November 12
is the 316th day of the year (317th in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining.
*
764 -
Tibetan troops occupy
Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese
Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days.
*
1028 - Future
Byzantine empress Zoe marries
Romanus Argyrus according to the wishes of the dying
Constantine VIII*
1439 -
Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the
English Parliament.
*
1905 - (November 12 &
13)
Norway holds
referendum in favour of
monarchy over
republic.
*
1912 - The frozen bodies of
Robert Scott and his men are found on the
Ross Ice Shelf in
Antarctica.
*
1918 -
Austria becomes a republic.
*
1922 -
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., was founded on the campus of Butler University in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
*
1927 -
Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving
Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the
Soviet Union.
* 1927 - The
Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first
Hudson River vehicular
tunnel linking
New Jersey to
New York City.
*
1933 -
Hugh Gray of the
British Aluminium Company takes the first known photos of the
Loch Ness Monster.
*
1934 - The musical
Babes in Toyland debuts, featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as comic relief (see
Laurel and Hardy).
*
1936 - In
California, the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
*
1938 -
Hermann Göring announces
Nazi Germany plans to make
Madagascar the "
Jewish homeland", an idea that actually was first considered by 19th century journalist
Theodor Herzl.
*
1941 -
World War II: Temperatures around
Moscow drop to -12 °
C and the
Soviet Union launches
ski troops for the first time against the freezing
German forces near the city.
*
1941 - A
Soviet cruiser "Chervona Ukraina" was destroyed during the
battle of Sevastopol*
1942 - World War II: The
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between
Japanese and
American forces begins near
Guadalcanal, will last for three days.
*
1944 - World War II: The
Royal Air Force launches one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of war and sinks the
German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of
Norway.
*
1946 - A branch of the
Exchange National Bank in
Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten
drive-up teller windows.
*
1948 - In
Tokyo, an international
war crimes tribunal sentences seven
Japanese military and government officials to death, including General
Hideki Tojo, for their roles in
World War II.
*
1969 -
Vietnam War:
My Lai Massacre - Independent investigative journalist
Seymour Hersh breaks the
My Lai story.
*
1970 - The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached
Gray whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous
exploding whale incident
*
1971 - Vietnam War: As part of
Vietnamization, US President
Richard M. Nixon sets
February 1,
1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000
American troops from
Vietnam.
*
1979 -
Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in
Tehran, US President
Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all
petroleum imports into the
United States from
Iran.
*
1980 - The
NASA space probe
Voyager I makes its closest approach to
Saturn.
*
1982 - In the
Soviet Union,
Yuri Andropov is selected to become the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late
Leonid I. Brezhnev.
* 1982 -
Lech Wałęsa,
Solidarity leader, is released from a
Polish prison after eleven months.
*
1990 - Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as
Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th
Japanese monarch.
* 1990 -
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the
World Wide Web.
*
1991 -
Dili Massacre,
Indonesian forces opened fire on a crowd of student protesters in
Dili,
East Timor.
*
1992 -
Absolutely Fabulous airs its first episode on
BBC1.
*
1993 - Decree of
President of Kazakhstan "About introducing
national currency of Republic of Kazakhstan" was issued.
*
1993 - The first
Ultimate Fighting Championship is held in Denver, Colorado.
*
1996 - A
Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh
Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near
New Delhi, India killing 349.
*
1997 -
Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the
1993 World Trade Center bombing.
*
1998 -
Daimler-Benz completes a merger with
Chrysler to form
Daimler-Chrysler.
*
2001 - In
New York City, an
Airbus A300 carrying
American Airlines Flight 587 crashes minutes after takeoff from
John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board.
* 2001 -
2001 Attack on Afghanistan:
Taliban forces abandon
Kabul, the capital of
Afghanistan, ahead of advancing
Afghan Northern Alliance troops.
*
2003 -
Occupation of Iraq: In
Nasiriya,
Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the
2003 Iraq war are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
*
2004 -
Scott Peterson is found guilty of first degree murder of his wife
Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner after a five-and-a-half month long trial.
* 2004 - Resignation of
Colin Powell as
Secretary of State.
*
1493 -
Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor (d.
1560)
*
1528 -
Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (d.
1588)
*
1606 -
Jeanne Mance, French Canadian settler (d.
1673)
*
1615 -
Richard Baxter, English clergyman (d.
1691)
*
1651 -
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican scholar, nun, and writer of the baroque school.
*
1729 -
Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (d.
1811)
*
1755 -
Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general (d.
1813)
*
1795 -
Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (d.
1856)
*
1815 -
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American women's rights activist (d.
1902)
*
1817 -
Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d.
1892)
*
1833 -
Alexander Borodin, Russian composer (d.
1887)
*
1840 -
Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (d.
1917)
*
1842 -
John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1919)
*
1850 -
Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player (d.
1908)
*
1866 -
Sun Yat-sen, first
President of the Republic of China (d.
1925)
*
1881 -
Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (d.
1954)
*
1886 -
Ben Travers, British playwright (d.
1980)
*
1889 -
DeWitt Wallace, American magazine publisher (d.
1981)
*
1896 -
Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist (d.
1987)
*
1898 -
Leon Štukelj, Slovene gymnast, Olympic gold medalist and athlete (d.
1999)
*
1903 -
Jack Oakie, American actor (d.
1978)
*
1908 -
Harry Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d.
1999)
*
1915 -
Roland Barthes, French critic and writer (d.
1980)
*
1917 -
Jo Stafford, American singer
*
1920 -
Richard Quine, American actor (d.
1989)
*
1922 -
Kim Hunter, American actress (d.
2002)
*
1923 -
Vicco von Bülow, German graphic artist, actor and film director
*
1929 -
Michael Ende, German writer (d.
1995)
* 1929 -
Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of
Monaco, American actress (d.
1982)
*
1930 -
Ann Flood, American actress
*
1934 -
Charles Manson, American cult leader and mass murderer
*
1936 -
Mills Lane, American judge and boxing referee
*
1943 -
Brian Hyland, American singer
* 1943 -
Wallace Shawn, American actor and playwright
*
1944 -
Booker T. Jones, American musician, singer, and songwriter (
Booker T and the MG's)
* 1944 -
Al Michaels, American television sportscaster
*
1945 -
Neil Young, Canadian singer, songwriter, and musician
*
1947 -
Ron Bryant, Baseball player
*
1958 -
Megan Mullally, American actress
*
1961 -
Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast
* 1961 -
Enzo Francescoli, Uruguayan footballer
*
1967 -
Michael Moorer, American boxer
*
1968 -
Glenn Gilberti, American professional wrestler
* 1968 -
Sammy Sosa, Dominican
Major League Baseball player
* 1968 -
Aaron Stainthorpe, British singer (
My Dying Bride)
*
1969 -
Kathleen Hanna, American singer and songwriter
* 1969 -
Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian politician
*
1970 -
Tonya Harding, American figure skater
* 1970 -
Harvey Stephens, British child actor
*
1973 -
Mayte Garcia, American dancer
*
1975 -
Angela Watson, American actress
*
1976 -
Tevin Campbell, American
R&B musician
* 1976 -
Mirosław Szymkowiak, Polish footballer
* 1976 -
Judith Holofernes, german singer (
Wir Sind Helden)
*
1977 -
Dalene Kurtis, American
Playboy model
*
1978 -
Andrew Kinlochan, English singer and musician
*
1979 -
Matt Cappotelli, American professional wrestler
*
1980 -
Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor
*
1981 -
DJ Campbell, English football player
*
1982 -
Anne Hathaway, American actress
*
1984 -
Omarion, American
R&B musician
*
1992 -
Macey Cruthird, American actress
*
607 -
Pope Boniface III*
1035 -
Canute the Great*
1094 - King
Duncan II of Scotland (b.
1060)
*
1434 - King
Louis III of Naples*
1555 -
Stephen Gardiner, English stateman
*
1595 -
John Hawkins, English shipbuilder and trader (b.
1532)
*
1667 -
Hans Nansen, Danish statesman (b.
1598)
*
1671 -
Thomas Fairfax, English Civil War general (b.
1612)
*
1742 -
Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (b.
1660)
*
1757 -
Colley Cibber, English poet (b.
1671)
*
1836 -
Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (b.
1773)
*
1865 -
Elizabeth Gaskell, English novelist (b.
1810)
*
1916 -
Percival Lowell, American amateur astronomer, founder of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona (b.
1855)
*
1939 -
Norman Bethune, Canadian doctor and humanitarian (b.
1890)
*
1941 -
Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, American mobster (b.
1907)
*
1948 -
Umberto Giordano, Italain composer (b.
1867)
*
1955 -
Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (b.
1878)
*
1976 -
Walter Piston, American composer (b.
1894)
*
1981 -
William Holden, American actor (b.
1918)
*
1984 -
Chester Himes, American author (b.
1909)
*
1990 -
Eve Arden, American actress (b.
1908)
*
1993 -
H. R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff (b.
1926)
*
1994 -
Wilma Rudolph, American runner (b.
1940)
*
1997 -
Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (b.
1915)
*
2001 -
Tony Miles, English chess player (b.
1955)
*
2003 -
Jonathan Brandis, American actor (b.
1976)
* 2003 -
Penny Singleton, American actress (b.
1908)
* 2003 -
Tony Thompson, American drummer (
CHIC,
Power Station) (b.
1954)
* 2003 -
Kay E. Kuter, American actor (b.
1925)
*
2004 -
Tito Francona, baseball player (b.
1933)
*
2005 -
William G. Adams, former mayor of
St. John's,
Newfoundland,
Canada. (b.
1923)
*
R.C. Saints - Saint Lieven (Leafwini, Lebuin);
Josaphat Kuncevyc* Also see
November 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
Bahá'í Faith: Holy Day, Birth of
Bahá'u'lláh* National Holiday: Birth of
Sun Yat-Sen (observed in
China and
Taiwan)
* In the
Back To The Future film trilogy,
1955 is a key date. It is the date of the "famous
Hill Valley lightning storm" which sends
Marty McFly back to 1985 in his
DeLorean time machine, and the date Marty gets his parents together. In
Back to the Future Part II, Marty and
Doc Brown return to this date to stop
Biff Tannen from changing history. Doc Brown hyposthesizes that this date might hold some special significance, being the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum (or, as he says, "it could just be an amazing coincidence").
*
BBC: On This DayNovember 11 -
November 13 -
October 12 -
December 12 --
listing of all days
