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Today in History, December 13th

On December 13, 2003, U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein near Tikrit. Plus the Battle of Fredericksburg and the fall of Nanjing.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published December 13, 2025 · Last updated November 10, 2026

December 13 is best known for 2003, when U.S. soldiers pulled former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein out of a hole near Tikrit. The date also saw the Union defeat at Fredericksburg in 1862 and the fall of Nanjing to Japanese forces in 1937.

The big story: Saddam Hussein Is Captured (2003)

When U.S.-led forces toppled Iraq’s government in 2003, the man who had run it did not surrender. Saddam Hussein simply disappeared, and for months he was the most wanted fugitive in the country. On December 13, 2003, U.S. soldiers carrying out a raid code-named Operation Red Dawn closed in on a spot about nine miles outside Tikrit, his hometown. There they found the former dictator hiding in a hole six to eight feet deep. He did not resist and was not hurt. The man whose image had loomed over Iraq for decades came out unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. One soldier at the scene described him as looking resigned to his fate. Pictures of the captured leader were soon seen around the world. Saddam was later put on trial before an Iraqi court, and he was executed on December 30, 2006. For U.S. troops, his capture closed one chapter of a long war.

More events on December 13

Year	What happened
1545	The Council of Trent opened in northern Italy. Over three sessions ending in 1563, it set the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation.
1577	Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth, England, with five ships (Old Style). Only his Golden Hind made it all the way around the world, returning in 1580.
1776	British cavalry under Banastre Tarleton captured American General Charles Lee at a tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where he had stopped with only a small guard.
1862	Robert E. Lee’s Confederates crushed Ambrose Burnside’s Union army at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia. The Union lost about 12,500 men to the Confederates’ 5,000.
1918	President Woodrow Wilson arrived in France for the peace talks after World War I, bringing his plan for a League of Nations.
1937	Japanese troops captured Nanjing, then China’s capital, and began weeks of mass killing. Estimates of the dead vary widely, most between 100,000 and more than 300,000.
1981	Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law to crush the Solidarity trade union. Authorities rounded up union leaders, including Lech Wałęsa.
2000	Vice President Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush in a televised speech, the day after the Supreme Court halted the Florida recount.

Born on December 13

1816: Werner von Siemens, German electrical engineer, telegraph pioneer and co-founder of the firm Siemens & Halske.
1818: Mary Todd Lincoln, first lady and wife of President Abraham Lincoln, born in Lexington, Kentucky.
1925: Dick Van Dyke, actor and comedian of The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins.
1989: Taylor Swift, singer-songwriter born in West Reading, Pennsylvania.