August 13

2008-08-13 08:25

Today is Wednesday, August 13, the 226th day of 2008. There are 140 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

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.

1704 - Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.

1814 - The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.

1913 - Otto Witte, an acrobat, is crowned King of Albania.

1918 - Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist; Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.

1920 - Battle of Warsaw begins and lasts until August 25. The Red Army is defeated.

1940 - The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations during World War II.

1960 - The Central African Republic declares independence from France.

1961 - The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.

1968 - Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel G Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.

1979 - The roof of the uncompleted Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, Illinois collapses, killing five workers and injuring 16.

1996 - Marc Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin, and Michel Lelièvre are arrested on suspicion of kidnapping. All are found guilty on June 22 2004, with sentences of life, 30, and 25 years, respectively.

2004 - Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida and devastates the surrounding area; 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.

2005 - German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder warns the US to back away from the possibility of military action against Iran over its nuclear programme.

2007 - Solidarity, a South African trade union, calls a strike in coal mines.

- News24