December 13 is:
National Cocoa Day
Violin Day
Sir Francis Drake set sail from England to go around world in 1577. Five ships left Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took almost three years.
1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organized three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.
First music store in America opened (Philadelphia) on December 13, 1759.
Dartmouth College was founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth in 1769.
Birthday of Mary Todd Lincoln (1818), wife of Abraham Lincoln’s First Lady 1861-1865.
“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens was published in 1843, 6,000 copies sold. A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man. Among its legacy are the words “Scrooge” and “Bah! Humbug!”
The border between Ontario and Manitoba was established in 1883. Because of Covid-19 the Province of Manitoba established five check-points at this border at the end of March, 2020. All vehicles are stopped. Travelers receive information about Manitoba’s current state of emergency, public health orders issued under The Public Health Act, and the need to immediately self-isolate for 14 days after travel in Canada or internationally. No one will be denied entry into Manitoba at these locations.
U.S. President Wilson arrived in France in 1918, becoming the first chief executive to visit a European country while holding office.
Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn – Former Iraqi President Saddam 
was captured near his home town of Tikrit on December 13, 2003. He was executed on December 30, 2006.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s a sample:
(by clicking the Windows Media Player icon button, a midi file will play [if it’s installed on your computer]. No music has been embedded.
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.)
Per Wikipedia: Joy to the World” is an English hymn and Christmas carol. Written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnist Isaac Watts, the hymn is usually sung to an 1848 arrangement by the American composer Lowell Mason of a tune attributed to George Frideric Handel. The hymn’s lyrics are a Christian interpretation of Psalm 98 and Genesis 3.
Since the 20th century, “Joy to the World” has been the most-published Christmas carol in North America. As of December 2009, it was published in 1,387 hymnals in North America, according to the Dictionary of North American Hymnology.
Historical note:
Issac Watts (born in Southampton) (1674-1748) was evidently short and not very handsome. A young lady (Elizabeth Singer) who had fallen in love with him from his writings, asked him to marry her, but when she saw him in person she took back the offer. She wrote later that Issac Watts was “only five feet tall, with a shallow face, hooked nose, prominant cheek bones, small eyes, and deathlike color…..I admired the jewel but not the casket” that contained the jewel. Maybe, he wasn’t a looker, but Issac Watts could certainly write. Wanting to write songs based on the Psalms from a New Testament background, Issac Watts wrote Joy To The World from Psalm 98. (Ps 98:4 Make a joyful noice unto the Lord all the earth; make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise….). Watts was not immediately appreciated. “How dare he take the pslams and try to improve them,” was the outcry. (The music was added by an American, Lowell Mason, in 1822.)
Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
Prepare Him room
And Heaven and Nature sing
And Heaven and Nature sing
And Heaven and Heaven and Nature sing
Joy to the world, the Saviour reigns
Let Saints their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy
Joy to the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders and wonders of His love
No more will sin and sorrow grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He’ll come and make the blessings flow
Far as the curse was found,
Far as the curse was found,
Far as, far as the curse was found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And gives to nations proof
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love;
And wonders of His love;
And wonders, wonders of His love.
Rejoice! Rejoice in the Most High,
While Israel spreads abroad
Like stars that glitter in the sky,
And ever worship God,
And ever worship God,
And ever, and ever worship God.