November 13 ...

In 1775 American forces captured Montreal during the American Revolution. In 1789 Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." In 1850 novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1856 US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis was born in Louisville, KY. In 1927 the Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River. In 1942 the minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18. In 1956 the Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses. In 1971 the US space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington. In 1985 some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a gigantic mudslide buried the city. In 1994 Sweden voted to join the European Union. In 1995 seven people, including five Americans, were killed when a bomb exploded at a military training facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2001 President George W. Bush signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a president had taken such action.