13 August in military history: Fall of Tenochtitlan, 1521

Quick answer

Hernán Cortés wrote that the war for Tenochtitlan ended on Tuesday, the day of St Hippolytus, 13 August 1521, when one of his brigantine captains took the Mexica ruler Cuauhtémoc in a canoe on the lake. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who fought in the siege, gives the same day and adds that it was the hour of vespers. The last fighting was in Tlatelolco, where, Cortés wrote, the defenders had nowhere to walk but over their dead and the rooftops. Cortés counted seventy-five days of siege, Bernal Díaz ninety-three. Also on 13 August: the Battle of Warsaw began in 1920, and in 1704 Marlborough and Prince Eugene won at Blenheim, by Marlborough's account a complete victory.

Siege of Tenochtitlan

13 August 1521 · 505 years ago

A Spanish-led coalition won the siege of Tenochtitlan, which fell on 13 August 1521, ending the Aztec Empire. Often told as a handful of Spaniards toppling an empire, it was in truth a war fought mostly by Indigenous allies such as the Tlaxcalans and decided by disease as much as by steel.

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Battle of Blenheim, 1704: Marlborough and Eugene save Vienna

13 August 1704 · 322 years ago

On the Danube near Höchstädt in Bavaria, the allied armies of Marlborough and Prince Eugene met the Franco-Bavarian army during the War of the Spanish Succession. They won overwhelmingly, capturing Marshal Tallard, saving Vienna and holding the Grand Alliance together.

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Battle of Warsaw, 1920: the Miracle on the Vistula

13 to 25 August 1920 · 106 years ago

Poland won a decisive victory at the Battle of Warsaw in mid-August 1920, shattering the Soviet offensive at the gates of the capital and flinging it back east.

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Frequently asked questions

When did Tenochtitlan fall?

Cortés wrote that the war ended on Tuesday, the day of St Hippolytus, 13 August 1521, when Cuauhtémoc was taken. Bernal Díaz del Castillo gives the same day, at the hour of vespers.

How long did the siege of Tenochtitlan last?

The sources differ. Cortés counted seventy-five days from 30 May 1521. Bernal Díaz and INAH give ninety-three days, and the Library of Congress's description of Sahagún's book XII speaks of an 80-day siege.

Where was the last stand?

In Tlatelolco, where the great market stood; INAH calls it the twin city of Tenochtitlan. According to Cortés and Bernal Díaz, Cuauhtémoc was then taken in a canoe on the lake; Bernal Díaz says he was fleeing.

Who fought in the siege?

Spaniards under Hernán Cortés and their Indigenous allies, among them Tlaxcalans, against the Mexica under Cuauhtémoc. For one of the last days Cortés counted about nine hundred Spaniards and more than one hundred and fifty thousand allies.

When did the Battle of Warsaw begin?

On 13 August 1920, according to a 2020 leaflet of the Institute of National Remembrance, which dates the battle 13 to 25 August; a 1994 US Army monograph also says the Soviet attack on Warsaw began that day.