July 13 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Moscow and Sydney.

Vice President George H. W. Bush becomes the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan undergoes surgery to remove polyps from his colon.

Somalia declares war on Ethiopia, starting the Ogaden War.

Amidst a period of financial and social turmoil, New York City experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting.

Watergate scandal: Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of a secret Oval Office taping system to investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee.

In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.

The Dartmouth workshop is the first conference on artificial intelligence.

Vuoristorata, one of the oldest still-operating wooden roller coasters in Europe, is opened at the Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki, Finland.

World War II: Montenegrins begin the Trinaestojulski ustanak (Thirteenth of July Uprising), a popular revolt against the Axis powers.

The inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay.

The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.

Felix Ysagun Manalo registers the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) as Iglesia ni Kristo with the government of the Philippines.

The 1913 Romanian Army cholera outbreak during the Second Balkan War starts.

Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.

American Civil War: The New York City draft riots begin three days of rioting which will later be regarded as the worst in United States history.

In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon.

The Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion begins in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.

Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia conclude the London Straits Convention, which forbids warships to cross the Bosporus and Dardanelles in times of war.

Regulamentul Organic, a quasi-constitutional organic law, is adopted in Wallachia, one of the two Danubian Principalities that were to become the basis of Romania.

The General Assembly's Institution, now the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushered the Bengali Renaissance, is founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India.

The Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, is established.

The French Armée d'Orient under Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a Mamluk army under Murad Bey in battle of Shubra Khit.

The Battle of Trippstadt between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria begins.

The Congress of the Confederation enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of slavery.

Nine Years' War: French naval forces led by Anne Hilarion de Tourville, fresh from their victory at Beachy Head, sail West and launch a raid on the small English town of Teignmouth, leaving it devastated.

English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down: In England, Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, heavily defeats the Parliamentarian forces led by Sir William Waller.

Anglo–Spanish War: A convoy of English ships from the Levant Company manage to repel a fleet of eleven Spanish and Maltese galleys off the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria.

Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Haarlem ends after seven months.

Rich the Kid, American rapper

Elise Matthysen, Belgian swimmer

Tyler Skaggs, American baseball player (died 2019)

Kieran Foran, New Zealand rugby league player

Eduardo Salvio, Argentinian footballer

Leon Bridges, American soul singer, songwriter and record producer

Charis Giannopoulos, Greek basketball player

Marcos Paulo Gelmini Gomes, Brazilian-Italian footballer

Colton Haynes, American actor, model and singer

DJ LeMahieu, American baseball player

Raúl Spank, German high jumper

Tulisa, English singer-songwriter and actress

Trell Kimmons, American sprinter

Martin Litchfield West, English scholar, author, and academic (born 1927)

Thomas Berger, American author and playwright (born 1924)

Alfred de Grazia, American political scientist, author, and academic (born 1919)

Nadine Gordimer, South African novelist, short story writer, and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923)

Jeff Leiding, American football player (born 1961)

Lorin Maazel, French-American violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1930)

Leonard Garment, American lawyer and public servant, 14th White House Counsel (born 1924)

Henri Julien, French race car driver (born 1927)

Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and singer (born 1982)

Ottavio Quattrocchi, Italian businessman (born 1938)

Vernon B. Romney, American lawyer and politician, 14th Attorney General of Utah (born 1924)

Marc Simont, French-American author and illustrator (born 1915)

Warren Jabali, American basketball player (born 1946)