On This Day (May 13)

[MSFixR]

• 1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason.
• 1717 - Empress Maria Theresa of Austria born. (d. 1780) (Maria Theresa was a reigning Archduchess of Austria, a Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and a Holy Roman Empress. Her 16 children also included Marie Antoinette, queen consort of France, and Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor.)
  
  
  Empress Maria Theresa of Austria
  
  
• 1848 – Maamme, the national anthem of Finland written by German composer Fredrik Pacius and Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, was performed for the first time.
  
  
  Finland Anthem - Maamme Laulu
  
  
• 1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico after a series of disputes in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, starting the Mexican-American War.
• 1883 - Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor, inventor of the Pap smear born. (d. 1962) (Papanikolaou was born at Kimi on the island of Evia, in Greece. He was a pioneer in cytology and early cancer detection.)
• 1888 – Isabel the Redeemer signed the Lei Áurea into law, formally abolishing slavery in Brazil.
• 1907 - Dame Daphne du Maurier, English author born. (d. 1989) (Rebecca, The House on the Strand)
• 1912 – The Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force) was established in the United Kingdom.
• 1917 – Our Lady of Fatima: Ten-year old Lúcia Santos and her siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian apparition near Fátima, Portugal.
• 1939 - The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later became WDRC-FM.
• 1969 – Chinese-Malay race riots began in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, leaving at least 190 people dead, and leading the government to declare a state of emergency and suspend Parliament until 1971.
• 1989 - Large groups of students occupied Tiananmen Square and began a hunger strike.