What Happened on December 12th in History
30 historical events on this date
Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the US Constitution.
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its...
American Civil War: USSÂ Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the...
Oaks explosion: The worst mining disaster in England kills 361 miners and rescuers.
The Oaks explosion, which happened at a coal mine in South Yorkshire on 12 December 1866, remains the worst mining disaster in England. A series of explosions caused by firedamp ripped through the...
Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman.
Joseph Hayne Rainey was an American politician. He was the first black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives and the second black person to serve in the United States...
Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [âąâąâą] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess was an Italian radio-frequency engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system....
Yuan Shikai declares the establishment of the Empire of China and proclaims himself Emperor.
Yuan Shikai was a Chinese general and statesman. As leader of the Beiyang Army, he played a decisive role in securing the abdication of the Qing court. He served as the second provisional president...
Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
Edward Joseph Flanagan was an Irish-born priest of the Catholic Church in the United States who served for decades in Nebraska. After serving as a parish priest in the Diocese of Omaha, he founded...
The Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.
Lebensborn e.V. was a secret, SS-initiated, state-registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure"...
The beginning of Xi'an incident. As a result, Chiang Kai Shek is captured.
The Xi'an Incident was a Chinese political crisis that lasted from 12 to 26 December 1936. Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng seized Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an, demanding the Nationalist...
Second Sino-Japanese War: USS Panay incident: Japanese aircraft bomb and sink U.S. gunboat USSÂ Panay on the Yangtze river in China.
The Second Sino-Japanese War, known in China as the War of Resistance Against Japan, was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan and its puppet states between 1937 and 1945,...
HMSÂ Duchess sinks after a collision with HMSÂ Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.
HMS Duchess was a D-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early...
Winter War: The Battle of TolvajÀrvi, also known as the first major Finnish victory in the Winter War, begins.
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a...
World War II: Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. JesĂșs Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; CĂ©sar Basa is killed.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
The Holocaust: Adolf Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.
The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million...
The People's Republic of Korea is outlawed in the South, by order of the United States Army Military Government in Korea.
The People's Republic of Korea (Korean:Â ìĄ°ì ìžëŻŒêł”íê”) was a short-lived provisional government that was organized at the time of the surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of World War II. It was...
United Nations Security Council Resolution 13 relating to acceptance of Siam (now Thailand) to the United Nations is adopted.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 13 was adopted unanimously on 12 December 1946. The Council recommended that the General Assembly admit Siam as a member state.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 121 relating to acceptance of Japan to the United Nations is adopted.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 121, adopted unanimously on December 12, 1956, after examining the application of Japan for membership in the United Nations, the UN Security Council...
Kenya declares independence from Great Britain.
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 53.3 million as of mid-2025, it is the 27th-most populous country in the world...
The Piazza Fontana bombing; a bomb explodes at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, three more bombs are detonated in Rome and Milan, and another is found unexploded.
The Piazza Fontana bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy,...
The 8.2 Mw⯠Tumaco earthquake shakes Colombia and Ecuador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 300â600, and generating a large tsunami.
An earthquake occurred at 02:59 local time on 12 December 1979, with the epicenter just offshore from the border between Ecuador and Colombia, near the port city of Tumaco. With a moment magnitude...
Coup d'Ă©tat of December Twelfth occurs in South Korea.
The coup d'état of December Twelfth or the 12·12 Military Insurrection was a mutiny which took place on 12 December 1979, in South Korea, where a secret society of military officers known as Hanahoe...
Arrow Air Flight 1285R, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing all 256 people on board, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
Arrow Air Flight 1285R was an international charter flight carrying U.S. Army personnel from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, US, via Cologne, West Germany, and Gander,...
The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trainsâone of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.
The Clapham Junction rail crash occurred on the morning of 12 December 1988, when a crowded British Rail passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal just...
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits the Philippines's main island of Luzon, killing six people, injuring 40, and causing power outages that affected the capital Manila.
On 12 December 1999, a Mw7.3 earthquake struck the northern coast of Zambales in the Philippines. It was felt in various provinces on the island of Luzon including as far north as Ilocos Norte and...
The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over...
Prime Minister of Vietnam Phan VÄn KháșŁi announces the decision on upgrading the Phong NhaâKáș» BĂ ng nature reserve to a national park, providing information on projects for the conservation and development of the park and revised maps.
The prime minister of Vietnam is the head of government of Vietnam who presides over the meetings of the Government. The prime minister directs the work of government members, and may propose deputy...
North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, KwangmyĆngsĆng-3 Unit 2.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the...
The Paris Agreement relating to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is adopted.
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was negotiated by...
Dutch Formula One racing driver Max Verstappen wins the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton to become the first Formula One World Champion to come from the Netherlands.
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel, single-seater formula racing cars run by the Formula One Group and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de...
Indian Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju became the undisputed World Chess Champion in a tournament held in Singapore, making him the 18th and the youngest champion in chess history.
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the...