August 13, 2011 (Saturday)
Disasters
- Stage rigging collapses at the Indiana State Fair, killing at least five and injuring dozens of fans of the musical group Sugarland and singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles. (CNN)
- The Thomson and Mitchell rivers flood in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. (ABC News Australia)
- A ruptured oil pipeline is discovered near Gannet Alpha platform, run by Shell 113 miles from Aberdeen, Scotland. BBC
Law and crime
- 2011 England riots
- Two people are charged with the murder of three men who were hit by a car in Birmingham as they tried to protect their property from looters. (BBC)
- British Prime Minister David Cameron hires so-called U.S. supercop Bill Bratton to advise the British Government on dealing with gang-related violence. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- The first electoral contest of the 2012 United States Presidential election takes place in the Iowa town of Ames with the Ames Straw Poll for Republican Party candidates with Michele Bachmann emerging as the winner. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Washington Post)