Template:On this day - May 13

Don Juan of Austria

• 461 – In present-day Spain the Battle of Cartagena takes place between the Roman and Vandal fleets, in the context of Emperor Majorian's attempts to reconquer the lost Roman territories.
• 1275 – In the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the troops of the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf land at Tarifa (present-day Province of Cádiz), thus beginning the so-called War of the Strait, fought against the Castilian King Alfonso X.
• 1570 – In Spain, the Peace of the Alpujarras is signed between Don Juan of Austria and the Morisco captain Hernando El Habaqui, who shortly afterwards was arrested and executed on the orders of Aben Aboo, who in turn would end up stabbed by his followers in a cave in Bérchules.
• 1641 – Near Tarragona (Spain) the Battle of Constantí is fought in the course of the Reapers' War.
• 1647 – In the Captaincy General of Chile the «Great Earthquake» occurs, the strongest earthquake (8.5 on the Richter scale) ever to devastate the capital of the Kingdom of Chile.
• 1714 – Birth of Felipe González Ahedo, Spanish military officer and cartographer (d. 1802).
• 1791 – Birth of José Venancio López, Guatemalan jurist and politician (d. 1863).
• 1810 – In Spain, the French troops commanded by Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet begin the siege of Lleida.
• 1830 – Ecuador becomes independent from Gran Colombia.
• 1844 – In Spain, Francisco Javier Girón becomes the first director general of the Civil Guard.
• 1846 – The United States Congress declares war on Mexico; the war would end with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Mexico lost more than half of its territory, including the present-day states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
• 1903 – Death of Apolinario Mabini, Filipino politician, Prime Minister of his country (b. 1864).
• 1965 – Death of Ignacio Barraquer, Spanish ophthalmologist (b. 1884).
• 1879 – Death of Joaquín Gatell y Folch, Spanish Arabist, spy and explorer (b. 1826).
• 1926 – The Spanish aviators Eduardo González-Gallarza and Joaquín Loriga reach Manila from Madrid after covering 19,000 kilometers.
• 1942 – In Mexico a German submarine is blamed for the sinking of the oil tanker Potrero del Llano, which provides the grounds for the entry of Mexico into the Second World War.
• 1958 – In Caracas (Venezuela), a group of anti-American demonstrators attack the car of Vice President Richard Nixon.
• 1974 – Death of Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican writer, essayist, poet, academic and civil servant (b. 1902).
• 1999 – In the State of Mexico the Teletón Children's Rehabilitation Center is inaugurated.
• 2009 – Death of Rafael Escalona, Colombian musician, considered one of the greatest composers of vallenato music (b. 1927).
• 2021 – Death of Carlos Benjumea, Colombian comedian, theater director, and film, stage and television actor (b. 1941).