February 12Birthdays & History

On this day: February 12 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 1059Upon reaching Rome, Bruno of Toul is elected as pope Leo IX and starts initiating reforms.Europe
2. 1096Pope Urban II confirms the foundation of the abbey of La Roë under Robert of Arbrissel as a community of canons regular.Europe
3. 1404The Italian professor Galeazzo di Santa Sofia performs the first post-mortem autopsy for the purposes of teaching and demonstration at the Heiligen–Geist Spital in Vienna.Europe
4. 1429English forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orléans in the Battle of the Herrings.Europe
5. 1502Vasco da Gama sets sail with 15 ships and 800 men from Lisbon, Portugal on his second voyage to India.EuropeAsia
6. 1502Isabella I issues an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity.Europe
7. 1541Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.Latin America
8. 1593Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwŏn Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.AsiaAsia
9. 1689The Convention Parliament declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.Europe
10. 1733Georgia Day: Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, by settling at Savannah.North America
11. 1771Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.Europe
12. 1817An Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco.Latin AmericaEurope
13. 1818Bernardo O'Higgins formally approves the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, Chile.Latin America
14. 1825The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government by the Treaty of Indian Springs, and migrate west.North AmericaAsia
15. 1832Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.Latin America
16. 1889Antonín Dvořák's Jakobín is premiered at the National Theater in Prague.Europe
17. 1894Café Terminus bombing by Émile Henry during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894). This is considered one of the first acts of modern terrorism.Europe
18. 1909The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.North America
19. 1909New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.Oceania
20. 1912The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.Asia
21. 1919The Second Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole.North America
22. 1921Bolsheviks launch a revolt in Georgia as a preliminary to the Red Army invasion of Georgia.Europe
23. 1935USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks.North America
24. 1945A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.North America
25. 1946African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the civil rights movement and partially inspires Orson Welles' film Touch of Evil.AfricaNorth America
26. 1946World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.Europe
27. 1947Christian Dior unveils a "New Look", helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.Europe
28. 1947The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.Europe
29. 1961The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus.Europe
30. 1963Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.North America
31. 1963Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 crashes into the Everglades shortly after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing all 45 people on board.North America
32. 1965Malcolm X visits Smethwick near Birmingham following the racially-charged 1964 United Kingdom general election.Europe
33. 1966Rabbi Morris Adler is fatally shot by a disgruntled congregant at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, United States.North America
34. 1968Vietnam War: The Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre occurs, allegedly by South Korean troops.Asia
35. 1974Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.Europe
36. 1983One hundred women protest in Lahore, Pakistan against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq's proposed Law of Evidence. The women were tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into lock-up. The women were successful in repealing the law.Asia
37. 1988Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage.North AmericaEurope
38. 1990Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia.Oceania
39. 1992The current Constitution of Mongolia comes into effect.Asia
40. 1993Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.Europe
41. 1994Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.Europe
42. 1999United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.North America
43. 2001NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.World
44. 2002The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, begins at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. He dies four years later before its conclusion.Europe
45. 2002An Iran Airtour Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119.Middle East
46. 2004The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.North America
47. 2009Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 on board and one on the ground.North America
48. 2016Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their split in 1054.Europe
49. 2019The country known as the Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia in accordance with the Prespa agreement, settling a long-standing naming dispute with Greece.Europe
50. 2026In the first general election since the July Revolution in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Tarique Rahman, wins a landslide victory upon returning to power after almost 19 years. A referendum held alongside was also approved by the majority of voters.Asia

Source: Wikipedia "February 12" / CC BY-SA 4.0