What Happened on March 12th in History
30 historical events on this date
The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a land area of...
Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for most of the period since 1713.
Moscow is the capital and largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents within the city limits, over 19.1Â million...
The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin.
The Kapp Putsch, also known as the KappâLĂŒttwitz Putsch, was an abortive coup d'Ă©tat against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and...
In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people.
California is a U.S. state in the Western United States that lies on the Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, and Nevada and Arizona to the east; it also shares an international border...
Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile (320Â km) march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from...
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".
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and...
Anschluss: German troops occupy and annex Austria.
The Anschluss, also known as the AnschluĂ Ăsterreichs, was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia.
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...
The most destructive train accident in Finnish history kills 39 and injures 69 people in Turenki, Janakkala.
The Turenki rail accident occurred on 12 March 1940, at 05:28 local time near Turenki, Finland, and remains the worst rail accident in Finnish history. A troop train carrying soldiers of the 71st...
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.
The Battle of Java was a battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II. It occurred on the island of Java from 28 February â 12 March 1942. It involved forces from the Empire of Japan, which invaded...
Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist...
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.
The Llandow air disaster was an aircraft accident in Wales in 1950. At that time it was the world's worst air disaster, with a total of 80 fatalities. The aircraft, an Avro Tudor V, had been...
Suharto takes power from Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly inaugurate him as Acting President of Indonesia.
Suharto was an Indonesian military officer and politician who served as the second and longest-serving president of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998.
Mauritius gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, located about 1,100 nautical miles off the southeastern coast of Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes...
The 1971 Turkish military memorandum is sent to the SĂŒleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.
The 1971 Turkish military memorandum, issued on 12 March that year, was the second military intervention to take place in the Republic of Turkey, coming 11 years after its 1960 predecessor. It is...
Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web.
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research...
Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, located about 1,100 nautical miles off the southeastern coast of Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes...
Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 people and injuring hundreds more.
The 1993 Bombay bombings was a series of 12 terrorist bombings in Bombay, Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. The attacks were...
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.
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...
Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other...
Zoran ÄinÄiÄ, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
Zoran ÄinÄiÄ was a Serbian politician and philosopher who served as the prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until his assassination in 2003. He was the mayor of Belgrade in 1997, becoming the first...
The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in...
President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly, the first such impeachment in the nation's history.
The president of the Republic of Korea, also known as the president of South Korea, is the head of state and head of government of South Korea. The president directs the executive branch of the...
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.
Mahmoudiyah is a rural city south of Baghdad. Known as the "Gateway to Baghdad," the city's proximity to Baghdad made it central to the counterinsurgency campaign.
Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history.
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier, con artist, and stock broker who was the admitted mastermind of the largest-known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65Â billion. He was...
A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 TĆhoku earthquake and tsunami.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 350-hectare (860-acre) site in the towns of Ćkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant...
A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others.
On March 12, 2014, an explosion occurred at 9:31Â a.m. in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The explosion leveled two apartment buildings located just north...
US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu, killing 51 and injuring 20.
US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal,...
In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to repeal the European Communities Act 1972, and for parliamentary approval to be required for any...
The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal...