Unix Timestamp: 1223856000
Monday, October 13. 2008, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Vietnam's Mekong River delta suffers its worst flooding in a decade, with 43 people killed and 70,000 homes destroyed. //www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/death-toll-jumps-to-43-in-vietnams-worst-seasonal-floods-in-a-decade/2011/10/12/gIQAtALUgL_story.html (AP via "Washington Post")

Thirty-three miners near Copiapó, Chile, trapped 700 metres underground in a mining accident in San José Mine, are brought back to the surface after surviving for a record 69 days.ref name =MSNBC

Rescue efforts conclude for the Chilean miners trapped in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident, with the last miner being rescued at 9:56PM local time. //www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-13/chile-frees-first-of-33-miners-in-world-s-longest-underground-mine-rescue.html (Bloomberg), //www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0925972620101013?utm_source=feedburnerutm_medium=feedutm_caign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29 (Reuters), //www.smh.com.au/world/free-at-last-miners-coming-to-surface-20101013-16iqw.html (AFP, AP via "Sydney Morning Herald"), //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11518015 (BBC)

South Korean Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Ban Ki-Moon is elected to be the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, to succeed Kofi Annan in January 2007. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6049890.stm (BBC)

Two people protesting the impeachment of Plateau State governor Joshua Dariye are killed by riot police in Jos, Nigeria. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6048286.stm (BBC)

Mass media: Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction revealed by housekeeper. Newsweek reports Limbaugh's exposure as a pain-pill addict began when Wilma Cline (who had worked at Limbaugh from 1997 to July 2001) showed up at the Palm Beach County state attorney's office late last year eager to sic the cops on her former boss. Cline had delivered enough pills to Limbaugh "to kill an elephant", she stated to The National Enquirer. //www.msnbc.com/news/979355.asp?0ql=c7pcp1=1

2003 occupation of Iraq: New draft resolution being circulated at UN aims at getting international aid. The resolution sets a deadline for initial steps, if only for a transitional step, toward restoring Iraqi sovereignty, giving the Iraqi Governing Council until December 15 to develop a timetable for writing a constitution and holding elections. The Bush administration proposes that the United Nations recognize the Iraqi Governing Council as a unit that "will embody the sovereignty" of Iraq until the country returns to self-rule. //www.iht.com/articles/113570.html//www.nytimes.com/2003/10/13/international/middleeast/13CND-NATI.html?ex=1066708800en=32c2d9e8470660f5ei=5062partner=GOOGLE

U.S. President George W. Bush amongst many others has condemned the perpetrators of the Bali car bombing of October 11. The death toll has now risen to at least 187.

The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

In the Bulgarian parliamentary election, the Union of Democratic Forces defeats the Bulgarian Socialist Party, leaving no remaining Communist governments in Eastern Europe.

Lebanese Civil War: Syrian military forces invade and occupy Mount Lebanon, ousting General Michel Aoun's government. This effectively consolidates Syria's 14 year occupation of Lebanese soil.

In the second U.S. presidential debate, held by U.C.L.A., the Democratic party nominee, Michael Dukakis, is asked by journalist Bernard Shaw of CNN if he would support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were to be raped and murdered. Gov. Dukakis' reply, voicing his opposition to capital punishment in any and all circumstances, is later said to have been a major reason for the eventual failure of his caign for the White House.

The Ford Sierra is launched in Europe, replacing the Ford Cortina

Anita Bryant is famously pied by four gay rights activists during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. This event resulted in her political fallout from anti-gay activism.

German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand the release of 11 Red Army Faction members (see Lufthansa Flight 181).

The Atari 2600 game system is released.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report, "Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future," that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A Fairchild FH-227D passenger aircraft transporting a rugby union team crashes at about 14,000' in the Andes mountain range, near the Argentina/Chile border. Sixteen of the survivors are found alive December 20 but they have had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

A plane carrying U.S. Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana and 3 other men vanishes in Alaska. The wreckage has never been found, despite a massive search at the time.

Rioting Maze Prison inmates cause a fire that destroys most of the c.

Congo President Joseph Kasavubu fires Prime Minister Moise Tshombe and forms a provisional government, with Evariste Kimba in a leading position.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opens on Broadway.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opens on Broadway.

The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1960 World Series of baseball in Game 7, on a home run hit by Bill Mazeroski for a 10–9 victory over the New York Yankees. It was the first time in the history of the Series that a homer had won the chionship.//news.google.com/newspapers?id=g0QNAAAAIBAJsjid=uWwDAAAAIBAJpg=7531,3692253dq=bill-mazeroskihl=en Bucs Are the Chs: Maz's Homer in 9th Wins, 10-0, "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", October 13, 1960, p1

The United States launches Explorer 7.

Severe flooding hits Guatemala.

France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

WWII: Riga, the capital of Latvia, is taken by the Red Army.

WWII: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.

Germany, in a note to Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.

The British Interplanetary Society is founded.

The Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation is signed.

An agreement by Germany, Italy and Switzerland gives the Germans and Italians access to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.

Boston wins its first of seven World Series titles, beating Pittsburgh at their home park, Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The HMS Canopus (1898), a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England (will be deployed widely in World War I).

The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta, Georgia as the Georgia School of Technology.

November ndash The Third Burmese War begins.

Panic of 1857: New York banks close and do not reopen until December 12.

A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution, that if accepted by the United States Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state.

Theodor Fliedner, a Lutheran minister, and Friederike, his wife, open the Deaconess Home and Hospital at Kaiserswerth, Germany, as an institute to train women in nursing.

War of 1812 ndash Battle of Queenston Heights: As part of the Niagara caign in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under GeneralStephen Van Rensselaer are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock (he dies during the battle).

Geological Society of London founded.

Foundation of Washington, DC: The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion, known as the White House after 1818, is laid.

American Revolution: The Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later the United States Navy).

French astronomer Charles Messier discovers the "Whirlpool Galaxy", an interacting, grand-designspiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellationCanes Venatici.

The Massachusetts Council convenes and agrees that all Christian Indians should be ordered to move to Deer Island.

General-major John Lambert drives out the English Rump-government.

The launching ceremony is held for "HMS Sovereign of the Seas", the gilded warship of the British Royal Navy.

War of Mantuan Succession: the Peace of Regensburg is signed. Charles Gonzaga is confirmed as Duke of Mantua.

War resumes between Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Francis ceases control of Savoy and captures Turin. Charles triumphally enters Rome following the Via Triuphalis and delivers a speech before the pope and college of cardinals publicly challenging the king of France to a duel.

The legal and political union of Wales with England is reinforced by "An Acte for Lawes Justice to be ministred in Wales in like fourme as it is in this Realme".

The Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion in York, is resolved by Robert Aske.

The Portuguese crown divides Brazil into fifteen donatory captaincies.

Battle of Un no Kuchi: Takeda Family forces defeat Hiraga Genshin.

Trade compact exempts French merchants from Ottoman law and allows them to travel, buy and sell throughout the sultan's dominions and to pay low customs duties on French imports and exports. The compact is renewed in 1569.

Reformation in Denmark: Protestantism is introduced in Denmark and Norway by King Christian III.

Various religious buildings are closed as part of Henry VIII of England's dissolution of the monasteries, including

Battle of Reynogüelén: First battle between Spanish conquistadors and Mapuches in Chile start of the Arauco War.

Publication of John Calvin's "Institutio Christianæ religionis", a seminal work of Protestantsystematic theology.

Pope Paul III succeeds Pope Clement VII as the 220th pope.

Cardinal Wolsey founds a college at Ipswich, which later becomes Ipswich School.

Treaty of Trente: Maximilian of Austria and Louis XII of France sign the treaty, with Austria recognizing all French conquests in the northern territories of Italy.

Battle of Kenyérmező (): The Hungarian army, led by Pál Kinizsi and István Báthori, defeats the Ottoman army in Transylvania, Hungary.

Plague in Florence.

Richard Whittington is elected Lord Mayor of London for a second full term. He holds this office simultaneously with that of Mayor of the CalaisStaple.

Henry IV of England is crowned.

Richard II’s first parliament meets.

Walter Reynolds, is consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.

"Friday the 13th": All Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into confessingheresy.

Ming Yuan Di, age 17, succeeds Dao Wu di as ruler of the Chinese Northern Wei (see Northern dynasties).

Famine strikes Hispania, Gaul and the Italian Peninsula.

Honorius agrees that sons of prominent families at court in Ravenna be sent beyond the Danube as hostages in return, later he calls up ten thousand Hun mercenaries.The End of Empire (p. 56). Christopher Kelly, 2009. ISBN 978-0-393-33849-2

The Visigothic king Alaric I lays siege to Rome a second time, bringing the inhabitants close to starvation. Emperor Honorius, safe in inaccessible Ravenna, refuses to negotiate for peace, despite repeated offers from Alaric. He comes to terms with the Senate and sets up a rival emperor, Priscus Attalus, prefect ("praefectus urbi") of the city.

The Vandals, led by king Gunderic, cross the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula. They receive land from the Romans, as "foederati", in Baetica (Southern Spain). The Alans occupy lands in Lusitania and the Suebi controlled parts of Gallaecia (modern Portugal).

Judea is returned piecemeal to Agrippa I's son Marcus Julius Agrippa between 48 and 54.

Roman emperor Claudius dies, possibly after being poisoned by Agrippina, his wife and niece, and is succeeded by Nero.

In Britain, Venutius leads a revolt against his ex-wife Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes and a Roman ally. Governor Aulus Didius Gallus sends her military aid, and after some indecisive fighting a legion commanded by Caesius Nasica defeats the rebels (approximate date – some time between 52 and 57).

Nero attempts to prohibit the gladiatorial games.

Apollos, a later assistant of Paul, is converted to Christianity in Ephesus.

Under Nero, Rome annexes Aden to protect the maritime route between Alexandria and Asia.

Corbulo inspects in Syria a base of Legio X Fretensis at Cyrrhus, the Roman legionnaires are demoralized by a long peace. Many soldiers have sold their helmets and shields.

Two centurions are sent to the south of Egypt to find the sources of the Nile, and possible new provinces. They report that while there are many cities in the desert, the area seems too poor to be worthy of conquest.

Paul of Tarsus begins his third mission.

PatriarchOnesimus succeeds Stachys the Apostle as Patriarch of Constantinople.

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo arrives in the East and take up an assignment as governor of Asia, with a secret brief from Nero and his chief ministers Seneca and Burrus to return Armenia to the Roman Empire.

Violence erupts in Caesarea regarding the a local ordinance restricting the civil rights of Jews, creating clashes between Jews and pagans. The Roman garrison, made up of Syrians, takes the side of the pagans. The Jews, armed with clubs and swords, meet in the marketplace. The governor of Judea, Antonius Felix, orders his troops to charge. The violence continues and Felix asks Nero to arbitrate. Nero, sides with the pagans and relegates the Jews to second-class citizens. This decision does nothing but increase the Jews' anger.

Winter ndash Domitius Corbulo marched his legions (Legio VI Ferrata and Legio X) into the mountains of Cappadocia and made c. He gives the men a harsh training, twenty-five-mile marches and weapons drills.

Corbulo recruits Syrian auxiliary units in the region and stationed them in border forts, with orders from Nero not to provoke the Parthians.