Historical Events on August 12

Events 1 - 200 of 222

• 3 Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem
• 1099 Battle of Ascalon won by Crusader army led by Godfrey of Bouillon against Fatimid force, last action of the First Crusade
• 1121 Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi

• 1164 Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch
• 1323 Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time
• 1332 Battle of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle

• 1480 Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam

• 1499 First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets
• 1530 Florence surrenders for emperor Karel I
• 1549 French troops conquer Ambleteuse, in the Pas-de-Calais, and kill all the English prisoners.

• 1588 Commander of the English fleet Lord Howard of Effingham calls off chase of the Spanish Armada off coast of Scotland
• 1588 Radboud Castle on Medemblik harbor in North Holland surrenders to the Spanish army
• 1658 1st American police force forms (New Amsterdam)
• 1676 1st war between American colonists & Indians ends in New England
• 1687 Battle of Mohacs: Ottoman invaders of Hungary routed by forces of Holy Roman Emperor under Charles of Lorraine
• 1759 Battle of Kunersdorf - Russian-Austrian army overpowers Prussians
• 1793 The Rhône départment is created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre).
• 1812 Duke of Wellington's troops enter Madrid

• 1831 Dutch troops conquer Leuven
• 1831 Netherlands & Belgium sign peace treaty
• 1833 The town of Chicago is incorporated (population 350)
• 1851 American inventor Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine
• 1856 Anthony Faas, of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, is granted a second patent for improvements to the accordion (Patent No. 15511A)
• 1861 Skirmish at Texas - rebels are attacked by Apache Indians

• 1863 1st cargo of lumber leaves Burrard Inlet (Vancouver, BC)

• 1869 Self-proclaimed Emperor Joshua Abraham Norton of the USA issues edict abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties
• 1876 Madeline (US) beats Countess Dufferin (Canada) in 4th America's Cup

• 1879 1st National Archery Association tournament (Chicago)
• 1883 The last quagga (zebra subspecies with less slashes) dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• 1884 Bill Murdoch scores 1st Test Cricket double-century, 211 at The Oval

• 1896 Willem II soccer team forms in Tilburg
• 1898 Hawaii is formally annexed to US

• 1901 Boer General Kritzinger driven out of Cape colony
• 1903 The Japanese Minister to Russia presents a note to the Russian Government protesting against its failure to evacuate Manchuria

• 1914 Cavalry battle at Halen, Belgium ("Battle of the Silver Helmets")
• 1914 France and Great Britain declare war on Austria-Hungary
• 1914 German 16.5"/12" guns fires on forts round Liege
• 1914 WWI: Russian troops take East Prussia and occupy Marggrabowa
• 1915 "Of Human Bondage" by William Somerset Maugham, published

• 1918 WWI: Allies defeat Germans at the Battle of Amiens - the last great battle on the Western Front
• 1920 Battle of Warsaw between Poland and Russia begins

• 1923 Dutch AR-leader Coair replaces De Geer as minister of finances
• 1923 Enrico Tiraboschi is 1st to swim English Channel westward
• 1925 KMA-AM in Shenandoah IA begins radio transmissions
• 1925 The first cast of Alpha Psi Omega, drawn from The Masquers of Fairmont College, West Virginia, is initiated.
• 1925 The tariff law comes into force in Germany, setting up tariffs for industry and agriculture based on pre-war rates.

• 1928 IX Summer Olympic Games close in Amsterdam, Netherlands

• 1931 Yangtzee River floods after heavy rain crumbles dikes in China
• 1933 Cuban dictator Machado y Morales flees after military coup
• 1936 120°F (49°C), Seymour, Texas (state record)
• 1936 After 24 year absence a baseball demonstration game is played between 2 American teams at Berlin Olympics, World Champions beat US Olympics, 6-5
• 1936 American diver Marjorie Gestring wins 3m springboard gold at the Berlin Olympics, youngest Olympic gold medalist (13 years 268 days)
• 1936 The gymnastics competition at the Berlin Olympics concludes with Germany dominating, winning 6 of 9 gold medals including the men’s & women’s teams events
• 1939 Sabotage suspected in 'City of San Francisco' train crash which derails near Harney, Nevada, killing 24
• 1940 Luftwaffe bombs British radar stations, loses 31 aircraft
• 1940 Netherlands starts rationing textiles

• 1942 German 1st tank leader captures Elista, Kalmukkensteppe

• 1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
• 1944 Pipeline under ocean (Pluto) begins operating
• 1944 Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

• 1948 Cleveland Indians get 29 hits in a 9 inning game
• 1948 Court of justice sentences General Friedrich Christiansen, commander of the German Wehrmacht in the Netherlands, to 12 years imprisonment
• 1948 Indian maestro Balbir Singh Dosanjh scores twice as India beats Great Britain 4-0 for the field hockey gold medal at the London Olympics; India's 4th consecutive Olympic hockey title
• 1948 The canoeing program at the London Olympics concludes with Sweden (4) and Czechoslovakia (3) dominant, combining for 7 of the 9 gold medals
• 1949 16th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Philadelphia 38, All-Stars 0 (93,780)
• 1950 First international game by an NFL team, New York Giants beat CFL's Ottawa Roughriders, 20-6 at Ottawa's Lansdowne Stadium

• 1952 Hussein ibn Talal proclaimed King of Jordan
• 1953 Ann Davison arrives in Miami in her 23 foot boat Felicity Ann, becoming the 1st woman to sail solo across the Atlantic
• 1953 Heavy earthquake strikes the Ionian islands, 435 killed
• 1953 Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb
• 1954 Senator Eddie Yost draws his 100th walk for 5th year in a row
• 1955 22nd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 30, Cleveland 27 (75,000)
• 1955 Hurricane Connie makes landfall near Fort Macon, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm

• 1955 WPBT TV channel 2 in Miami, FL (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1956 KOTI TV channel 2 in Klamath Falls, OR (NBC/CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1959 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation Island
• 1959 Progressive Party under John Steytler forms in South Africa
• 1960 27th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Baltimore 32, All-Stars 7 (70,000)
• 1960 Echo 1, 1st communications satellite, is launched by NASA

• 1960 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to an altitude of 41,600 m
• 1962 1st time 2 people in space
• 1962 Russia launches Vostok 4, Pavel Popovich, who lands safely Aug 15
• 1963 Portuguese dictator Salazar firm on African colonization

• 1964 Race riot in Elizabeth, New Jersey
• 1965 Dame Elizabeth Lane becomes first female English High Court judge
• 1965 Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc applies for a NL franchise
• 1965 Race riot in West Side of Chicago
• 1966 Last Beatle concert tour of North America begins with two shows at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois
• 1966 Longview, Texas radio station KLUE holds a "Beatles Bonfire" to burn Beatles records and memorabilia; station is struck by lightning the following day

• 1967 New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season victory, beat St Louis 23-14
• 1969 Battle of the Bogside: RUC officers, backed by loyalists, entered the nationalist Bogside in armoured cars and tried to suppress the riot by using CS gas, water cannon and eventually firearms; the almost continuous rioting lasted for two days
• 1969 Boston Celtics sold for an NBA record $6 million

• 1972 Last American combat ground troops leave Vietnam
• 1973 WPBA National Championship won by Betty Morris

• 1974 Yankees Mickey Mantle & Whitey Ford become 1st teammates inducted to hall of fame on same day
• 1976 1st approach & lands test (ALT) of orbiter Enterprise
• 1976 Christian militia conquer Palestinian camp Tell al-Za'tar, 2000 killed
• 1977 For 2nd straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen foils a no-hit bid
• 1977 High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 (HEAO) is launched into Earth's orbit by NASA
• 1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric test flight
• 1978 Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
• 1978 China & Japan sign peace treaty
• 1978 International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft launched - to study solar wind
• 1978 NFL New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley suffers a spinal cord injury leaving him with incomplete quadriplegia from a hit by Oakland Raiders Jack Tatum, in a pre-season exhibition game
• 1979 Iranian press censors start massive book burnings
• 1980 Nicaragua celebrates the end of their National Literary Crusade - a massive effort over five months that reduced illiteracy from 50% to 12%
• 1980 Signature of the Montevideo Treaty establishing the Latin American Integration Association.

• 1981 IBM introduces its first Personal Computer (PC & PC-DOS version 1.0)
• 1981 Jon Erikson (US) becomes 1st to triple cross English Channel (38:27)

• 1984 Braves beat Padres 5-3, features 2 brawls & 19 ejections
• 1984 Carlos Lopes of Portugal wins the men's marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2:09:21, an Olympic record that stands for 24 years

• 1985 520 people die when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes in Ueno, Japan, the second-deadliest aviation disaster of all time
• 1985 Baltimore Orioles W Gross & L Sheets are 6th to hit consecutive pinch HRs
• 1986 Don Baylor gets hits by a pitch for a record 25th time in a season
• 1986 Iran fires missile at refinery near Baghdad; Iraq raids Iranian terminal at Sirri Island severely disrupting Iranian exports
• 1986 Red Sox pitcher Tim Lollar gets a pinch-hit single
• 1987 Charles Cole climbs 870'Tyrolean Traverse from top of Elephant Rock
• 1988 Boston Red Sox beat Tigers 9-4 for AL record 23rd consecutive win at home
• 1988 Movie "Last Temptation of Christ" is released

• 1988 Richard Thornburgh becomes US Attorney General
• 1990 12th annual Macy's Tap-o-mania

• 1991 Creditors vote to support Greyhound Bus reorganization plan

• 1992 Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

• 1994 1st NFL game on Fox network (exhibition - SF vs Denver)
• 1994 Panic in church of Brazzaville: 142 killed
• 1994 Stephen G Breyer, sworn in as Supreme Court Justice

• 1996 "Breakfast on Fox" premieres

• 2000 The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.

• 2004 New Jersey Governor James McGreevey comes out publicly as gay
• 2005 An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island
• 2005 An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.
• 2005 Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives
• 2005 Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sniper at his home
• 2007 Bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.

• 2008 American swimmer Natalie Coughlin becomes the first to successfully defend the gold medal in the women's 100 m backstroke when she wins event at the Beijing Olympics

• 2012 XXX Summer Olympic Games close in London, England
• 2013 30 people are killed by gunmen in northeast Nigeria
• 2013 8 people are killed and 25 are injured in a suicide bomb attack in Balad, Iraq
• 2013 Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is elected President of Mali

• 2014 Ebola outbreak death toll exceeds 1000
• 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) gives its 'cautious blessing' to the use of experimental drugs to treat the Ebola virus
• 2015 China cuts its currency the yuan for the 2nd day in a row to boast exports

• 2015 In London archaeologists discover a mass grave of 30 bodies from the 1665 plague
• 2015 Large series of explosions in Tianjin, China leave at least 50 dead and 700 injured in an industrial accident

• 2016 Cannes becomes first French resort to ban the burkini
• 2016 Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú wins her 4th medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics finishing 2nd in the women's 200m backstroke; gold to American Maya DiRado in 2:05:99
• 2016 Italian jockey Frankie Dettori aboard Predilection rides his 3,000th British winner at Newmarket
• 2016 Joseph Schooling of Singapore sets Olympic record 50.39 to win men's 100m butterfly gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; rare 3-way tie for silver at 51.14, Michael Phelps (USA), Chad le Clos (South Africa) & László Cseh (Hungary)
• 2017 "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville, Virginia turns violent when car rams protesters killing 1, injuring 19

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