December 13 Birthday
On December 13, 1937, Japanese forces captured Nanjing, then the capital of China. Over the following six weeks, they killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war. Twenty thousand to eighty thousand women were raped. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convicted Japanese generals of war crimes, but the massacre has been minimized or denied by some Japanese nationalists. The event remains a source of tension between Japan and China. A German businessman, John Rabe, saved 200,000 Chinese by establishing a safety zone, using his Nazi Party membership as leverage with Japanese authorities. People born on December 13 fall under the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. The birthstone is Tanzanite and the birth flower is Holly. Historical events on December 13 include 1577: Francis Drake departs Plymouth on circumnavigation voyage, 1937: Nanjing Massacre begins — Japanese soldiers kill 200,000+ civilians, 1981: General Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to suppress Solidarity. Famous people born on December 13 include Dick Van Dyke (1925), Christopher Plummer (1929), Steve Buscemi (1957).