May 13 in History

Mary Queen of Scots lost her final military gamble at the Battle of Langside on May 13, 1568, when her forces were routed by an army loyal to her infant son James VI, commanded by her half-brother the Earl of Moray. Mary watched the 45-minute battle from a nearby hilltop and fled south toward the English border. Her fateful decision to seek refuge with her cousin Elizabeth I led to 19 years of imprisonment in various English castles. Elizabeth could neither release her (as Mary had a strong claim to the English throne) nor execute her (as she was an anointed queen). Mary was eventually convicted of complicity in the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth and beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on February 8, 1587.

German Panzer divisions crossed the Meuse River at Sedan on May 13, 1940, punching through the supposedly impassable Ardennes forest and outflanking the Maginot Line. General Heinz Guderian's XIX Panzer Corps bridged the river under intense air attack, then broke through French positions held by poorly trained reserve divisions. The breakthrough was decisive: within six days, Guderian's tanks reached the English Channel, cutting off the British Expeditionary Force and the best French divisions in Belgium. That same day, Churchill addressed the House of Commons with his first speech as Prime Minister, offering "nothing but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." France signed an armistice on June 22. The entire campaign lasted just six weeks.

Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II four times in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, as the Pope rode in his open-topped Popemobile through a crowd of 20,000 people. Two bullets struck the Pope in the abdomen, perforating his colon and small intestine. Emergency surgery at Rome's Gemelli Hospital lasted five hours and required six units of blood. The Pope attributed his survival to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima, whose feast day fell on May 13. Agca, a Turkish nationalist with murky connections to Bulgarian intelligence, was sentenced to life in prison. John Paul visited him in prison in 1983 and forgave him. Agca was pardoned by Italy in 2000 and deported to Turkey. The assassination attempt strengthened the Pope's moral authority and the Vatican's diplomatic influence during the Cold War.

Approximately 100 English settlers established a permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, on May 13, 1607, on a marshy peninsula in the James River. The location was chosen for its deep anchorage and defensibility against Spanish attack but proved catastrophic for health: brackish water, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and saltwater contamination killed the majority of colonists within the first year. Of the original 104 settlers, only 38 survived the first winter. The colony was saved repeatedly by resupply ships and, controversially, by John Smith's ability to trade with and intimidate the Powhatan Confederacy. Jamestown endured famine, disease, a devastating Indian attack in 1622, and near-abandonment before tobacco cultivation made it profitable and permanent.

President James K. Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war against Mexico on May 11, 1846, claiming that Mexico had "shed American blood upon American soil." The incident he cited, a skirmish in the disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, was provoked by Polk's deliberate deployment of troops into territory Mexico considered its own. A young congressman named Abraham Lincoln demanded Polk identify the precise "spot" where American blood was shed, earning himself the nickname "Spotty Lincoln." The war lasted two years and ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which transferred California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming and Kansas to the United States, roughly 55% of Mexico's pre-war territory.

Giuseppe Farina won the inaugural Formula One World Championship race at Silverstone on May 13, 1950, driving an Alfa Romeo 158 "Alfetta" to victory in front of King George VI and an estimated 150,000 spectators. The circuit was a converted RAF bomber airfield, and the track used the runways and perimeter roads with hay bales for barriers. Twenty-one drivers started the race. Farina, a 43-year-old Italian aristocrat known for his aggressive driving style and distinctive arms-outstretched technique, went on to win the first drivers' championship that season with three race victories. Alfa Romeo dominated the early championship, winning every race in 1950 with their supercharged straight-eight engines. Farina's career was plagued by injuries; he died in a road accident driving to the 1966 French Grand Prix.

A fireworks storage facility in the Roombeek neighborhood of Enschede, Netherlands, exploded on May 13, 2000, in a chain reaction that destroyed 400 homes and damaged 1,500 more. The SE Fireworks depot held far more explosives than its license allowed, stored in inadequate containers. The initial fire escalated through multiple detonations, the largest equivalent to 5,000 kilograms of TNT. Twenty-three people died (including four firefighters), 947 were injured, and 1,250 were left homeless. The disaster destroyed ten hectares of the city. Investigations revealed failures in licensing oversight, storage compliance, and emergency response. The owner and manager received prison sentences. The Netherlands overhauled industrial safety regulations and fireworks storage requirements in response.