On this day: Wuthering Heights published

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 13 December
On this day in 2001, terrorists attacked the Indian parliament in New Delhi. Police are shown preparing to enter the building. Picture: GettyOn this day in 2001, terrorists attacked the Indian parliament in New Delhi. Police are shown preparing to enter the building. Picture: Getty
On this day in 2001, terrorists attacked the Indian parliament in New Delhi. Police are shown preparing to enter the building. Picture: Getty

13 DECEMBER

1577: Francis Drake set out from Plymouth in the Pelican (later the Golden Hind) that was to take him round the world, returning on 26 September, 1580.

1789: Austrian Netherlands declared independence as Belgium.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1843: Six thousand copies of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol were sold on the first day of publication.

1847: Wuthering Heights, by Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë) was published, as was Agnes Grey, by Acton Bell (Anne Brontë).

1867: First-ever terrorist bomb outrage by Irish on mainland Britain when, attempting to rescue a confederate from Clerkenwell jail, London, Fenians blew up a row of houses, killing 12 and injuring 120 others.

1878: London’s Holborn Embankment illuminated by electric street lighting, the first in Britain.

1884: Installation of the first coin-operated weighing machine, patented by Percy Everitt.

1903: Ice-cream cones (or moulds) were patented by Italo Marcione of New York.

1916: About 9,000 Austro-Hungarian troops were killed in avalanche in the Alps.

1937: Japanese troops took Nanking City in China amid scenes of extreme brutality. It is estimated 40 million died in Japan’s occupation of Manchuria.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1944: Japanese suicide plane crashed into United States cruiser Nashville, killing 133 of its crew.

1967: Military government in Greece crushed counter-coup, and King Constantine fled to Rome with his family.

1973: A three-day working week was ordered by the government because of an Arab oil embargo and the coal miners’ slow-down.

1989: Nelson Mandela visited president FW de Klerk to discuss prospects for negotiating an end to South Africa’s racial conflict.

1990: ANC president Oliver Tambo arrived in South Africa after 30 years in exile.

2001: The Indian parliament in New Delhi was attacked by five Islamist terrorists, one wearing an explosive vest. Fifteen people were killed, including the terrorists.

2003: Saddam Hussein was captured near Tikrit.

2006: The Baiji, or Chinese river dolphin, was declared extinct.

2010: Experts from the University of Texas revealed that sleep-deprived bees were sloppier and less precise when at work.

BIRTHDAYS

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Steve Buscemi, actor, 56; Brian Wilson, journalist, MP 1987-2005, 65, Howard Brenton, playwright, 71; John Francome MBE, jockey, racing commentator and author, 61; Anouska Hempel (Lady Weinberg), actress, hotelier and designer, 72; Prince Karim, Aga Khan, 77; Robert Lindsay, actor, 64; Andy Peebles, disc jockey, 65; Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor, 84; Taylor Swift, singer/songwriter, 24; Dick Van Dyke, actor, 88; Tom Verlaine, rock guitarist (Television), 64; Paula Wilcox, actress, 64.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1585 William Drummond of Hawthornden, poet; 1797 Heinrich Heine, poet; 1816 Ernst Werner von Siemens, engineer; 1906 Sir Laurens van der Post, writer, explorer, conservationist; 1913 Archie Moore, world light-heavyweight boxing champion; 1934 Richard Darryl Zanuck, film producer.

Deaths: 1466 Donatello, Italian sculptor; 1784 Doctor Samuel Johnson, writer, critic and lexicographer; 1944 Wassily Kandinsky, artist; 1983 Mary Renault (Mary Challans), novelist; 1998 Lord Grade, film and television producer; 2010 Richard Holbrooke, US diplomat.