Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule

Explore 13 November

Explore 13 November: the Supreme Court strikes down bus segregation in Montgomery, Sweden votes to join the European Union, Mozambique joins the Commonwealth and Fantasia opens on Broadway. Meet Saint Augustine, Robert Louis Stevenson and Maharaja Ranjit Singh, born on this date.

This day through time →9 verified events across 3 eras

⌛9Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙7Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ♫1Culture
Stories
Rosa Parks, photographed in November 1956.
Rosa Parks, photographed in November 1956.
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1956

The Supreme Court ends bus segregation in Montgomery

Rosa Parks’s arrest in December 1955 began a boycott of the buses of Montgomery, Alabama, by the city’s Black residents. In February 1956 the lawyer Fred Gray filed Browder v. Gayle on behalf of four Black women who had been mistreated on the buses, challenging the state and city laws that segregated them, and in June a federal court ruled those laws unconstitutional.

On 13 November 1956 the US Supreme Court affirmed that ruling. Martin Luther King Jr. heard the news in a Montgomery courtroom where he was on trial over the boycott’s car pools. The court’s order reached Montgomery on 20 December, and the next day, after more than a year, the boycott ended and integrated buses ran.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University: Browder v. Gayle, 352 U.S. 903 ↗
The snow-capped Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia.
The snow-capped Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia.
Image creditEdgar from Ibagué, Colombia · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
1985

The eruption of Nevado del Ruiz buries Armero

On the evening of 13 November 1985 the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupted. The eruption itself was modest, but hot rock and ash melted part of the ice cap on its summit, and torrents of water swept down the valleys, picking up soil and debris to form lahars, fast-moving flows of volcanic mud.

About two and a half hours later the lahars reached the town of Armero, 74 kilometres away, and buried it. More than 23,000 people died. Scientists had warned of the danger, but no evacuation was ordered in time. The disaster changed how volcanic hazards are monitored and communicated around the world.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: US Geological Survey: Lessons learned from the Armero, Colombia tragedy ↗
How each part of Sweden voted in the 1994 referendum on joining the European Union.
How each part of Sweden voted in the 1994 referendum on joining the European Union.
Image creditPaasikivi · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
1994

Sweden votes to join the European Union

On 13 November 1994 Swedish voters were asked whether their country should join the European Union. Turnout was high, at 83 per cent, and 52.3 per cent voted yes against 46.8 per cent no.

The referendum was advisory, but the parties had agreed in advance to respect its result. The Riksdag voted for membership on 15 December, and Sweden joined the EU on 1 January 1995, together with Finland and Austria.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Government Offices of Sweden: Sweden’s path to EU membership ↗
Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique from 1986 to 2005.
Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique from 1986 to 2005.
Image creditRoberto Barroso/ABr · CC BY 3.0 brResized and cropped for display.
1995

Mozambique joins the Commonwealth

On 13 November 1995 Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, became the 54th member of the Commonwealth, the association that grew out of the British Empire. It was the first country admitted that had never been part of the empire.

Mozambique’s neighbours, all former British territories, had supported its liberation struggle and its recovery from civil war, and it joined to strengthen those ties. Rwanda, Gabon and Togo later followed, also with no historical link to Britain.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Commonwealth Secretariat: Mozambique ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Augustine of Hippo
Image creditPhilippe de Champaigne · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 354

Augustine of Hippo

North African bishop and theologian, author of the Confessions and The City of God. His birth is recorded under the Julian calendar.

Robert Louis Stevenson
Image creditHenry Walter Barnett · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1850

Robert Louis Stevenson

Scottish writer of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Whoopi Goldberg
Image creditPhilipRomano · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1955

Whoopi Goldberg

American actress and comedian, an Oscar winner for Ghost and one of the few to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

An artist's impression of the LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur rocket stage approaching the Moon.
An artist’s impression of the LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur rocket stage approaching the Moon.
Image creditNASA · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
2009

NASA announces water on the Moon

On 9 October 2009 NASA deliberately crashed the spent Centaur upper stage of a rocket into Cabeus, a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole. The LCROSS spacecraft following it flew through the plume of debris thrown up, measuring it with its instruments before it too struck the Moon.

On 13 November 2009 NASA announced that the data showed a significant amount of water in the plume, confirming that water ice lies in the cold, dark craters of the lunar poles, a possible resource for future explorers.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: NASA Science: Moon water and ices (LCROSS results, 13 November 2009) ↗
♫
MUSIC • FILM • BOOKS • CULTURE

Culture Stories

Leopold Stokowski, who conducted the music for Fantasia.
Leopold Stokowski, who conducted the music for Fantasia.
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1940

Fantasia opens on Broadway

Walt Disney’s Fantasia had its premiere at the Broadway Theatre in New York on 13 November 1940. The film set animation to eight pieces of classical music, from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, with Mickey Mouse, to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.

It was shown in Fantasound, an early stereo system developed at the Disney studio that needed specially equipped cinemas. Fantasia lost money at first but came to be regarded as one of the great experiments of animated film.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Library of Congress: Fantasia, 1940 (Molto Animato! Music and animation) ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Pope Nicholas I
Image creditJohn Salmon · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 867

Pope Nicholas I

Pope from 858 to 867, who asserted the authority of the papacy over kings and bishops. His death is recorded under the Julian calendar.

Malcolm III of Scotland
Image creditAlexander Bannermann · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1093

Malcolm III of Scotland

King of Scots, killed at the Battle of Alnwick. His death is recorded under the Julian calendar.

Henry the Navigator
Image creditNuno Gonçalves · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1460

Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince who sponsored the voyages of exploration down the coast of West Africa. His death is recorded under the Julian calendar.

Gioachino Rossini
Image credituncredited · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1868

Gioachino Rossini

Italian composer of The Barber of Seville and William Tell.

HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 13 November chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 9 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading