13’s
2013, to many triskaidekaphobes , sounds ominous, but the 13’s, throughout recorded history, have had their fair share of interesting moments, some of them even momentous–
1913–16th Amendment–the Income Tax–is ratified, if not embraced.
1813–US troops level Toronto in reprisal for the British White House arson.
1713– Juraj Janosik, the Slovak Robin Hood, is impaled on a hook by the Slovak Sheriff of Nottingham.
1613–In a sand pit near Grenoble, workers discover the 30 foot skeleton of Gallic giant king of the Teutons, Teutobochus, then misplace it.
1513–Ponce de Leon, searching for the Fountain of Youth, instead finds St. Augustine, Florida, known today for the Fountain of Oldth.
1413–Former wayward boy Henry V, inheriting the Crown and the Hundred Years War from Henry IV, surprises all by manning up and nearly conquering France.
1313–Wang Zhen, agronomist and inventor of moveable type, self-publishes the first printed book, the Nong Shu, or Book of Agronomy. If you must read one book in 1313 it is the Nong Shu.
1213–Pope Innocent III calls for a 5th Crusade to get Jerusalem back, instead gets Constantinople sacked.
1113–Pierre Abelard opens his school in Paris just so Heloise will one day walk in.
1013–King Sweyn I of Denmark invades England, quickly adds King Sweyn I of England to his string.
913– Byzantine Emperor Alexander, whose older brother Michael the Drunkard was passed over, dies after a one year reign highlighted by mandated boar worship.
813–Charlemagne names his eldest, Louis the Pious co-emperor of the Franks, despite his tedious appellation. To be fair, he was also called Louis the Fair.
713–Emperor Xuanzong, the lesser of the Tangs, manages to exhaust the Inexhaustible Treasury with massive and numerous brick and mortar tributes to himself.
613– Æthelfrith of Northumbria, the man who whipped the Britons into Englishmen, has less luck with the Welsh.
513–Saint Vigor shows how he got the name when, made Bishop of Bayeaux, he levels a pagan temple and celebrates mass on the rubble.
413–The Visigoths, on a roll under King Ataulf, conquer Toulouse and Bordeaux in France, out-vandalize the Vandals in the Iberian peninsula.
313–A plus and minus year for Maximinus, as the Emperor wins Turkey in the Spring and loses it in the fall.
213–Cao Cao, prime minister of the Han Dynasty, is deemed Wei Gong with 10 cities under his Gong, later known as the not-so-small Kingdom of Wei.
113–Pliny the Younger, lawyer and nephew, not son, of Pliny the Elder, dies from a badly timed visit to Pompeii, and, in the year
13–Jesus celebrates Bar Mitzvah. 
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