WORLD HISTORY · 2013 日本語
Events of 2013Heisei 25 (Japan) · Year of the Snake
What happened in 2013?
In June 2013, Mount Fuji was added to the World Heritage list as a cultural site, and in September Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. In October, landslides struck Izu Oshima island, and in November the Rakuten Eagles won their first Japan Series title.
- Bank of Japan launches massive monetary easingAsia
- Boston Marathon bombingNorth America
- Mount Fuji named World Cultural Heritage siteAsia
- Military coup in EgyptMiddle East
- Tokyo chosen to host 2020 OlympicsAsia
- Massive landslides on Izu OshimaAsia
- Rakuten Eagles win first Japan SeriesAsia
- Typhoon Haiyan makes landfall in PhilippinesAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
2013 at a glance
| Japanese era | Heisei 25 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Snake |
| Age of people born in 2013 | Turn 13 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 2012 (Heisei 24) ／ 2014 (Heisei 26) |
| Events | 149 |
| AP World History | Unit 9 (Globalization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 2013
Our birthday pages list 2 people born in 2013. Here are some of them.
- Big JusticeBorn April 8 · turns 13 this year
- Prince George of WalesBorn July 22 · turns 13 this year
Events of 2013 (timeline · 149)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
At least 60 people are killed and 200 injured in a stampede after celebrations at Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
A gunman kills eight people in a house-to-house rampage in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.
More than 100 people are killed and 270 injured in several bomb blasts in the Quetta area of Pakistan.
One French soldier and 17 militants are killed in a failed attempt to free a French hostage in Bulo Marer, Somalia.
A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others.
Former cyclist Lance Armstrong confesses to his doping in an airing of Oprah's Next Chapter.
Shahzad Luqman is murdered by members of Golden Dawn in Petralona, Athens, leading the creation of new measures to combat race-based attacks in Greece.
At least 50 people are killed and 120 people are injured in a prison riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
Two hundred and forty-two people die in a nightclub fire in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.
SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.
The Shard, the sixth-tallest building in Europe, opens its viewing gallery to the public.
The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
A blizzard kills at least 18 and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
Thirty-six people are killed and 39 others are injured in a stampede in Allahabad, India, during the Kumbh Mela festival.
Militants claiming to be from the Sultanate of Sulu invade Lahad Datu District, Sabah, Malaysia, beginning the Lahad Datu standoff.
The Vatican confirms that Pope Benedict XVI will resign the papacy as a result of his advanced age.
A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happens unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.
A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.
Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
A shooting takes place at a factory in Menznau, Switzerland, in which five people (including the perpetrator) are killed and five others injured.
Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so voluntarily since Pope Gregory XII in 1415.
A bomb blast in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 48 people and injured 200 others in a predominantly Shia Muslim area.
The 2013 papal conclave elects Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio taking the name Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.
A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.
At least 37 people are killed and 200 are injured after a fire destroys a camp containing Burmese refugees near Ban Mae, Thailand.
At least 36 people are killed when a 16-floor building collapses in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A 6.1–magnitude earthquake strikes Iran killing 32 people and injuring over 850 people.
At least 13 people are killed and another three injured after a man goes on a spree shooting in the Serbian village of Velika Ivanča.
Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali.
Salam Fayyad resigns as Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority following an ongoing dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas.
Lion Air Flight 904 crashes on approach to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Indonesia, injuring 40 people.
Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing three people and injuring over 500 others.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Sistan and Balochistan province, Iran, killing at least 35 people and injuring 117 others.
The 2013 Baga massacre is started when Boko Haram militants engage government soldiers in Baga.
The ceremonial funeral of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher takes place at St Paul's Cathedral.
An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, kills 15 people and injures 160 others.
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands.
At least 111 people are killed and 233 injured as violence breaks out in Hawija, Iraq.
A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 people and injuring about 2,500 others.
Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
National Airlines Flight 102, a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft, crashes during takeoff from Bagram Airfield in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, killing all seven people on board.
A powerful explosion occurs in an office building in Prague, believed to have been caused by natural gas, and injures 43 people.
Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix.
Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.
American physician Kermit Gosnell is found guilty in Pennsylvania of murdering three infants born alive during attempted abortions, involuntary manslaughter of a woman during an abortion procedure, and other charges.
An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.
An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.
Fusilier Lee Rigby is murdered by two Islamic extremists in Woolwich, Southeast London.
A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Suspected Maoist rebels kill at least 28 people and injure 32 others in an attack on a convoy of Indian National Congress politicians in Chhattisgarh, India.
The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.
A record breaking 2.6 mile wide tornado strikes near El Reno, Oklahoma, United States, causing eight fatalities (including three storm chasers) and over 150 injuries.
At least 119 people are killed in a fire at a poultry farm in Jilin Province in northeastern China.
The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Greece's public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It would be opened exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
A bomb explodes on a bus in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 25 people and wounding 22 others.
A multi-day cloudburst, centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, causes devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.
Militants storm a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, killing ten climbers and a local guide.
Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and engaging in sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph space probe to observe the Sun.
Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.
President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is removed from office by the military after four days of protests all over the country calling for his resignation, to which he did not respond. The president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, Adly Mansour, is declared acting president until further elections are held.
A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board.
A 73-car oil train derails in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and explodes into flames, killing at least 47 people and destroying more than 30 buildings in the town's central area.
Six people are killed and 200 injured in a French passenger train derailment in Brétigny-sur-Orge.
Typhoon Soulik kills at least nine people and affects more than 160 million in East China and Taiwan.
Dedication of the statue of Rachel Carson, a sculpture of the environmentalist, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Syrian civil war: The Battle of Ras al-Ayn resumes between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist forces, beginning the Rojava–Islamist conflict.
As many as 27 children die and 25 others are hospitalized after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India.
The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Seventeen government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca.
Syrian civil war: The Battle of Ras al-Ayn ends with the expulsion of Islamist forces from the city by the People's Protection Units (YPG).
Dingxi earthquakes: A series of earthquakes in Dingxi, China, kills at least 89 people and injures more than 500 others.
Santiago de Compostela derailment: A high-speed train derails in Spain rounding a curve with an 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit at 190 km/h (120 mph), killing 78 passengers.
Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people.
A suicide bombing at a funeral in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 31 people.
Gunmen open fire at a Sunni mosque in the city of Quetta killing at least ten people and injuring 30.
UPS Airlines Flight 1354 crashes short of the runway at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, killing both crew members on board.
Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.
At least 27 people are killed and 226 injured in an explosion in southern Beirut near a complex used by Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. A previously unknown Syrian Sunni group claims responsibility in an online video.
The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivorous species found in the Americas in 35 years.
The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing.
The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar.
Hundreds of people are reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria.
The Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens at 10:15 pm at a cost of $6.4 billion, after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the old span.
The first Minotaur V rocket is launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, carrying NASA's LADEE spacecraft.
Forty-one elephants are poisoned with cyanide in salt pans, by poachers in Hwange National Park.
NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.
Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured.
Grand Theft Auto V earns more than half a billion dollars on its first day of release.
A VIA Rail train crashes into a double-decker bus at a train station in Ottawa, Canada, killing six people and injuring 35 others.
Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people.
At least 75 people are killed in a suicide bombing at a Christian church in Peshawar, Pakistan.
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes southern Pakistan, killing at least 327 people.
Over 42 people are killed by members of Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Nigeria.
At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
A migrant boat sinks in the Channel of Sicily, with at least 359 people drowning.
An apartment building collapse in Medellín, Colombia results in the deaths of twelve people.
A stampede occurs in India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 and injuring more than 110.
Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.
The Australian Capital Territory becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage with the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013.
Five people are killed and 38 are injured after a car crashes into barriers at Tiananmen Square in China.
Forty-five people are killed and seven injured after a bus catches fire in Mahabubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh (present-day Telangana), India.
Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, strikes the Visayas region of the Philippines; the storm left at least 6,340 people dead with over 1,000 still missing, and caused $2.86 billion (2013 USD; equivalent to $3.95 billion in 2025) in damage.
A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.
Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.
A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut kills 23 people and injures 160 others.
Fifty-four people are killed when the roof of a shopping center collapses in Riga, Latvia.
Massive protests start in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement.
Iran signs an interim agreement with the P5+1 countries, limiting its nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions.
LAM Mozambique Airlines 470 crashes in the Bwabata National Park in a pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 33 people on board.
Militants attack a Defense Ministry compound in Sanaa, Yemen, killing at least 56 people and injuring 200 others.
Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first musical act to perform on all seven continents.
At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia.
A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
The South Sudanese Civil War begins when opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng vote to boycott the meeting of the National Liberation Council at Nyakuron.
A bus falls from an elevated highway in Manila, capital of the Philippines, killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.
An Irkut-Avia Antonov An-12 crashes on approach to Irkutsk Northwest Airport, killing all nine people on board.
Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher suffers a massive head injury while skiing in the French Alps.
A suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd kills at least 18 people and wounds 40 others.
More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 2013 in the Japanese calendar?
2013 was Heisei 25 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 2013?
2013 is the Year of the Snake.
How old is someone born in 2013?
They turn 13 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 2013?
In June 2013, Mount Fuji was added to the World Heritage list as a cultural site, and in September Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. In October, landslides struck Izu Oshima island, and in November the Rakuten Eagles won their first Japan Series title.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.