13 December: On this day in history
What events happened on 13 December in history? We round up the events, births and deaths…
13 December 1310
Cardinal Thomas Jorz, leading English Dominican and former confessor to King Edward I, died at Grenoble while serving as a papal envoy to Henry, King of the Romans.
13 December 1312
Yorkshireman John Hotham was appointed chancellor of the exchequer. In 1316 he was appointed bishop of Ely. Three years later, in 1319, Hotham was present at the disastrous English defeat at the hands of the Scots at Myton.
13 December 1577
Francis Drake sails from Plymouth on his world voyage. | Read more about Francis Drake’s forgotten role in the English slave trade
13 December 1871
Canadian writer and expressionist painter Emily Carr was born in British Columbia. Much of her work was inspired by the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific north-west coast.
13 December 1939
The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was engaged by three British cruisers in the battle of the River Plate and forced into the neutral port of Montevideo. It was scuttled four days later.
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