Events

January

February

February 1: New York's Grand Central building as rebuilt (c.1911).

• February 1 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest train station.

• February 3 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.

• February 4 – The trial of the remnants of the Bonnot Gang begins in France.

• February 9 – The Great Fireball Procession, a chain of slow, large meteors moving from northwest to southeast, is sighted over North America, particularly in Canada.

• February 13 – Mexican Revolution: Begins the episode known as La Decena Trágica, the rebellion of some military chiefs against the President Francisco I. Madero.

• February 17 – The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays the works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th Century.

• February 22 – Mexican Revolution: Assassination of President Francisco I. Madero and Vicepresident Pino Suarez. Is succeeding by General Victoriano Huerta.

March

• March – The House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne, amidst an outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia.

• March 4

• *Woodrow Wilson succeeds William Howard Taft as the 28th President of the United States.

• *The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor.

• *The first U.S. law regulating the shooting of migratory birds is passed.

March 4: Wilson sworn in as the 28th president of the United States.

• March 5–March 7 – First Battle of Bud Dajo: American troops decisively defeat Moro rebels in the Philippines.

• March 7 – The British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in Baltimore harbour.

• March 12 – Australia begins building the new federal capital of Canberra.

• March 13 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the United States.

• March 18 – King George I of Greece is assassinated.

• March 20 – Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese nationalist party (KMT), is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days after.

• March 25

• *Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza announces his Plan of Guadalupe, and begins his rebellion against Victoriano Huerta's government as head of the Constitutionals.

• *2 days of rain in the Miami Valley flood the region and mark the worst natural disaster in Ohio's recorded history. Dayton is especially devastated in this great flood.

• March 26 – Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.

March 12: Australia begins building the new capital of Canberra.

April

• April 8 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.

• April 24 – The Woolworth Building opens in New York City.

• April 26 – Mary Phagan is raped and strangled on the premises of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta. Leo Frank is tried and convicted for the crime.

• April 29 – Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patents all-purpose zipper

May

• May – The Paul Emile Chabas painting September Morn creates a national sensation in the U.S., and results in a court case in Chicago, Illinois.

• May 3 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film was released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.

• May 13 – Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a 4-engine aircraft.

• May 14 – New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.

• May 29 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris, causing a riot that very night.

• May 30 – First Balkan War: A peace treaty is signed in London, ending the war.

June

• June – The first edition of the Christian esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross is published in the United States (it is still issued bimonthly today).

• June 4 – Emily Davison, a British suffragette, runs out in front of the King's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies 4 days later in the hospital, never having regained consciousness.

• June 13 – A Great Gorge and International Railway trolley and passengers are buried under the contents of an overhead garbage chute, that breaks in Niagara Falls, New York.

• June 15 – Bud Bagsak Massacre: U.S. troops under General John 'Black Jack' Pershing kill at least 2,000 civilians in Bud Bagsak, the Philippines.

• June 24 – Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.

July

• July 3 – The 50th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of American Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

• July 10 – Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States ().

August

• August 4 – In China, the province of Chungking declares independence; Chinese Republican forces crush the rebellion in a couple of weeks.

• August 10 – Macedonia is divided after the Second Balkan War, according to the Treaty of Bucharest.

• August 13 – Stainless steel is invented by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.

• August 15 – The Dublin Strike & Lockout begins; all trade union members are dismissed.

• August 20 – 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond jumps from an airplane and lands safely.

September

• September 19 – Francis Ouimet wins the U.S. Open by 5 strokes, becoming the first amateur to ever win the event.

• September 23 – French aviator Roland Garros crosses the Mediterranean in an airplane flying from Fréjus, France to Bizerte, Tunisia.

October

• October 1 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa's troops take Torreón after a 3-day battle, when government troops retreat.

• October 3 – The United States Revenue Act of 1913 re-imposes the federal income tax and lowers basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.

• October 9 – SS Volturno catches fire and sinks in the North Atlantic

• October 10 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.

• October 19 – The DLRG (German Life Saving Society) is founded.

• October 31 – The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.

November

• November 1 – Panama Canal employees reach their highest number (56,654) since construction began in 1904.

• November 5 – The insane King Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III.

• November 6 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

• November 7–11 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 kills more than 250.

• November 26 – Phi Sigma Sigma, the first non-sectarian sorority, is founded at Hunter College in New York.

• November 29 – Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, the international organizing body of competitive fencing is founded in Paris, France.

December

• December 1

• *The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford is not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one sparks an era of mass production).

• *Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the first Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.

• December 12

• *Emperor of Ethiopia Menelik II dies and is succeeded by his grandson Iyasu V of Ethiopia.

• *Vincenzo Perugia tries to sell the Mona Lisa in Florence and is arrested.

• December 21 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

• December 23 – The Federal Reserve is created by Woodrow Wilson.

• December 30 – Italy returns the Mona Lisa to France.

• December – The Gateway of India is constructed at Mumbai, to commemorate the first entry of Queen Victoria into India.

Undated

• Female suffrage is enacted in Norway.

• The British steamship Calvadas disappears in the Marmara Sea with 200 hands on board.

• Dutch physicist Willem de Sitter shows that the speed of light is independent of the speed of the source.

• French physicist Georges Sagnac shows that the speed of light depends on the speed of a rotating platform.

• Camel Cigarettes are introduced.

• The Journal of Ecology is first published.

• The National Temperance Council is founded to promote the temperance movement.

• The United States Soccer Federation is formed.

• The modern zipper is invented.

• The cities of Winston, North Carolina and Salem, North Carolina officially merge to become Winston-Salem.

• Portuguese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands (1878–1913) ends.

• 25,000 people die in industrial accidents in the US

• The value of world trade reaches roughly $38 billion.

• Yuan Shikai uses military force to dissolve China's parliament and rules as a dictator.

• Schools founded:

• *The Hockaday School

• *Crescent School

Ongoing

• First Balkan War.

Births

January–February

• January 1 – Shek Kin, Hong Kong veteran actor (d. 2009)

• January 2 – Anna Lee, English actress (d. 2004)

• January 5 – Jack Haig, British actor (d. 1989)

• January 6 – Edward Gierek, Polish politician (d. 2001)

• January 6 – Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)

• January 9 – Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)

• January 10 – Gustáv Husák, Slovak politician (d. 1991)

• January 15 – Lloyd Bridges, American actor (Sea Hunt) (d. 1998)

• January 15 – Alexander Marinesko, captain of the S-13 submarine, which sank the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff with 10,000 casualties (d. 1963)

• January 18 – Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)

• January 18 – George Unwin, British fighter ace of WWII (d. 2006)

• January 22 – William Cardinal Conway, Irish clergyman (d. 1977)

• January 22 – Carl F. H. Henry, American theologian and publisher (d. 2003)

• January 22 – Henry Bauchau, Belgian novelist, poet, and psychoanalyst

• January 24 – Norman Dello Joio, American composer (d. 2008)

• January 25 – Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (d. 1994)

• January 25 – Huang Hua (politician), Foreign minister of China

• January 26 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American composer (d. 1990)

• January 28 – Wally Parks, founder of the NHRA {d. 2007)

• January 29 – Peter von Zahn, German journalist and writer (d. 2001)

• February 2 – Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (d. 1985)

• February 4 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)

• February 6 – Mary Leakey, British anthropologist (d. 1996)

• February 10 – Douglas Slocombe, British cinematographer

• February 13 – George Barker, British poet (d. 1991)

• February 14 – Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)

• February 14 – Jimmy Hoffa, American labor leader (disappeared 1975)

• February 14 – Woody Hayes, National Football League coach (d. 1987)

• February 20 – Tommy Henrich, American baseball player

• February 25 – Jim Backus, American actor (Gilligan's Island) (d. 1989)

• February 25 – Gert Fröbe, German actor (Goldfinger) (d. 1988)

• February 27 – T. B. Ilangaratne, Sri Lankan author, dramatist, actor and politician (d. 1992)

• February 27 – Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher (d. 2005)

• February 27 – Irwin Shaw, American writer (d. 1984)

• February 27 – Kazimierz Sabbat, Polish president (d. 1989)

March–April

• March 1 – R. S. R. Fitter, British writer (d. 2005)

• March 2 – Godfried Bomans, Dutch writer (d. 1971)

• March 4 – John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)

• March 13 – William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1987)

• March 13 – Smoky Dawson, Australian singer (d. 2008)

• March 13 – Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer and lyricist (d. 2009)

• March 18 – René Clément, French film director (d. 1996)

• March 21 – George Abecassis, English race car driver (d. 1991)

• March 26 – Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1996)

• March 26 – Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist

• March 29 – R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 2000)

• March 30 – Richard Helms, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 2002)

• March 30 – Frankie Laine, American singer (Mule Train) (d. 2007)

• March 30 – Ċensu Tabone, Maltese politician

• March 31 – Etta Baker, American musician (d. 2006)

• April 3 – Per Borten, Premier of Norway (d. 2005)

• April 7 – Charles Vanik, American politician (d. 2007)

• April 11 – Oleg Cassini, American fashion designer (d. 2006)

• April 14 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (d. 2008)

• April 21 – Doctor Richard Beeching, Chairman of British Rail (d. 1985)

• April 27 – Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist, writer, and editor (d. 2004)

May–June

• May 1 – Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)

• May 1 – Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (d. 1980)

• May 5 – Tyrone Power, American actor (d. 1958)

• May 8 – Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (d. 1937)

• May 11 – Robert Jungk, Austrian journalist (d. 1994)

• May 13 – William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (d. 1980)

• May 16 – Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)

• May 20 – William Hewlett, American businessman (d. 2001)

• May 26 – Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)

• May 29 – Tony Zale, American boxer (d. 1997)

• June 6 – Carlo L. Golino, American scholar (d. 1991)

• June 10 – Tikhon Khrennikov, Russian composer (d. 2007)

• June 11 – Vince Lombardi, American football coach (d. 1970)

• June 11 – Risë Stevens, American mezzosoprano

• June 18 – Robert Mondavi, American winemaker (d. 2008)

• June 18 – Sylvia Field Porter, American economist and journalist (d. 1991)

• June 25 – Cyril Fletcher, British comedian (d. 2005)

• June 26 – Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (d. 2008)

• June 26 – Maurice Wilkes, British computer scientist

• June 27 – Richard Pike Bissell, author of short stories and novels (d. 1977)

• June 28 – Franz Antel, Austrian filmmaker (d. 2007)

• June 30 – Alfonso López Michelsen, President of Colombia (d. 2007)

July–August

• July 3 – Dorothy Kilgallen, American newspaper columnist (d. 1965)

• July 7 – Pinetop Perkins, American blues musician

• July 12 – Philip Mayer Kaiser, American diplomat (d. 2007)

• July 12 – Willis Lamb, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)

• July 13 – Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, Danish shipping magnate

• July 14 – Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States (d. 2006)

• July 17 – Roger Garaudy, French Holocaust denier

• July 18 – Red Skelton, American comedian (d. 1997)

• July 22 – Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (d. 1995)

• July 22 – Licia Albanese, Italian-born soprano

• July 23 – Michael Foot, British politician

• August 8 – John Facenda, American sports announcer (d. 1984)

• August 8 – Robert Stafford, Governor of Vermont, U.S Representative and U.S. Senator (d. 2006)

• August 10 – Wolfgang Pauli, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)

• August 13 – Fred Davis, English snooker and billiards player (d. 1998)

• August 13 – Makarios III, Archbishop and first President of Cyprus (d. 1977)

• August 16 – Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)

• August 17 – W. Mark Felt, American Federal Bureau of Investigation Associate Director and Deep Throat Watergate informant (d. 2008)

• August 17 – Rudy York, American baseball player (d. 1970)

• August 19 – Richard Simmons, American actor (d. 2003)

• August 20 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)

• August 27 – Nina Schenk von Stauffenberg, German wife of freedom fighter Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (d. 2006)

• August 28 – Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (d. 1995)

• August 28 – Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)

• August 28 – Boris Pahor, Slovenian writer

• August 29 – Jan Ekier, Polish pianist and composer

• August 30 – Richard Stone, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)

• August 31 – Helen Levitt, American photographer (d. 2009)

• August 31 – Bernard Lovell, British radio astronomer

September–October

• September 1 – Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and graphic artist (1979)

• September 2 – Israel Gelfand, Russian mathematician (d. 2009)

• September 4

• *Stanford Moore, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)

• *Boone Guyton, American test pilot (d. 1996)

• September 10 – Lincoln Gordon, American diplomat

• September 11 – Paul "Bear" Bryant, American football coach (d. 1983)

• September 12 – Jesse Owens, American athlete (d. 1980)

• September 14 – Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala (d. 1971)

• *Annalisa Ericson, Swedish actress

• September 15 – John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d. 1988)

• September 19 – Frances Farmer, American actress (d. 1970)

• September 23 – Carl-Henning Pedersen, Danish artist, member of the CoBrA movement (d. 2007)

• September 24 – Wilson Rawls, American author (d. 1984)

• *Herb Jeffries, American jazz singer

• September 25 – Terence Patrick O'Sullivan, engineer (d. 1970)

• September 28 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss artist and illustrator (d. 2007)

• September 29

• *Trevor Howard, English actor (d. 1988)

• *Stanley Kramer, American film producer, director, and writer (d. 2001)

• *Silvio Piola, Italian footballer (d. 1996)

• September 30 – Bill Walsh, American movie producer and writer (d. 1975)

• October 10

• *Claude Simon, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)

• *Alice Chetwynd Ley, British romance writer (d. 2004)

• October 18 – Evelyn Venable, American actress (d. 1993)

• October 22 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (d. 1954)

• October 22 – Tamara Desni, German-born British actress (d. 2008)

• October 27 – Joe Medicine Crow, American tribal historian and anthropologist

November–December

• November 2 – Burt Lancaster, American actor (Elmer Gantry) (d. 1994)

• November 5 – Vivien Leigh, British actress (Gone With The Wind) (d. 1967)

• November 7 – Albert Camus, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)

• November 7 – Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook, Canadian sculptor (d. 2009)

• November 9 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (d. 2000)

• November 10 – Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese politician (d. 2005)

• November 13 – Alexander Scourby, American actor (d. 1985)

• November 15 – Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist (d. 2005)

• November 18 – Endre Rozsda, Hungarian-French painter (d. 1999)

• November 21

• *John Boulting, English film director (d.1985)

• *Roy Boulting, English film director and producer (d. 2001)

• November 22

• * Benjamin Britten, English composer (d. 1976)

• * Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, first female Philippine Supreme Court Justice (d. 2006)

• November 23 – Michael Gough, English actor

• November 25 – Lewis Thomas, American physician and essayist (d. 1993)

• December 6

• *Nikolai Amosov, Ukrainian heart surgeon, inventor, best-selling author, and exercise enthusiast (d. 2002)

• *Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (d. 2004)

• December 8 – Delmore Schwartz, American poet (d. 1966)

• December 9 – Frances Reid, American actress

• December 10

• *Morton Gould, American composer (d. 1996)

• *Harry Locke, British character actor (d. 1987)

• December 13 – Arnold Brown, Salvation Army general (d. 2002)

• December 15 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (d. 1980)

• December 16 – George Ignatieff, Canadian diplomat, recipient of the 1984 Pearson Medal of Peace (d. 1989)

• December 18

• *Alfred Bester, American author (d. 1987)

• *Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)

• December 21 – Arnold Friberg, American artist

• December 30 – Elyne Mitchell, Australian author (d. 2002)

Deaths

January–June

• January 2 – Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (b. 1855)

• January 4 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (b. 1833)

• February 17 – Edward Stanley Gibbons, English philatelist and founder of Stanley Gibbons Ltd (b. 1840)

• February 22 – Francisco I. Madero, President of Mexico (b. 1873)

• February 26 – Felix Draeseke, German composer (b. 1835)

• March 10 – Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist (b. 1820)

• March 11 – John Shaw Billings, American military and medical leader (b. 1838)

• March 18 – King George I of Greece (b. 1845)

• March 22 – Sung Chiao-jen, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1882)

• March 31 – J. P. Morgan, American financier and banker (b. 1837)

• May 1 – John Barclay Armstrong, Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshal (b. 1850)

• May 16 – Louis Perrier, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1849)

• June 2 – Alfred Austin, English Poet Laureate (b. 1835)

• June 5 – Chris von der Ahe, German-born brewer and baseball owner

• June 8 – Emily Davison, British suffragette (b. 1872)

• June 28 – Manoel Ferraz de Campos Salles, Brazilian president (b. 1841)

July–December

• July 3 – Horatio Nelson Young, American Civil War naval hero (b. 1845)

• July 13 – Edward Burd Grubb, American Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General (b. 1841)

• July 19 – Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia (b. 1852)

• July 29 – Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1838)

• August 7 – Samuel Franklin Cody, American/British aviation pioneer (b. 1867)

• September 30 – Rudolf Diesel, German engine inventor (b. 1858)

• October 5 – Hans von Bartels, German painter (b. 1856)

• October 16 – Ralph Rose, American athlete (b. 1885)

• November 7 – Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh biologist (b. 1823)

• November 22 – Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and the last shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan (b. 1837)

• December 7

• *Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, Italian Catholic churchman and last surviving cardinal of Pius IX (b. 1828)

• *Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, inventor of mail order (b. 1844)

• December 12 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1844)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes

• Chemistry – Alfred Werner

• Medicine – Charles Richet

• Literature – Rabindranath Tagore

• Peace – Henri La Fontaine

Ship events

• List of ship launches in 1913

• List of ship commissionings in 1913

• List of ship decommissionings in 1913