13 June 2001

Some of the closest advisors and collaborators of Czech prime minister Petr Nečas were arrested for corruption.

A 6.0 Mw earthquake (aftermath pictured) caused up to NZ$6 billion of additional damage to Christchurch, New Zealand, which was still recovering from an earthquake four months earlier.

Insurgents carried out a second bombing at the al-Askari Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.

Pioneer 10 passed the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to leave the proximity of the major planets of the Solar System.

The New York Times published the first excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in the Vietnam War.

"The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' twentieth and final number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Preston Smith, Governor of Texas, signed a law converting a research arm of Texas Instruments into the University of Texas at Dallas.

Soviet aircraft shot down a Swedish military plane carrying out signals-intelligence gathering operations, followed three days later by the shootdown of a second plane searching for the first one.

Second World War: At the Battle of Villers-Bocage, German tank commander Michael Wittmann destroyed around 30 Allied vehicles in less than 15 minutes.

In one of the biggest upsets in championship boxing, the underdog James J. Braddock defeated Max Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

World War I: The Battle of Mont Sorrel in the Ypres Salient came to an end as a Canadian assault led German forces to withdraw to their original lines.

The Jeannette expedition to reach the North Pole from the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait came to an end when the USS Jeannette (pictured), after having been trapped in ice for almost two years, was crushed and sank.

Lewis and Clark Expedition: Meriwether Lewis became the first white American to sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, beginning the practice of clerical marriage in Protestantism.

Henry Grace à Dieu, the largest warship ever built at the time, was launched from Woolwich Dockyard, England.

Israel initiates air strikes against Iran, initiating the Twelve Day War.

At least 100 people are killed when a wedding boat capsizes on the Niger River in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Three people are killed and another three injured in an early morning stabbing and van ramming attack in Nottingham, England.

Volkswagen is fined one billion euros over the emissions scandal.

A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth by landing in the Australian Outback.

The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.

The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.

Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.