01010513 This Day In History, May 13

609: Pope Boniface IV dedicated the pagan Pantheon (which means "all gods") in Rome as a church in honour of the "Blessed Virgin and all martyrs" (see Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy and A History Of Jerusalem: Constantine and Muhammad).

1568: Mary, Queen of Scots was defeated by the English at the Battle of Langside in Glasgow.

1607: Captain John Smith and 103 crew in 3 ships landed in what is today Virginia. They named the location "Jamestown" after King James (the same James from which the King James Version of Bible was named) and established what was the first permanent English settlement in the New World wilderness.

1619: Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, statesman and founding father of the Netherlands, was executed by Prince Maurice of Nassau on a charge of subverting religion.

1648: Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged.

1779: The War of the Bavarian Succession ended.

1787: Captain Arthur Phillip sailed from Portsmouth, England with eleven ships of convicts (designated as the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1846: The U.S. declared war on Mexico, beginning the "Mexican-American War" (a geographically erroneous term; Mexicans, as well as everyone else in the countries located on the continents of North and South America, are as much "Americans" as people in the United States of America - imagine if, for example, the people of Germany proclaimed themselves to be the Europeans).

1861: Pakistan (which was then a part of British India) opened its first railway line, from Karachi to Kotri.

1861: The Great Comet of 1861 was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.

1888: Slavery was abolished in Brazil.

1912: The Royal Flying Corps was established in England, the predecessor of the Royal Air Force.

1913: The first 4-engine aircraft was flown in Russia; it was built by Igor Sikorsky.

1917: Near Fatima, Portugal, three shepherd children claimed that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had appeared to them. Since 1930, the alleged incident has come to be known as Our Lady of Fatima (if the children actually did see something, it was a demon, not Mary - who is dead, in her grave, awaiting her resurrection on the day of Christ's return - see What Happens When You Die? and What Does The Bible Really Say About Mary?).

1940: Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her daughter Juliana fled the Nazis and sought sanctuary in Britain. Later, in June 1941, Princess Juliana took her children to Canada to escape the bombing, and gave birth to a daughter in Ottawa (the Government of Canada extended diplomatic Embassy status to the hospital room for the moment of the birth, so that the Princess was born in Netherlands territory).

1940: In his first speech as Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." He went on to become one of the greatest leaders that Britain has known.

1958: French troops took control of Algiers.

1965: Israel and West Germany established diplomatic relations.

1981: Pope John Paul II was shot 4 times (2 bystanders were also wounded) by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter's Square.

1993: Ezer Weizmann was sworn in as Israel's seventh President. His uncle, Chaim Weizmann, was the first President at the time of modern-day Israel's founding in 1948 (see A History Of Jerusalem: The British Mandate, A History Of Jerusalem: Zionism and A History Of Jerusalem: War And Peace).

1996: Over 400 people were killed and 30,000 injured from a tornado in Bangladesh.

1998: India detonated two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The U.S., despite having done the very same sort or tests hundreds of times, imposed economic sanctions on India.