This Date in History - August 13

On this date, August 13,
So begins time, according to the Mayan calendar, in 3114 BC

There were many religious upsets:
523 - St John I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1521 - Spanish conquerors Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) from Aztecs
1536 - Buddhist monks from Kyōto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536)
1553 - Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.

1608 - John Smith's story of Jamestown's 1st days submitted for publication; a rather fictionalized rendition, it is is agreed.
1624 - Cardinal Richelieu appointed Chief Minister of France by Louis XIII (drove my ancestors from France...)
1642 - Christiaan Huygens discovers Martian south polar cap; although I'm pretty sure the Martians already knew that.

1792 - Revolutionaries imprison French royals including Marie Antoinette; whose apologies and offers of cake did no good.
1814 - Cape of Good Hope formally ceded to British by the Dutch, and so they also agreed to stop transporting slaves 1868 - Earthquakes kill 25,000 in Peru and Ecuador
1876 - Reciprocity Treaty between US & Hawaii ratified
1889 - William Gray patents coin-operated telephone
1892 - US black newspaper Afro-American is published from Baltimore

The New Age of Transportation: 1907 - 1st taxicab went into operation, in New York City and in 1914 Carl Wickman begins Greyhound, the 1st US bus line, in Minnesota
1913 - Otto Witte, an acrobat, is purportedly crowned King of Albania.
1913 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.

1914 - France declares war on Austria-Hungary, leading to WW I
1919 - Man o'War's only defeat (Upset wins at Saratoga)
1923 - US Steel Corp initiates 8th-hour work day 1928 - Soviet Union Spartacan Games begins

1932 - Hitler refuses Von Hindenburg's proposal to become vice-chancellor

1933 - 16th PGA Championship: Gene Sarazen at Blue Mound CC Milwaukee
1933 - Jacques van Egmond becomes world champion amateur cyclist
1937 - Battle of Shanghai begins
1940 - Germany attacks South England and the Battle of Britain begins

1944 - Jackie Gleason-Les Tremayne show premieres on NBC radio

1945 - 35 Jews sacrifice their lives to blow up Nazi rubber plant in Silesia

1950 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA World Golf Championship
1951 - Great-Britain & Iraq sign new oil contract
1959 - Military satellite Discoverer 5 launched into polar orbit
1960 - Central African Republic and the country of Chad proclaim independence from France

1960 - USSR draws advisers out of China

And our main story: 1961 - Construction of the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany