1. THE HISTORY PLACE
2. THIS MONTH IN HISTORY
3. DECEMBER
DECEMBER 13
December 13
December 13, 1545 – The Council of Trent, summoned by Pope Paul III, met to discuss doctrinal matters including the rise of Protestantism.
December 13, 1577 – Francis Drake departed Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind on his voyage around the world.
December 13, 1642 – New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman of the Dutch East India Company.
December 13, 1862 – During the American Civil War, the Battle of Fredericksburg occurred in Virginia as the Union Army of the Potomac under General Burnside suffered a costly defeat, losing 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well entrenched Rebels on Marye’s Heights. “We might as well have tried to take hell,” a Union soldier remarked. Confederate losses were 5,309. “It is well that war is so terrible – we should grow too fond of it,” stated Confederate General Robert E. Lee during the fighting.
December 13, 1937 – The beginning of one of the worst atrocities of World War II as the Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing) was captured by the Japanese. Over the next six weeks, the Rape of Nanking occurred in which Japanese soldiers randomly attacked, raped and indiscriminately killed an estimated 200,000 Chinese persons.
December 13, 1981 – In its struggle to maintain Communism, the Polish government imposed martial law and took steps to stifle the growing power of the pro-democratic trade union Solidarity.
December 13, 1991 – North and South Korea signed a treaty of reconciliation and nonaggression which also formally ended the Korean War, although actual fighting had ceased in 1953.
Birthday – German writer Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) was born in Dusseldorf. Best known for his statement made a hundred years before the advent of book-burning Nazis in Germany – “Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.”
Birthday – Mary Todd (1818-1882) was born in Lexington, Kentucky. She became the wife of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President.
Birthday – American clergyman and composer Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He wrote the lyrics for the popular Christmas Carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
