On This Day: 13 June

Alexander the Great dies in Iraq		323 BC
The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and his co–emperor Valerius Licinius granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, is posted in Nicomedia, the eastern and most senior capital city of the Empire		313
Wat Tyler's revolting peasants reach London and burn down John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace		1381
Henry Grace à Dieu, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard and at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, is dedicated		1514
Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns		1525
King Charles I marries Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Navarre, at Canterbury		1625
Peter the Great of Russia concludes a peace with Turkey		1700
James Oglethorpe, provincial governor of Georgia, begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine		1740
Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importing of slaves		1774
Queen Victoria makes her first railway journey (from Slough to Paddington, in 23 minutes)		1842
Vancouver is devastated in a fire		1886
Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his physician drown in Lake Sturnberg, near Munich		1886
Lady Scott wins the first women's golf championship, at Lytham St. Annes		1893
The Yukon Territory is separated from the Northwest Territories		1898
Boxer Rebellion (starts)		1900
Stravinsky's ballet Petroushka is performed for the first time, in Paris		1911
A German daylight raid on London kills 162 (including 46 children) and injures 432		1917
TheUS Post Office bans the sending of human beings by mail, after 4–year–old May Piersdorff is sent for 53 cents by parcel post to visit her grandparents in Lewiston, Idaho		1920
Sir Henry Seagrave dies at 98mph during a water speed record attempt on Windermere		1930
The first V1 flying bombs land on London; only four of the eleven hit their targets		1944
Umberto II leaves Italy for Spain		1946
Princess Elizabeth lays the foundation stone of the National Theatre on London's South Bank		1951
Soviet Air Force fighter jets shoot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea – an unarmed Douglas DC–3, and a Catalina flying boat involved in the search and rescue operation for the DC–3. The Catalina's crew of five are saved, but there are no survivors from the eight–man crew of the Skytrain		1952
The last British troops leave Suez		1956
Real Madrid beat Stade de Reims 4–3 in the first European Cup Final, in Paris		1956
Sir Eugene Aynesley Gossens, conductor and composer, dies		1962
Nelson Mandela arrives on Robben Island to begin his life sentence		1964
The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers, with extremely sensitive revelations about US policy in the Vietnam War		1971
Mrs. Geraldine Brodrick of Sydney gives birth to nonuplets (2 boys and 4 girls survive)		1971
Inflation in the UK reaches 25%		1975
Marcus Serjeant, aged 17, fires six blanks at the Queen in the Mall at the start of the Trooping the Colour ceremony		1981
The Falklands War battles of Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge take place		1982
Pioneer 10 becomes the first man–made object to leave the solar system, when it crosses the orbit of Neptune		1983
John Paul Getty Jr. presents £20m to the National Gallery to start an endowment fund		1985
The Queen bestows the title Princess Royal on Princess Anne (12^th – Times)		1987
The Soviet Union's first beauty contest is held		1988
Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl agree that Germany should be reunited		1989
A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages		1994
Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to death for his part in the Oklahoma bombing		1997
The first ever inter–Korea summit begins as President Kim Dae–jung of South Korea and Kim Jong–il, leader of North Korea, meet in Pyongyang		2000
The USA withdraws from the Anti–Ballistic Missile Treaty; supporters of the decision argue that it was necessary in order to test and build a limited defence system to protect the US from nuclear blackmail by a rogue state (e.g. Iran)		2002
Hamid Karzai, US–backed interim leader of Afghanistan, becomes head of state with a landslide majority		2002
The first Twenty20 cricket matches take place around England, to packed crowds and guarded press approval		2003
Michael Jackson is acquitted on all ten counts of child molestation in Santa Maria, California		2005
The Al Askari Mosque, near Baghdad – one of the most important Shia shrines in the world, built in 944 CE – is bombed for a second time by Al–Qaeda		2007
A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa ('peregrine falcon'), containing particles of the near–Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth		2010
As Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe visits Iran to meet Ayatollah Khamenei, intermediating between him and US President Donald Trump, two oil tankers – the Japanese Kokuka Courageous and Norwegian Front Altair – are attacked, allegedly with limpet mines, near the Strait of Hormuz, while transiting the Gulf of Oman		2019

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On This Day: 13 June