On This Day - What happened 13 December

The 115 Antioch earthquake occurred on 13 December 115 AD. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.5 on the surface wave magnitude scale and an estimated maximum intensity of XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The origin of the reported death toll of 260,000 is uncertain, as it only appears in catalogues of about the last hundred years.

After the death of Frederick II in 1250, the German kingdom was divided between his son Conrad IV (died 1254) and the anti-king, William of Holland (died 1256).

Florence at the time of Leonardo's youth was the centre of Christian Humanist thought and culture. Leonardo commenced his apprenticeship with Verrocchio in 1466, the year that Verrocchio's master, the great sculptor Donatello, died.

On 13 December [O.S. 30 November] 1904, the Moscow City Duma passed a resolution demanding establishment of an elected national legislature, full freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. Similar resolutions and appeals from other city dumas and zemstvo councils followed.

On 13 December 1904, Hungarian Sándor Just and Croatian Franjo Hanaman were granted a Hungarian patent (No. 34541) for a tungsten filament lamp that lasted longer and gave brighter light than the carbon filament. Tungsten filament lamps were first marketed by the Hungarian company Tungsram in 1904. This type is often called Tungsram-bulbs in many European countries. Filling a bulb with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen slows down the evaporation of the tungsten filament compared to operating it in a vacuum. This allows for greater temperatures and therefore greater efficacy with less reduction in filament life.

White Friday occurred during the Italian Front of World War I, when an avalanche struck an Austrian barracks on Mount Marmolada, killing 270 soldiers. Other avalanches the same day struck Italian and other Austrian positions, killing hundreds. An accurate estimation of the number of casualties from the White Friday avalanches is not available. Historical documents suggest at least 2,000 victims among the soldiers and a few dozens among civilians.

In late 1918, American, Belgian, British, and French troops entered the Rhineland to enforce the armistice. Before the treaty, the occupation force stood at roughly 740,000 men.

On 13 December, Churchill was crossing Fifth Avenue in New York City when he was knocked down by a car, suffering a head wound from which he developed neuritis.

Historians estimate that between December 13, 1937, and late January 1938, Japanese forces killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese (mostly civilians) in the "Nanjing Massacre" (also known as the "Rape of Nanjing"), after its fall but the numbers are uncertain and possibly inflated coupled with the fact that the government of the People's Republic of China has never undertaken a full accounting of the Massacre.

At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949 she met divorcé Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy businessman, who drove her to her Essex train. After their first meeting she described him to Muriel as "not a very attractive creature – very reserved but quite nice". They married on 13 December 1951, at Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London.

After acquiring two landing craft, the Marines were transported to Limbang by Royal Navy crews led by Captain Black (who later commanded HMS Invincible during the Falklands War) and staged their arrival at dawn, 13 December.

In 1967, Bergoglio finished his theological studies and was ordained to the priesthood on 13 December 1969, by Archbishop Ramón José Castellano.

On 13 December 1974, North Vietnamese forces attacked Route 14 in Phước Long Province. Phuoc Binh, the provincial capital, fell on 6 January 1975.

Saudi Arabia raises marker crude price to $24 per barrel.

The 1982 North Yemen earthquake hit near the city of Dhamar, North Yemen (now part of Yemen) on December 13. Measuring 6.2 on the moment magnitude scale, with a maximum perceived intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale, as many as 2,800 people were killed and another 1,500 injured.

The sixth WTO ministerial conference (2005) was held on 13–18 December 2005 in Hong Kong. It was considered vital if the four-year-old Doha Development Round negotiations were to move forward sufficiently to conclude the round in 2006. In this meeting, countries agreed to phase out all their agricultural export subsidies by the end of 2013, and terminate any cotton export subsidies by the end of 2006. Further concessions to developing countries included an agreement to introduce duty-free, tariff-free access for goods from the Least Developed Countries, following the Everything but Arms initiative of the European Union—but with up to 3% of tariff lines exempted. Other major issues were left for further negotiation to be completed by the end of 2010.

On December 13, 2016, Apple began taking online orders for AirPods.

On December 11, 2017 jury deliberation began for the sentencing phase. The next day the jury was deadlocked; however, on December 13 they decided to recommend the death penalty, which was accepted by Judge George G. Lomeli.

On December 13, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to pass two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Richard Jewell, a biographical drama film, was released in the United States on December 13, 2019. The film was directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It was written by Billy Ray, based on the 1997 article "American Nightmare," and the book The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle (2019) by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen. Jewell is played by actor Paul Walter Hauser.

In 2019, League of Legends won the eSports game of the year award from The Game Awards 2019 event.

During The Game Awards 2019, Microsoft officially unveiled Xbox Series X—a new Xbox model to be released in late-2020. The console is estimated to be four times as powerful as Xbox One X, with support for 8K resolution, real-time ray-tracing, and 120 frames-per-second renderings. Xbox Series X is stated to be backward compatible with all games and accessories currently compatible with Xbox One (including original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles that are supported on Xbox One). In addition, there are no immediate plans for first-party games to be exclusive to the new console over the Xbox One. Following the unveiling, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that Xbox Series X constituted an entry in a fourth generation of Xbox hardware, which will be branded simply as "Xbox" with no subtitle. Prior to the E3 reveal, it had been speculated that Microsoft was developing two next-generation Xbox consoles codenamed "Anaconda" and "Lockhart", which were high-end and low-end models respectively. Microsoft has focused solely on a high-end product in its current marketing.

Reddit acquires Dubsmash. They intend to integrate its video creation tools into Reddit.

Pope Sixtus V was born in Grottammare, Papal States.

During the era of Portuguese exploration known as "Manuel The Fortunate", the King of Portugal died at the age of 52.

The Queen of Gustav I of Sweden was named Katarina Stenbock, her death in 1621 at 86 years of age.

Dodoftei, a writer from the metropolitan of Moldavia, died.

Jean- Claude Trial was born in Avignon, France in 1732.