This Day in History
Today: December 13, 2025
1294
Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.[1]
1545
The Council of Trent begins as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.[2]
1577
Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.[3]
1623
The Plymouth Colony establishes the system of trial by 12-men jury in the American colonies.[4]
1636
The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians, a date now considered the founding of the National Guard of the United States.[5]
1642
Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New Zealand.[6]
1643
English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.[7]
1758
The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.[8]
1769
Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.[9]
1818
Cyril VI of Constantinople resigns from his position as Ecumenical Patriarch under pressure from the Ottoman Empire.[10]
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