November 12Birthdays & History

On this day: November 12 in history

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

1. 954The 13-year-old Lothair III is crowned at the Abbey of Saint-Remi as king of the West Frankish Kingdom.Europe
2. 1028Future Byzantine empress Zoe takes the throne as empress consort to Romanos III Argyros.Europe
3. 1330Battle of Posada ends: Wallachian Voievode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army by ambush.Europe
4. 1439Plymouth becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.Europe
5. 1835Construction is completed on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.Europe
6. 1892Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.North America
7. 1893Abdur Rahman Khan accepts the Durand Line as the border between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the British Raj.AsiaEurope
8. 1905Norway holds a referendum resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly independent country.Europe
9. 1912First Balkan War: King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.EuropeMiddle East
10. 1912The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.World
11. 1918Dissolution of Austria-Hungary: Austria becomes a republic. After the proclamation, a coup attempt by the communist Red Guard is defeated by the social-democratic Volkswehr.Europe
12. 1920The 1920 Cork hunger strike by Irish republicans ends after three deaths.Europe
13. 1920Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.Europe
14. 1927Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.Europe
15. 1928SS Vestris sinks approximately 200 miles (320 km) off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.North America
16. 1933Nazi Germany uses a referendum to ratify its withdrawal from the League of Nations.Europe
17. 1936In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.North America
18. 1938Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.Europe
19. 1940World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.AfricaEurope
20. 1940World War II: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.Europe
21. 1941World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C (10 °F) as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.Europe
22. 1941World War II: The Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.Europe
23. 1942World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days and ends with an American victory.OceaniaAsiaNorth America
24. 1944World War II: The Royal Air Force sink the German battleship Tirpitz, moored off Tromsø, Norway.Europe
25. 1948Aftermath of World War II: In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.Asia
26. 1954Ellis Island ceases operations.North America
27. 1956Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.Africa
28. 1956In the midst of the Suez Crisis, Palestinian refugees are shot dead in Rafah by Israel Defense Force soldiers following the invasion of the Gaza Strip.Middle East
29. 1958A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.North America
30. 1961Terry Jo Duperrault is the sole survivor of a series of brutal murders aboard the ketch Bluebelle.North America
31. 1969Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre.Asia
32. 1970The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.North America
33. 1970The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan, becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.Asia
34. 1971Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.AsiaNorth America
35. 1971Aeroflot Flight N-63 crashes on approach to Vinnytsia Airport, killing 48.Europe
36. 1975The Comoros joins the United Nations.Africa
37. 1977France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests series.Europe
38. 1979Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.Middle EastNorth America
39. 1980The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.North America
40. 1981Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.North America
41. 1982USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.Europe
42. 1990Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.Europe
43. 1990Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.Asia
44. 1991Santa Cruz massacre: The Indonesian Army open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.Asia
45. 1995Erdut Agreement regarding the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence is reached.Europe
46. 1995Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.Europe
47. 1996A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date.Middle EastAsia
48. 1997Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.North America
49. 1999The 7.2 Mw Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured.Middle East
50. 2001In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.North AmericaLatin America
51. 2001War in Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.Asia
52. 2003Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record of 501 kilometres per hour (311 mph) for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.Asia
53. 2003Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.Middle EastEurope
54. 2011Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the Euro area crisis.Europe
55. 2011A blast in Iran's Shahid Modarres missile base leads to the death of 17 of the Revolutionary Guards members, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program.Middle East
56. 2014The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.Europe
57. 2014An Armenian Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter is shot down by Azerbaijani forces, killing all three people on board.Europe
58. 2015Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.Middle East
59. 2017The 7.3 Mw Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern Iran–Iraq border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). At least 410 people are killed and over 7,000 are injured.Middle East
60. 2020The PlayStation 5 is released.Asia
61. 2021The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14-year conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears.North America
62. 2022A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collide in mid-air over Dallas Executive Airport during an airshow, killing six.North America

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