November 12

is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining.

Events

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.
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.

Births

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
1958 - Megan Mullally, American actress
1961 - Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast
1961 - Enzo Francescoli, Uruguayan footballer
1966 - David Schwimmer, American actor
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

Deaths

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)
2005 - William G. Adams, former mayor of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

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)

Fiction

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").

External links

BBC: On This Day

November 11 - November 13 - October 12 - December 12 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: November 12

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Fiction

External links