1568
May 13, Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by English at battle of Langside, south of Glasgow.

1648
May 13, Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck.

1717
May 13, Maria Theresa was born in Vienna. She later became Archduchess of Austria, a Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and a Holy Roman Empress.

1940
May 13, Dutch Queen Wilhelmina fled to England.

1957
May 13, Jean Peters (d.2000 at 73), actress, married Howard Hughes (51) in Tonopah, Nev.

1988
May 13, In northern California the body of Wynetta Davis (26) of Vallejo was found in a trough on Pepper Rd. in Petaluma. She was last seen two days earlier and an autopsy revealed that she had been strangled. In 2013 DNA testing led to the arrest of two men in connection to her slaying.

1997
May 13, From Ethiopia it was reported that 6 teenage girls had committed suicide over the last 9 months in order to avoid traditional marriages to elderly cousins as old as 80.

2003
May 13, Kathleen Aiello-Loreck (49), a mother of 3 from Antioch, Ca., was killed during a lunchtime stroll along the Contra Costa Canal Regional Trail in Concord. The next day John Kahler (32), who lived nearby, threw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge. On Sep 22 police in Indiana arrested Robert Ward Frazier (39) for the murder based on DNA evidence. On June 21, 2006, a jury convicted Frazier of murder, rape and sodomy. A judge sentenced Frazier to death on Dec 15, 2006.

2008
May 13, In Brazil renowned rain forest defender Marina Silva resigned as the environment minister, saying she lacked the necessary political support to protect the Amazon. A government study said Blacks will outnumber whites in Brazil this year for the first time since slavery was abolished, but the income gap between the two groups may take another 50 years to bridge.

2011
May 13, Egyptian authorities on ordered the detention of Suzanne Mubarak, wife of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to push their military rulers to do more to help Palestinians.

2013
May 13, Hong Kong's top court granted a transgender woman the right to marry her boyfriend in a watershed ruling that falls short of allowing same-sex marriage.