Robert Guiscard's forces force Salerno's surrender, shattering Norman control over southern Italy and leaving only the citadel under Duke Gisulf's stubborn defense. This victory secures the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria for the Normans, eliminating the last major Lombard stronghold in the region before Gisulf finally capitulates months later.

An 85-year-old hermit who lived in a cave, ate roots, and hadn't seen Rome in decades became Pope in July 1294. Pietro del Morrone never wanted it. Cardinals chose him precisely because he was holy and unworldly—easy to control. He wasn't. Within weeks he couldn't manage the bureaucracy, spoke no Latin at mass, and appointed 12 new cardinals in a single day because someone asked nicely. By December he'd consulted canon lawyers, found nothing forbidding resignation, and walked away. First pope ever to quit. His successor, Boniface VIII, immediately imprisoned him in a castle—couldn't risk a rival pope wandering around. Pietro died there ten months later, still in chains. The Church made him a saint anyway.

Eleazar Wheelock wanted to convert Native Americans to Christianity. King George III gave him a charter. John Wentworth donated New Hampshire wilderness. Within a decade, only three of Dartmouth's 200 students were Indigenous—the mission had already shifted to educating white colonists' sons. The college Wheelock built to "civilize" Native youth became one of America's elite institutions for exactly the people who'd displace them. By 1770, Wheelock was complaining that Indigenous students were "too attached to their own way of living" to transform. The royal charter outlasted the king who granted it: Dartmouth successfully argued in 1819 that even state legislatures couldn't alter a contract made by the Crown. A missionary school became a precedent for corporate rights.

Confederate forces behind a stone wall at Marye's Heights repulsed fourteen successive Union assault waves at Fredericksburg, inflicting over 12,000 casualties on Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac. The lopsided slaughter demoralized the North and cemented Robert E. Lee's reputation as the war's most formidable defensive commander.

Union troops under General William B. Hazen seize Fort McAllister, cutting off Savannah's last supply line and pushing the city into imminent surrender. This decisive blow clears the path for Sherman to link up with the Union navy, effectively ending Confederate control over Georgia's vital coastal stronghold.

Japanese troops breached Nanjing's walls after General Tang Shengzhi's defending garrison collapsed into a chaotic retreat, abandoning tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. Over the following six weeks, Japanese soldiers systematically murdered an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war in what became known as the Nanjing Massacre. The atrocity remains one of the most contested and painful chapters in East Asian history.

Three outgunned Royal Navy cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic, suffering heavy damage to HMS Exeter but forcing Captain Langsdorff to seek refuge in Montevideo harbor. The engagement, the first major naval battle of World War II, ended days later when Langsdorff scuttled his ship rather than face the British fleet.