Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
13 September

A journey through
13 September in history

The story of 13 September runs from the arrival of Pedro Álvares Cabral’s fleet at Calicut in 1500 to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. In between come the last stone of El Escorial, the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Phineas Gage’s accident, the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, the first ascent of Mount Kenya, the first hop of the 14-bis, a famous temperature reading in Libya, Primo de Rivera’s coup in Spain, Luna 2’s impact on the Moon, the first New York City Marathon, the flight and death of Lin Biao, the launch of Super Mario Bros., Cape Town’s great peace march and the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1500
The ships of Cabral's fleet of 1500, as drawn in the Livro das Armadas, a Portuguese record of the India fleets from about 1568The ships of Cabral’s fleet of 1500, as drawn in the Livro das Armadas, a Portuguese record of the India fleets from about 1568Image: Unknown author · Public domain
world · Asia

Pedro Álvares Cabral’s fleet reaches Calicut

After Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India, King Manuel I of Portugal sent a much larger fleet of thirteen ships under Pedro Álvares Cabral to open trade with the spice markets of the Malabar coast. On the way the fleet sighted the coast of Brazil in April, and four ships were lost with all hands in a storm off the Cape of Good Hope. The surviving ships arrived at Calicut, today’s Kozhikode, on 13 September 1500. Cabral set up a trading post there, but it was attacked within months, and he bombarded the city before loading spices at Cochin and sailing home.

Source: Britannica: Pedro Álvares Cabral ↗
1584
A general view of the monastery of El Escorial, painted by Michel-Ange Houasse in the early 18th centuryA general view of the monastery of El Escorial, painted by Michel-Ange Houasse in the early 18th centuryImage: Michel Ange Houasse · Public domain
world · Europe

The last stone of El Escorial is laid

King Philip II of Spain built the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in the hills north-west of Madrid as a royal palace, monastery, library and burial place for his dynasty. The first stone was laid in April 1563 to designs by Juan Bautista de Toledo, and after his death in 1567 the work was carried on by Juan de Herrera in a severe, unornamented style. The last stone was set on 13 September 1584, after 21 years of building. Philip died there in 1598, and almost every Spanish king since has been buried in its crypt.

Source: Patrimonio Nacional, Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial: Primeros libros ↗
1759
A view of the taking of Quebec, 13 September 1759: an engraving of 1797 based on a sketch by Hervey Smyth, General Wolfe's aide-de-campA view of the taking of Quebec, 13 September 1759: an engraving of 1797 based on a sketch by Hervey Smyth, General Wolfe’s aide-de-campImage: Hervey Smythe · Public domain
world · Americas

The British take Quebec on the Plains of Abraham

By the summer of 1759 the Seven Years’ War had become a struggle for North America. A British fleet carried an army under General James Wolfe up the St Lawrence to Quebec, the capital of New France, perched on cliffs above the river. For almost three months Wolfe bombarded the town and probed its defences without success, while the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, waited behind his lines for winter to drive the British away. In the darkness before dawn on 13 September, British boats landed troops at a cove below the cliffs west of the town, and by morning about 4,500 men were drawn up on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm attacked at once. The British held their fire until the French were close, then broke their advance with volleys in a battle that lasted barely an hour. Wolfe was shot and died on the field; Montcalm was wounded in the retreat and died the next morning. Quebec surrendered five days later, and within a year New France had fallen to Britain.

Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia: Battle of the Plains of Abraham ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1848
Phineas Gage, holding the tamping iron that injured him, in a cabinet-card portrait taken after his recoveryPhineas Gage, holding the tamping iron that injured him, in a cabinet-card portrait taken after his recoveryImage: Unknown author · Public domain
science · Americas

Phineas Gage survives an iron rod through his skull

Phineas Gage was the 25-year-old foreman of a gang blasting rock for a new railway near Cavendish, Vermont. On 13 September 1848 a charge went off as he was packing it, and the iron tamping rod, more than a metre long, shot up through his left cheek and out of the top of his head. Astonishingly, he was soon talking and walked to the cart that took him into town. He recovered, but those who knew him said his character had changed, and his case became one of the most famous in the study of the brain. His skull and the rod are kept at Harvard’s medical library. (The rod’s own inscription gives the date as 14 September.)

Source: Harvard Countway Library of Medicine: Tamping iron that caused the injury to Phineas Gage, 1848 ↗
1882
The Storming of Tel el Kebir, a painting by Alphonse de Neuville in National Museums ScotlandThe Storming of Tel el Kebir, a painting by Alphonse de Neuville in National Museums ScotlandImage: Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville · Public domain
world · Africa

The British defeat Urabi’s army at Tel el-Kebir

In 1882 Colonel Ahmed Urabi led an Egyptian movement against the khedive and the growing control of Britain and France over Egypt’s finances. After rioting in Alexandria, a British fleet bombarded the city in July and an army under Sir Garnet Wolseley landed by the Suez Canal. After a night march across the desert, Wolseley’s troops stormed the Egyptian entrenchments at Tel el-Kebir at dawn on 13 September 1882 and routed Urabi’s army. Cairo fell the next day, Urabi was exiled to Ceylon, and British troops stayed in Egypt for more than 70 years.

Source: National Army Museum: ‘The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, September 13th, 1882’ ↗
1899
The twin summits of Mount Kenya, Batian and Nelion, with Point Slade in the foregroundThe twin summits of Mount Kenya, Batian and Nelion, with Point Slade in the foregroundImage: Chris 73 · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Africa

Halford Mackinder’s party makes the first ascent of Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest mountain, had been sacred to the Kikuyu people long before European explorers reported its snows in the 1840s. In 1899 the Oxford geographer Halford Mackinder led an expedition to climb it, travelling by the new Uganda Railway and then on foot. After weeks of hunger, illness and setbacks, Mackinder and two Alpine guides, César Ollier and Joseph Brocherel, crossed a glacier and reached the summit of Batian, at 5,199 metres, at noon on 13 September 1899.

Source: University of Oxford, Oxford and Empire: Geography and empire, Sir Halford Mackinder in Oxford ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1906
Alberto Santos-Dumont's 14-bis at Bagatelle in 1906, with the Blériot IV in the backgroundAlberto Santos-Dumont’s 14-bis at Bagatelle in 1906, with the Blériot IV in the backgroundImage: Jules Beau · Public domain
world · Europe

Santos-Dumont’s 14-bis makes its first hop at Bagatelle

The Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont was already famous in Paris for flying his own airships. In 1906 he built an aeroplane, the 14-bis, a box-kite design that flew tail first, and tested it on the field of Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne. On 13 September 1906 it left the ground under its own power for the first time, covering about 7 metres at a height of less than a metre before coming down hard. On 23 October he flew about 60 metres in front of official witnesses, the first public powered flight in Europe.

Source: Britannica: Santos-Dumont No. 14-bis ↗
1922
A thermometer at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, which now holds the world recordA thermometer at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, which now holds the world recordImage: Tobias1983 · CC BY-SA 3.0
science · Africa

A reading of 58 °C is taken at El Azizia in Libya

On 13 September 1922 an observer at El Azizia, south-west of Tripoli in what was then Italian Libya, recorded an air temperature of 58 °C (136.4 °F). For 90 years it stood as the hottest temperature ever measured on Earth. In 2012, after a two-year investigation, a panel of the World Meteorological Organization ruled it invalid: the observer was probably new to an unsuitable instrument and misread it by about 7 °C. The record passed back to Death Valley in California, with 56.7 °C on 10 July 1913.

Source: World Meteorological Organization / Arizona State University: World’s hottest temperature cools a bit ↗
1923
General Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain from 1923 to 1930General Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain from 1923 to 1930Image: Unknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

General Primo de Rivera seizes power in Spain

In 1923 Spain’s parliamentary government was weakened by strikes and violence in Barcelona and by the disaster of Annual in Morocco two years earlier, for which a parliamentary inquiry was about to report. On 13 September 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera, captain general of Catalonia, declared against the government from Barcelona. King Alfonso XIII backed him, and he dissolved the Cortes, suspended the constitution and ruled as dictator until January 1930. The king’s support for the coup cost him his throne: Spain became a republic in 1931.

Source: Britannica: Miguel Primo de Rivera ↗
1959
A copy of the Soviet pennant carried to the Moon by Luna 2, on display at the Kansas CosmosphereA copy of the Soviet pennant carried to the Moon by Luna 2, on display at the Kansas CosmosphereImage: Patrick Pelletier · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Global

Luna 2 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the Moon

Two years after Sputnik, the Soviet Union and the United States were racing to send a probe to the Moon. In January 1959 the Soviet Luna 1 missed its target and sailed past into orbit around the Sun. Its successor, Luna 2, was a sphere bristling with antennas and carrying instruments to measure magnetic fields, radiation and micrometeorites, together with metal pennants bearing the Soviet coat of arms. Luna 2 was launched from Baikonur on 12 September 1959 and on 13 September struck the Moon’s surface near the boundary between the Mare Imbrium and the Mare Serenitatis. It was the first object made by people to reach another world. Its instruments found no detectable magnetic field around the Moon. Twelve years later the American astronauts of Apollo 15 landed about 250 kilometres from the spot where it came down.

Source: NASA History: 60 years ago, Luna 2 makes impact in Moon race ↗
1970
Runners crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge at the start of a modern New York City MarathonRunners crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge at the start of a modern New York City MarathonImage: Martineric from Lille, France. · CC BY-SA 2.0
sport · Americas

The first New York City Marathon is run in Central Park

In 1970 long-distance running was a minority sport in the United States, and a marathon was something few people had seen. The New York Road Runners, a small club, decided to stage one in the city. Its president Vincent Chiappetta and Fred Lebow, a garment-trade businessman who had taken up running, organised the race on a budget of about a thousand dollars, with an entry fee of one dollar. On 13 September 1970, a warm day, 127 runners set off from near Tavern on the Green and ran several laps of the roads inside Central Park. Only 55 finished. Gary Muhrcke, a New York firefighter, won in about two hours and 31 minutes; the only woman entered, Nina Kuscsik, dropped out through illness. Six years later the race moved onto the streets of all five boroughs, and it grew into one of the largest marathons in the world.

Source: New York Road Runners: New York City Marathon history ↗
1971
Lin Biao reading a copy of Mao Zedong's 'Little Red Book' in Beijing in 1971Lin Biao reading a copy of Mao Zedong’s ‘Little Red Book’ in Beijing in 1971Image: Jiang Qing · Public domain
politics · Asia

Lin Biao dies as his plane crashes in Mongolia

Marshal Lin Biao had been named in China’s party constitution as Mao Zedong’s chosen successor, but by 1971 the two men had fallen out. According to the Chinese government, Lin and his son plotted a coup, and when it failed Lin fled with his wife and son on an air force jet late on 12 September. In the early hours of 13 September 1971 the plane crashed in Mongolia, killing everyone on board. The official account has been questioned ever since, and what really happened in those last days remains one of the mysteries of the People’s Republic.

Source: Britannica: Lin Biao ↗
1985
The Nintendo Famicom, or Family Computer, the home games console for which Super Mario Bros. was madeThe Nintendo Famicom, or Family Computer, the home games console for which Super Mario Bros. was madeImage: Evan-Amos · Public domain
culture · Asia

Super Mario Bros. goes on sale in Japan

Nintendo, an old Kyoto playing-card company, had found success in video games with Donkey Kong, an arcade game of 1981 designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, in which a carpenter called Jumpman, later renamed Mario, climbs girders to rescue a woman from an ape. In 1983 the company launched a home console in Japan, the Family Computer or Famicom, and Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka set out to make a game that would show what it could do. Super Mario Bros. went on sale for the Famicom on 13 September 1985. Players guided Mario and his brother Luigi through a scrolling world of pipes, blocks and castles to rescue a princess, with power-ups that made Mario grow or throw fireballs and with music by Koji Kondo. It became one of the best-selling video games ever made, helped Nintendo’s console conquer America as the NES, and began the Super Mario series, the best-selling game series of all time.

Source: Nintendo, Iwata Asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary ↗
1989
St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, the cathedral of Archbishop Desmond TutuSt George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, the cathedral of Archbishop Desmond TutuImage: Danie van der Merwe · CC BY 2.0
world · Africa

Desmond Tutu leads 30,000 people on a peace march through Cape Town

In September 1989 South Africa was still ruled under apartheid, and protests against it were routinely banned. On 2 September, days before a whites-only general election, police turned a water cannon loaded with purple dye on demonstrators in Cape Town, so that they could be identified and arrested later. The image of people stained purple became a symbol of the struggle, and a slogan was painted on a wall: ‘The purple shall govern’. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the city’s mayor Gordon Oliver and church, trade union and community leaders called for a march for peace. After the authorities withdrew an earlier ban, about 30,000 people of every background walked through the centre of Cape Town on 13 September 1989, many dressed in purple. It was the largest protest march in the country since the early 1960s, and it set off similar marches in other cities. Within five months the ban on the ANC was lifted and Nelson Mandela was free.

Source: South African History Online: Tutu leads biggest anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa ↗
1993
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands, with Bill Clinton between them, on the White House lawn on 13 September 1993Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands, with Bill Clinton between them, on the White House lawn on 13 September 1993Image: Vince Musi / The White House · Public domain
world · Middle East

Israel and the PLO sign the Oslo Accords at the White House

For decades Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization had refused to recognise each other. In 1993, away from the public talks then under way in Washington, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in secret near Oslo with the help of Norwegian diplomats. Over several months they drafted a framework for peace, and in early September the two sides exchanged letters: the PLO recognised Israel’s right to exist and renounced violence, and Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. On 13 September 1993 the Declaration of Principles was signed on the South Lawn of the White House by the Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and the PLO’s Mahmoud Abbas, watched by President Bill Clinton. Afterwards the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands, an image seen around the world. The accord set out a five-year period of Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank, beginning with Jericho, while the hardest questions were left for later talks. Rabin, Peres and Arafat shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.

Source: US Office of the Historian: The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli peace process ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2007
Members of a New Zealand delegation at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues celebrate their country's endorsement of the Declaration in 2010Members of a New Zealand delegation at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues celebrate their country’s endorsement of the Declaration in 2010Image: Broddi Sigurðarson · CC BY-SA 2.0
world · Global

The United Nations adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Hundreds of millions of Indigenous people live in some 90 countries, from the Sámi of the Arctic to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Many lost their lands, languages and self-government under colonial rule and still face discrimination. From the 1980s Indigenous representatives worked with governments at the United Nations on a text setting out their rights, a process that took more than twenty years. On 13 September 2007 the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by 144 votes to 4, with 11 abstentions. It affirms the rights of Indigenous peoples to their cultures, languages and traditional lands, and to give or withhold their free, prior and informed consent to decisions that affect them. The four countries that voted against, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, all later changed their position and endorsed it.

Source: United Nations DESA: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

Britannica: Pedro Álvares Cabral↗Britannica: European exploration, the Age of Discovery↗Patrimonio Nacional, Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial: Primeros libros↗Britannica: Escorial Monastery↗The Canadian Encyclopedia: Battle of the Plains of Abraham↗Britannica: Plains of Abraham↗Harvard Countway Library of Medicine: Tamping iron that caused the injury to Phineas Gage, 1848↗Smithsonian Magazine: Phineas Gage, neuroscience’s most famous patient↗National Army Museum: ‘The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, September 13th, 1882’↗Britannica: Urabi Pasha↗University of Oxford, Oxford and Empire: Geography and empire, Sir Halford Mackinder in Oxford↗Britannica: Halford Mackinder↗Britannica: Santos-Dumont No. 14-bis↗Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Santos-Dumont making the first public flight in Europe↗World Meteorological Organization / Arizona State University: World’s hottest temperature cools a bit↗NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: Earth’s hottest temperature↗Britannica: Miguel Primo de Rivera↗Congreso de los Diputados: Dictadura de Primo de Rivera↗NASA History: 60 years ago, Luna 2 makes impact in Moon race↗NASA NSSDCA: Luna 2↗New York Road Runners: New York City Marathon history↗Central Park Conservancy: Central Park and the New York City Marathon through the years↗Britannica: Lin Biao↗Wilson Center Digital Archive: Zhou Enlai’s remarks about the Lin Biao issue↗Nintendo, Iwata Asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary↗Guinness World Records: Mario is still a record-breaking superstar as Super Mario Bros. turns 40↗South African History Online: Tutu leads biggest anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa↗Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation: Remembering the road to freedom↗US Office of the Historian: The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli peace process↗United Nations (UNISPAL): Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements↗United Nations DESA: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples↗UN News: United Nations adopts Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (13 September 2007)↗
WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 13 September, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 13 September

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY12 September
HISTORY & TIMELINE13 September
NEXT DAY →14 September