Today In History – August 13 – Japanese Forces Begin The Battle Of Shanghai

1521 Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire

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).

1642 Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Martian south polar cap

1788 Prussia joins Anglo-Dutch alliance to form Triple Alliance to prevent spread of Russo-Swedish War of 1788-90

1937 Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces begin the Battle of Shanghai, a conflict that will last 3 months and involve 1 million troops

1942 The ‘Manhattan Project’ commences, under the direction of US General Leslie Groves: its aim – to deliver an atomic bomb

Aug 13 in Film & TV
1967 “Bonnie and Clyde” crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, is released

Aug 13 in Music
2013 “Crash My Party” 4th studio album by Luke Bryan is released (Billboard Album of the Year 2014)

Aug 13 in Sport
2008 American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins 3 gold medals, all in world record time, in the one day at the Beijing Olympics; 200m I/M (1:54.23), 200m butterfly (1.52.03) and 4 x 200m freestyle relay (6:58.56)

Do you know this fact about today?Did You Know?
Construction of the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany

Would you believe this fact about today? Would You Believe?
Otto Witte, German acrobat and fantasist, is purportedly crowned King of Albania