May 12
is the 132nd day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (133rd in
leap years). There are 233 days remaining.
*
1191 -
Richard I of England marries
Berengaria of Navarre.
*
1264 - The
Battle of Lewes, between King
Henry III of England and the rebel
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, begins.
*
1328 -
Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the
papacy, is consecrated in
Rome by the
Bishop of
Venice.
*
1364 -
Jagiellonian University, the oldest
university in
Poland, was founded in
Kraków,
Poland.
*
1551 -
National University of San Marcos, the oldest
university in
the Americas, was founded in
Lima,
Peru.
*
1588 -
French Wars of Religion:
Henry III of France flees
Paris after
Henry of Guise enters the city.
*
1689 -
King William's War:
William III of England joins the
League of Augsburg starting a war with
France.
*
1780 -
American Revolutionary War:
Charleston, South Carolina is taken by
British forces.
*
1797 -
First Coalition:
Napoleon I of France conquers
Venice.
*
1862 -
U.S. federal troops occupy
Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
*
1864 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Thousands of
Union and
Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
*
1870 - The
Manitoba Act was given the
Royal Assent, paving the way for
Manitoba to become a
province of Canada on
July 15.
*
1873 -
Oscar II of
Sweden-Norway is crowned King of
Sweden.
*
1881 - In
North Africa,
Tunisia becomes a
French protectorate.
*
1885 -
North-West Rebellion: The four-day
Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel
Métis against the
Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
*
1890 - The first-ever official
County Championship match begins.
Yorkshire beat
Gloucestershire by eight wickets at
Bristol.
George Ulyett scores the first century in the competition.
*
1926 -
UK General Strike 1926: In the
United Kingdom, a nine-day
general strike by
trade unions ends.
*
1932 - Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of
Charles Lindbergh is found dead in
Hopewell, New Jersey just a few miles from the
Lindberghs' home.
*
1937 -
Coronation of King
George VI of Britain at
Westminster Abbey.
*
1941 -
Konrad Zuse presented the
Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic
computer in
Berlin.
*
1942 -
World War II:
Second Battle of Kharkov – In the eastern
Ukraine, the
Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the
Soviets will capture the city of
Kharkov from the
German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
*1942 - 1,500
Jews are sent to
gas chambers in
Auschwitz.
*
1949 -
Cold War: The
Soviet Union lifts its
Blockade of Berlin.
*
1952 -
Gaj Singh crowned
Maharaja of
Jodhpur.
*
1958 - A formal
North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the
United States and
Canada.
*
1962 -
Douglas MacArthur delivers his famous "
Duty, Honor, Country" valedictory speech at
West Point.
*
1965 - The
Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the
Moon.
*
1966 -
Busch Memorial Stadium, home of the
St. Louis Cardinals major league baseball team, opens in
St. Louis, Missouri.
*
1967 - At
Queen Elizabeth Hall,
England,
Pink Floyd stages the first-ever
quadraphonic rock concert.
*
1970 -
Ernie Banks becomes the ninth member of the
500 home run club with a
home run at
Wrigley Field in
Chicago, Illinois.
*
1975 -
Mayagüez incident: The
Cambodian navy seizes the
American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in
international waters.
*
1978 - In
Zaïre, rebels occupy the city of
Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of
Shaba. The government of
Zaïre asks the
U.S.,
France and
Belgium to restore order.
*
1982 - During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in
Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower
Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack
Pope John Paul II with a
bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the
Vatican II reforms, decided that the Pope must be killed for being an "agent of Moscow."
*
1989 - A
Southern Pacific Railroad freight train derails on
Duffy Street on the very steep
Cajon Pass in
San Bernardino, California, killing both crew members and 2 children, ages 7 and 9, also in the accident, 11 homes were severely damaged or completely destroyed. a memorial for the accident is now found on
Tehachapi Loop facing the main hill.
*
1997 - In the 7th inning of a
baseball game between the
Anaheim Angels and the
Chicago White Sox, the
Angels score 13 runs.
*
1999 -
David Steel becomes the first
Presiding Officer (
speaker) of the modern
Scottish Parliament.
*
2000 - The
Tate Modern art gallery opens in
London.
*
2002 - Former
President Jimmy Carter arrives in
Cuba for a five-day visit with
Fidel Castro becoming first
President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since
Castro's
1959 revolution.
*
2003 - The
Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by
Al Qaeda, kill 26.
*
2005 - The
Xbox 360 is revealed on
MTV.
*
2006 -
Justin Gatlin ties the fastest 100m sprint ever in a time of 9.77 seconds in
Doha,
Qatar.
*
1401 -
Emperor Shoko of Japan (d.
1428)
*
1496 -
Gustav I of Sweden (d.
1560)
*
1590 -
Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d.
1621)
*
1626 -
Louis Hennepin, Flemish Catholic missionary in North America
*
1670 - King
Frederick Augustus I of Poland (d.
1733)
*
1700 -
Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect (d.
1773)
*
1725 -
Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (d.
1785)
*
1767 -
Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (d.
1851)
*
1803 -
Justus von Liebig, German chemist (d.
1873)
*
1806 -
Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish statesman (d.
1881)
*
1812 -
Edward Lear, English author and poet (d.
1888)
*
1820 -
Florence Nightingale, English nurse (d.
1910)
*
1828 -
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (d.
1882)
*
1842 -
Jules Massenet, French composer (d.
1912)
*
1845 -
Gabriel Fauré, French composer (d.
1924)
*
1850 -
Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (d.
1924)
*
1867 -
Hugh Trumble, Australian test cricketer (d.
1938)
*
1874 -
Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician (d.
1928)
*
1880 -
Lincoln Ellsworth, American scientist and polar explorer (d.
1951)
*
1889 -
Otto Frank, German writer, father of
Anne Frank (d.
1980)
*
1892 -
Fritz Kortner, Austrian-born director (d.
1970)
*
1895 -
William Giauque, Canadian chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1982)
*
1899 -
Indra Devi, yogi (d.
2002)
*
1900 -
Helene Weigel, German actress (d.
1971)
*
1907 -
Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d.
2003)
*
1910 -
Charles B. Fulton, American jurist (d.
1996)
* 1910 -
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1994)
*
1912 -
Archibald Cox, U.S. Solicitor General and Watergate special prosecutor (d.
2004)
*
1914 -
Bertus Aafjes, Dutch poet (d.
1993)
* 1914 -
Howard K. Smith, American journalist (d.
2002)
*
1917 -
Frank Clair, Canadian football coach
*
1918 -
Julius Rosenberg, American spy (d.
1953)
*
1921 -
Joseph Beuys, German artist (d.
1986)
* 1921 -
Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and naturalist
*
1924 -
Tony Hancock, British comedian (d.
1968)
*
1925 -
Yogi Berra, baseball player
*
1928 -
Burt Bacharach, American composer
*
1933 -
Andrey Voznesensky, Russian poet
*
1935 -
Felipe Alou, Dominican
Major League Baseball manager
*
1936 -
Frank Stella, American painter
* 1936 -
Tom Snyder, American journalist and television personality
*
1937 -
George Carlin, American comedian
* 1937 -
Beryl Burton, English cyclist (d.
1996)
*
1939 -
Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary (d.
2003)
*
1942 -
Ian Dury, British musician (d.
2000)
*
1945 -
Alan Ball, English footballer
*
1948 -
Steve Winwood, English singer, songwriter and musician (
Blind Faith,
Traffic,
The Spencer Davis Group)
*
1950 -
Bruce Boxleitner, American actor
* 1950 -
Billy Squier, American singer, songwriter and guitarist
* 1950 -
Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor
*
1955 -
Kix Brooks, American musician
*
1956 -
Bernie Federko, Canadian
ice hockey player
*
1959 -
Ving Rhames, American actor
*
1961 -
Bruce McCulloch, Canadian actor, writer, and comedian (
Kids in the Hall)
* 1961 -
Lar Park Lincoln, American actress
* 1961 -
Billy Duffy, British rock guitarist (
The Cult)
*
1962 -
Emilio Estevez, American actor
*
1963 -
Vanessa A. Williams, American actress
*
1964 -
Brett Gurewitz, American guitarist (
Bad Religion)
*
1966 -
Stephen Baldwin, American actor
* 1966 -
Bebel Gilberto,
bossa nova artist
*
1967 -
Paul D'Amour, ex-bassist of Tool
*
1968 -
Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
* 1968 -
Mark Clark, baseball player
*
1969 -
Kim Fields, American actress
*
1970 -
Mike Weir, Canadian golfer
* 1970 -
Jim Furyk, American golfer
*
1973 -
Shalom Harlow, Canadian supermodel and actress
*
1975 -
Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby player
*
1977 -
Graeme Dott, Scottish snooker player
* 1977 -
Doug Basham, Professional wrestler
*
1978 -
Hossein Reza Zadeh, Iranian weightlifter
* 1978 -
Jason Biggs, American actor
*
1981 -
Kentaro Sato, Japanese composer
*
1992 -
Malcolm David Kelley, American child actor
*
1995 -
Jean Carlos Chera, Brazilian footballer
* 1995 -
Sawyer and
Sullivan Sweeten, American child actors
*
1003 -
Pope Silvester II*
1012 -
Pope Sergius IV*
1382 - Queen
Joan I of Naples (b.
1327)
*
1399 -
Demetrius I Starshiy (killed in battle) (b.
1327)
*
1465 -
Thomas Palaeologus, Despot of the
Despotate of Morea*
1634 -
George Chapman, English writer
*
1641 -
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, English statesman (b.
1593)
*
1684 -
Edme Mariotte, French physicist and priest
*
1699 -
Lucas Achtschellinck, Flemish painter (b.
1626)
*
1700 -
John Dryden, English writer (b.
1631)
*
1708 -
Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b.
1658)
*
1748 -
Thomas Lowndes, English astronomer (b.
1692)
*
1759 -
Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, French sculptor (b.
1700)
*
1784 -
Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist (b.
1710)
*
1792 -
Charles Simon Favart, French dramatist (b.
1710)
*
1796 -
Johann Peter Uz, German poet (b.
1720)
*
1801 -
Nicholas Repnin, Russian statesman (b.
1734)
*
1845 -
János Bacsanyi, Hungarian poet (b.
1763)
*
1859 -
Sergei Aksakov, Russian writer (b.
1791)
*
1860 -
Charles Barry, English architect (b.
1795)
*
1864 -
J. E. B. Stuart, American soldier from Virginia and a Confederate Army general (b.
1833)
*
1867 -
Friedrich William Eduard Gerhard, German archaeologist (b.
1795)
*
1871 -
Anselme Payen, French physicist (b.
1795)
*
1876 -
Georgi Benkovski, Bulgarian revolutionary, brutally killed by the
Turks (b.
1843)
*
1884 -
Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (b.
1824)
*
1889 -
John Cadbury, English chocolate entrepreneur (b.
1801)
*
1907 -
Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (b.
1848)
*
1925 -
Amy Lowell, American poet (b.
1874)
*
1931 -
Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violinist (b.
1858)
*
1935 -
Józef Piłsudski, Polish statesman (b.
1867)
*
1944 -
Max Brand, American author (b.
1892)
* 1944 -
Q, British writer (b.
1863)
*
1956 -
Louis Calhern, American actor (b.
1895)
*
1957 -
Erich von Stroheim, film director and actor (b.
1885)
*
1963 -
Bobby Kerr, Canadian runner (b.
1882)
*
1967 -
John Masefield, British writer (b.
1878)
*
1970 -
Nelly Sachs, German writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1891)
*
1971 -
Heinie Manush, baseball player (b.
1901)
*
1985 -
Jean Dubuffet, French painter (b.
1901)
*
1986 -
Elisabeth Bergner, Austrian actress (b.
1897)
*
1990 -
Chen Kenmin, Japanese chef (b.
1912)
*
1992 -
Robert Reed, American actor (b.
1932)
*
1994 -
Erik Erikson, German psychoanalyst (b.
1902)
* 1994 -
John Smith, British politician (b.
1938)
*
1995 -
Mia Martini, Italian singer (b.
1947)
*
1999 -
Saul Steinberg, Romanian-American cartoonist (b.
1914)
*
2000 -
Adam Petty, American race car driver (b.
1980)
*
2001 -
Perry Como, American singer (b.
1912)
*
2002 -
Erich Kulas, ECW Wrestler (Mass Transit)
*
2003 -
Prince Sadruddhin Aga Khan, French UN High Commissioner for Refugees (b.
1933)
*
2005 -
Martin Lings, English Islamic scholar (b.
1909)
* 2005 -
Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (b.
1937)
*
2006 -
Gillespie V. Montgomery, former U.S. representative from Mississippi (b.
1920)
*
Feast day of the following
saints in the
Roman Catholic Church:
**
Saints Achilleus and Nereus**
Saint Pancras (died 304), second of the
Ice Saints**
Saint Epiphanius**
Saint Modoald**
Saint Domitilla**
Saint Joan of Portugal**
Blessed Imelda*
Israel -
Yom Ha'atzma'ut (
Israeli Independence Day) for
2005: the observed date of this
national holiday is determined by the
Jewish Calendar.
*
Buddhism in
Sri Lanka,
Thailand -
Visakha Bucha. (
2006) [
1]
*
International Nurses Day* Day of
Finnishness in
Finland; Commemoration day of
J. V. Snellman.
*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaMay 11 -
May 13 -
April 12 -
June 12 –
listing of all days
