About Today in History December 13
1. On this day in 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted South Island, New Zealand, and later, mistaking the strait north of the island for a bay, believed he had found the west coast of a hypothetical southern continent.
2. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces during the Iraq War; three years later he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and was executed.
3. American country music singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, whose pop-infused tales of young heartache achieved widespread crossover success in the early 21st century, was born.
4. The film drama Anastasia was released in American theatres; it marked the Hollywood comeback of Ingrid Bergman, whose extramarital affair had caused a scandal, and she won an Academy Award for her performance.
5. The Japanese Imperial Army seized Nanjing, China, during the Sino-Japanese War, leading to the Nanjing Massacre, in which up to 300,000 Chinese may have been killed.
6. British astronomer J.P.M. Prentice discovered Nova Herculis, one of the brightest novas of the 20th century.
7. The Four-Power Pact was signed during the Washington Conference by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France, stipulating that all the signatories would be consulted in the event of a controversy between two of them over “any Pacific question.”
8. American boxer Archie Moore, the world light heavyweight boxing champion from 1952 to 1962, was born.
9. The Battle of Fredericksburg, a bloody engagement of the American Civil War in which Confederate troops were led to victory by General Robert E. Lee over the Union forces of General Ambrose Everett Burnside, was waged.
10. Samuel Johnson, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters for his biographies and essays, died in London.
11. The Council of Trent, the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, which helped revitalize the church in many parts of Europe after the Protestant Reformation, opened in Trent, Italy.