| 1789 | The National Guard is created in France. | |
| 1812 | The last remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé reach the safety of Kovno, Poland, after the failed Russian campaign. Napoleon's costly retreat from Moscow | |
| 1814 | General Andrew Jackson announces martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city. The Battle of New Orleans | |
| 1862 | The Battle of Fredericksburg ends with the bl**dy slaughter of onrushing Union troops at Marye's Heights. Maine's Colonel Chamberlain at Marye's Heights. | |
| 1902 | The Committee of Imperial Defense holds its first meeting in London. | |
| 1908 | The Dutch take two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships. | |
| 1937 | The Japanese army occupies Nanking, China. Boeing's Trailblazing P-26 Peashooters. | |
| 1940 | Adolf Hitler issues preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece. | |
| 1941 | British forces launch an offensive in Libya. A secret ear for the Desert Fox. | |
| 1945 | France and Britain agree to quit Syria and Lebanon. | |
| 1951 | After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S Truman vows to purge all disloyal government workers. | |
| 1968 | President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mexico's President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz meet on a bridge at El Paso, Texas, to officiate at ceremonies returning the long-disputed El Chamizal area to the Mexican side of the border. | |
| 1972 | Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon. | |
| 1973 | Great Britain cuts the work week to three days to save energy. | |
| 1981 | Polish labor leader Lech Walesa is arrested and the government decrees martial law, restricting civil rights and suspending operation of the independent trade union Solidarity. | |
| 1985 | France sues the United States over the discovery of an AIDS serum. | |
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Born on December 13 |
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| 1585 | William Drummond, Scottish poet. | |
| 1797 | Heinrich Heine, German poet, satirist and journalist. | |
| 1818 | Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln. | |
| 1835 | Phillips Brooks, Episcopal clergyman who wrote the lyrics for "O Little Town of Bethlehem." | |
| 1838 | Alexis Millardet, botanist who developed the first successful fungicide. | |
| 1890 | Marc Connelly, playwright, actor, director and journalist (The Green Pastures). | |
| 1911 | Kenneth Patchen, American poet and author (Before the Brave, Hurrah for Anything). | |
| 1923 | Phillip Anderson, physicist. | |
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