March 12

Historic Events

2020

The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ›

2019

In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes. ›

2018

US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu, killing 51 and injuring 20. ›

2014

A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others. ›

2011

A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. ›

2009

Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history. ›

2006

In Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi is raped and murdered by five American soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, who also murder both of her parents and her sister. ›

2004

President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly, the first such impeachment in the nation's history. ›

2003

Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade. ›

2003

The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). ›

1999

Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO. ›

1993

Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 people and injuring hundreds more. ›

1993

North Korea announces that it will withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites. ›

1992

Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. ›

1989

Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web. ›

1971

The 1971 Turkish military memorandum is sent to the Süleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns. ›

1968

Mauritius gains independence from the United Kingdom. ›

1967

Suharto takes power from Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly inaugurate him as Acting President of Indonesia. ›

1950

The Llandow air disaster kills 80 people when the aircraft they are travelling in crashes near Sigingstone, Wales. At the time this was the world's deadliest air disaster. ›

1942

The Battle of Java ends with the surrender of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command to the Empire of Japan in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies. ›

1940

Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. ›

1940

The most destructive train accident in Finnish history kills 39 and injures 69 people in Turenki, Janakkala. ›

1938

Anschluss: German troops occupy and annex Austria. ›

1933

Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his "fireside chats". ›

1930

Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile (320 km) march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India. ›

1928

In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people. ›

1920

The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin. ›

1918

Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for most of the period since 1713. ›

1913

The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. ›

1912

The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States. ›

1862

Paddle steamer Brother Jonathan docks in Fort Victoria (now Victoria, British Columbia), carrying smallpox-infected passengers from San Francisco. The ensuing epidemic killed an estimated two-thirds of First Nations in the province of British Columbia. ›

1811

Peninsular War: A day after a successful rearguard action, French Marshal Michel Ney once again successfully delays the pursuing Anglo-Portuguese force at the Battle of Redinha. ›

1689

James II of England lands at Kinsale, starting the Williamite War in Ireland. ›

1622

Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus, are canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. ›

1579

Start of the Siege of Maastricht, part of the Eighty Years' War. ›

1391

Konrad von Wallenrode is elected the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (date is O.S.). ›

1158

German city Munich (München) is first mentioned as forum apud Munichen in the Augsburg arbitration by Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I. ›

1088

Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Catholic Church. He is best known for initiating the Crusades. ›

538

Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius. ›