November 13 in Military History

Brigadier General Richard Montgomery's Continental Army captured Montreal without opposition after British General Carleton abandoned the city. The bloodless capture marked the high point of the American invasion of Canada. Montgomery then marched toward Quebec City, where he was killed in a failed assault on December 31.

The legendary British carrier HMS Ark Royal sank 25 miles from Gibraltar, fourteen hours after being torpedoed by U-81. Remarkably, only one crew member perished. The Ark Royal's aircraft had crippled the battleship Bismarck with the torpedo hit that jammed her rudder, enabling the Royal Navy to bring Bismarck to battle.

Following the devastating night action, aircraft from Henderson Field and the carrier Enterprise attacked the crippled Japanese battleship Hiei throughout November 13. The 36,600-ton fast battleship was eventually scuttled, becoming the first Japanese battleship sunk in World War II.

The Supreme Court affirmed a lower-court ruling that Alabama bus segregation laws were unconstitutional, ending the Montgomery bus boycott. The decision accelerated military integration pressures already building in the armed forces since Truman's 1948 executive order and shaped the civil-rights record of the Cold War-era US military.

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) engaged elements of three North Vietnamese Army regiments in the Ia Drang Valley, launching the first major battle between regular US forces and the NVA. The engagement validated the helicopter air-assault concept and defined American tactical approach for the rest of the Vietnam War.

Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly wearing a holstered pistol, a speech that made the Palestinian question a permanent fixture of international diplomacy and shaped Israeli military doctrine for decades.

After a march by thousands of Vietnam veterans, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by 21-year-old Yale student Maya Lin, was dedicated in Washington. The V-shaped wall of black granite inscribed with 58,318 names was initially controversial but quickly became the most visited memorial in the capital, transforming how America mourned its war dead.

The Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupted, triggering lahars that buried the town of Armero and killed over 23,000 people. The US military launched one of its largest Cold War humanitarian responses, deploying helicopters, medical teams, and search-and-rescue units from SOUTHCOM in the days that followed.

Northern Alliance forces supported by U.S. Special Forces entered Kabul after Taliban forces fled during the night, just 36 days after Operation Enduring Freedom began.

In the deadliest attack on French soil since World War II, ISIS operatives carried out coordinated strikes across Paris, suicide bombings at the Stade de France, mass shootings at cafes, and a hostage siege at the Bataclan concert hall. The attacks killed 130 civilians and prompted France to invoke the EU's mutual defense clause for the first time in history.