This Day In European History

13th May

Events
1502: Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine explorer, sets sail on the voyage in which he lands in South America.
1572: Pope Gregory XIII is elected.
1779: The Treaty of Teschen brings the War of the Bavarian Succession to a close.
1958: Swiss inventor George de Mestral trademarks Velcro.
1981: Pope John Paul II is shot by a would-be assassin; he lives.

Births
1699: Sebastiao de Carvalho, Portuguese ruler.
1712: Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman.
1717: Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, also Queen of Hungary and Bohemia.
1730: Charles Watson-Wentworth, British prime minister.
1737: William Petty-Fitzmaurice, Dublin born Prime Minister of Britain.
1753: Lazare Carnot, French statesman and military assistant.
1792: Pope Pius IX.
1804: Aleksey Khomyakov, Russian poet.
1840: Alphonse Daudet, French writer.
1842: Arthur Sullivan, British composer.
1882: Georges Braque, French painter.

Deaths
1619: Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, co-founder of the Independent Netherlands.
1832: Georges Cuvier, French zoologist.
1885: Friedrich Henle, German pathologist.

Yesterday

Index

Tomorrow