WORLD HISTORY · 1912 日本語
Events of 1912Meiji 45 / Taisho 1 (Japan) · Year of the Rat
What happened in 1912?
In 1912, Emperor Meiji died and Japan's era name changed to Taisho, and Japan took part in the Olympic Games for the first time, at Stockholm in Sweden. Elsewhere, China's Qing dynasty collapsed and the Titanic sank.
- Shirase expedition makes first landing on AntarcticaAsia
- Xuantong Emperor abdicates, ending the Qing dynastyAsia
- Yuan Shikai becomes provisional president of ChinaAsia
- Titanic strikes iceberg and sinksEurope
- Stockholm Olympics openEurope
- Emperor Meiji dies; era renamed TaishoAsia
- Emperor Meiji's funeral; General Nogi Maresuke commits ritual suicideAsia
- First Balkan War breaks outEurope
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1912 at a glance
| Japanese era | Meiji 45 / Taisho 1 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Rat |
| Age of people born in 1912 | Turn 114 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1911 (Meiji 44) ／ 1913 (Taisho 2) |
| Events | 70 |
| AP World History | Unit 7 (Global Conflict) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 7 |
Famous people born in 1912
Our birthday pages list 377 people born in 1912. Here are some of them.
- Jackson PollockBorn January 28 · turns 114 this year · American painter and leading Abstract Expressionist famous for his drip techniq…
- Glenn T. SeaborgBorn April 19 · turns 114 this year · American chemist who co-discovered plutonium, shared the 1951 Nobel Prize, and…
- Alan TuringBorn June 23 · turns 114 this year · British mathematician and logician whose ideas laid the foundations of computer…
- Woody GuthrieBorn July 14 · turns 114 this year · American folk singer and songwriter best known for "This Land Is Your Land" and…
- Milton FriedmanBorn July 31 · turns 114 this year · American economist who won the 1976 Nobel Prize for work on consumption and mon…
- Ben HoganBorn August 13 · turns 114 this year · American golfer who won nine major championships and was famed for his precise…
- Julia ChildBorn August 15 · turns 114 this year · American chef, author and TV host who brought French cooking to American homes…
- Gene KellyBorn August 23 · turns 114 this year · American dancer, actor, and director who starred in classic Hollywood musicals…
- Lady Bird JohnsonBorn December 22 · turns 114 this year · First Lady of the United States who championed highway beautification, conserva…
- Boris Vladimirovich GnedenkoBorn January 1 · turns 114 this year
- Kim PhilbyBorn January 1 · turns 114 this year
- Nikiforos VrettakosBorn January 1 · turns 114 this year
Show 28 more
- Armand LohikoskiBorn January 3 · turns 114 this year
- Federico Borrell GarcíaBorn January 3 · turns 114 this year
- Renaude LapointeBorn January 3 · turns 114 this year
- Danny ThomasBorn January 6 · turns 114 this year
- Jacques EllulBorn January 6 · turns 114 this year
- Charles AddamsBorn January 7 · turns 114 this year
- Lawrence WalshBorn January 8 · turns 114 this year
- Basil LangtonBorn January 9 · turns 114 this year
- Ralph TubbsBorn January 9 · turns 114 this year
- Della H. RaneyBorn January 10 · turns 114 this year
- Maria MandlBorn January 10 · turns 114 this year
- Don "Red" BarryBorn January 11 · turns 114 this year
- Richard KuremaaBorn January 12 · turns 114 this year
- Tillie OlsenBorn January 14 · turns 114 this year
- Michel DebréBorn January 15 · turns 114 this year
- Leonid KantorovichBorn January 19 · turns 114 this year
- Konrad Emil BlochBorn January 21 · turns 114 this year
- Boris PokrovskyBorn January 23 · turns 114 this year
- Arne NæssBorn January 27 · turns 114 this year
- Francis RogalloBorn January 27 · turns 114 this year
- Barbara W. TuchmanBorn January 30 · turns 114 this year
- Francis SchaefferBorn January 30 · turns 114 this year
- Werner HartmannBorn January 30 · turns 114 this year
- Burton LaneBorn February 2 · turns 114 this year
- Millvina DeanBorn February 2 · turns 114 this year
- Jacques SoustelleBorn February 3 · turns 114 this year
- Byron NelsonBorn February 4 · turns 114 this year
- Erich LeinsdorfBorn February 4 · turns 114 this year
Events of 1912 (timeline · 70)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter.
The sixth All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Prague Party Conference) opens. In the course of the conference, Vladimir Lenin and his supporters break from the rest of the party to form the Bolshevik movement.
German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.
The African National Congress is founded, under the name South African Native National Congress (SANNC).
The city of San Diego passes an ordinance restricting free speech, provoking months of civil unrest between socialist Wobblies and business leaders that become the bloodiest free speech fight in history.
Immigrant textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, go on strike when wages are reduced in response to a mandated shortening of the work week.
British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.
Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.
First Lady Helen Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the origin of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
Sultan Abd al-Hafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, UK, on her maiden and only voyage.
The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and begins to sink.
The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.
Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150.
The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
Italy begins the invasion and occupation of the Ottoman island of Rhodes.
The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.
Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage.
The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
The Regina Cyclone, Canada's deadliest tornado event, kills 28 people in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro leads an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves.
Japan's Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.
Arthur Rose Eldred is awarded the first Eagle Scout award of the Boy Scouts of America.
Albanian rebels succeed in their revolt when the Ottoman Empire agrees to fulfill their demands
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City.
The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
The First Balkan War begins when Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
First Balkan War: The day after the Battle of Sarantaporo, Greek troops liberate the city of Kozani.
Former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot and mildly wounded by John Flammang Schrank in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Roosevelt delivers his scheduled speech.
Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
First Balkan War: King Peter I of Serbia issues a declaration "To the Serbian People", as his country joins the war.
Italo-Turkish War: Italy takes possession of what is now Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
First Balkan War: The Greek navy completes the capture of the island of Lemnos for use as a forward base against the Dardanelles.
First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo concludes with the Serbian victory against the Ottoman Empire.
First Balkan War: The Battle of Kirk Kilisse concludes with a Bulgarian victory against the Ottoman Empire.
First Balkan War: The Ottomans lose the cities of Thessaloniki and Skopje.
Bulgaria defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lule Burgas, the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War, which opens her way to Constantinople.
Woodrow Wilson is elected the 28th President of the United States, defeating incumbent William Howard Taft.
The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opens in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.
First Balkan War: King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.
The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
First Balkan War: The Serbian Army captures Bitola, ending the five-century-long Ottoman rule of Macedonia.
Românul de la Pind, the longest-running newspaper by and about Aromanians prior to World War II, ceases its publications.
Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with the Ottoman Empire, temporarily halting the First Balkan War. (The armistice will expire on February 3, 1913, and hostilities will resume.)
Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.
First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after 3+1⁄2 years in Sing Sing prison.
The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1912 in the Japanese calendar?
1912 was Meiji 45 / Taisho 1 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1912?
1912 is the Year of the Rat.
How old is someone born in 1912?
They turn 114 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1912?
In 1912, Emperor Meiji died and Japan's era name changed to Taisho, and Japan took part in the Olympic Games for the first time, at Stockholm in Sweden. Elsewhere, China's Qing dynasty collapsed and the Titanic sank.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.