How many days and weeks until November 13th?

The Dover to Calais telegraph cable opened for public traffic on November 13th 1851, the first submarine cable anywhere to work properly. An unarmoured attempt the year before had failed almost immediately, cut by a fishing boat or worn through on the rocks. Thomas Crampton’s replacement was sheathed in iron wire, laid by the Brett brothers, and stayed in service with minor repairs until 1875. England and France could now argue at the speed of light.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on November 13th 1850 into a family of lighthouse engineers and was expected to join the firm. He read for the Scottish bar instead, then wrote. Treasure Island began as a map drawn to entertain his stepson on a wet holiday in Braemar. He died in Samoa at forty-four.

Mariner 9 lit its engine on the afternoon of November 13th 1971, California time — already past midnight GMT — and a quarter of an hour later was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. It arrived in the middle of a dust storm that covered the whole of Mars, and the controllers had to wait several weeks for the air to clear before the cameras saw anything at all.

Gerard Butler, now a familiar leading man on screen, was training as an Edinburgh lawyer before he took up acting; he came from Paisley, born on November 13th 1969. Whoopi Goldberg, the American actress and comedian, keeps the day too, in 1955.

Born on November 13th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Robert Louis Stevenson and Whoopi Goldberg — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a November 13th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — topaz for the stone, Scorpio for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

November birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual November birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

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Scorpio constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Scorpio for a November 13th birthday.

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Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the November birthstone and the chrysanthemum — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on November 13th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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