June 13 in History

The Boxer Uprising reached its crisis point in the summer of 1900 when militants of the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, supported by elements of the Qing imperial court, besieged foreign legations in Beijing for 55 days. The Boxers, originally an anti-Qing movement, redirected their fury toward foreign missionaries, Chinese Christians, and the technological symbols of Western imperialism (railroads, telegraph lines). Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on all foreign powers on June 21. An eight-nation relief expedition of 20,000 troops fought its way from Tianjin to Beijing, lifting the siege on August 14. The Boxer Protocol of 1901 imposed a crippling indemnity of 450 million taels of silver and allowed foreign troops to be permanently stationed in Beijing.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Miranda v. Arizona on June 13, 1966, establishing that suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights before custodial interrogation. Ernesto Miranda had confessed to kidnapping and rape after two hours of police questioning without being told he had the right to remain silent or to have an attorney present. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the majority opinion, specifying the exact warnings police must give. The four dissenters argued the ruling would hamper law enforcement. Studies have shown that most suspects waive their Miranda rights and speak to police anyway, suggesting the warnings' practical impact on conviction rates has been minimal. Miranda himself was retried without the confession, convicted on other evidence, and paroled in 1972. He was stabbed to death in a bar fight in 1976.

Pioneer 10 crossed Neptune's orbit on June 13, 1983, becoming the first human-made object to travel beyond the outermost planet (Pluto's orbit was inside Neptune's at the time). The spacecraft had launched from Cape Canaveral on March 2, 1972, and was the first to traverse the asteroid belt, the first to obtain close-up images of Jupiter, and the first to use a planet's gravity to boost its speed. Pioneer 10 carries a gold-anodized aluminum plaque depicting a man, a woman, and the spacecraft's origin in the solar system, designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. NASA received Pioneer 10's last detectable signal on January 23, 2003, when it was 7.6 billion miles from Earth. The spacecraft is heading toward the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus; it will arrive in approximately two million years.

A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood negligent on June 13, 1994, for the March 24, 1989, oil spill in Prince William Sound that dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into one of the most pristine marine environments on Earth. The jury awarded $5 billion in punitive damages, later reduced to $507.5 million by the Supreme Court in 2008. Hazelwood, who had a known drinking problem, was below deck when the tanker struck Bligh Reef. The spill killed an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, and billions of salmon and herring eggs. Over 11,000 workers and 1,400 vessels participated in the cleanup. Despite decades of remediation, oil residue remains detectable in Prince William Sound sediments today.

Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora on June 13, 1525, in a ceremony at the Black Cloister in Wittenberg. Katharina was one of twelve nuns who had escaped the Nimbschen convent in 1523, allegedly hidden in herring barrels. Luther initially had no plans to marry but took a wife partly to defy the Pope, partly to please his aging father, and partly because Katharina was the last of the escaped nuns still unmarried. Their marriage became the model for Protestant clerical family life. Katharina proved to be a formidable household manager, running their large home (the former Augustinian monastery), brewing beer, raising livestock, managing rental properties, and caring for their six children and numerous boarders. Luther called her "My Lord Katie" and relied on her financial competence throughout their marriage.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met in Pyongyang on June 13-15, 2000, for the first inter-Korean summit since the peninsula was divided in 1945. The meeting produced the June 15th North-South Joint Declaration, agreeing to pursue reunification, arrange reunions for separated families, and promote economic cooperation. Kim Dae-jung received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for the summit. However, it was later revealed that South Korea had secretly paid $500 million to North Korea to secure the meeting, a scandal that discredited the "Sunshine Policy." The promised family reunions occurred sporadically but were frequently interrupted by political tensions. North Korea continued its nuclear weapons program, testing its first device in 2006.

The 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette arrived in North America near Georgetown, South Carolina, on June 13, 1777, having crossed the Atlantic at his own expense on a ship he purchased after the French government forbade his departure. Lafayette was motivated by idealism, a desire for military glory, and resentment toward Britain for defeating France in the Seven Years' War. Congress commissioned him as a major general despite his having no military experience. He was wounded at Brandywine, endured Valley Forge, and commanded troops at Monmouth and Yorktown. His aristocratic connections were crucial in securing French military support, including the fleet and army that won the decisive Battle of Yorktown. Lafayette returned to France and played a significant role in the early stages of the French Revolution before fleeing when it radicalized.