What Happened on May 12th in History
30 historical events on this date
In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
Ottoman Tunisia was a semi-autonomous territory of the Ottoman Empire. It existed from the 16th to the 19th century and was located roughly in present-day Tunisia.
North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
The North-West Rebellion was an armed rebellion of Métis under Louis Riel and an associated uprising of Cree and Assiniboine mostly in the District of Saskatchewan, against the Canadian government....
The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.
Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out the first verified trip of any kind to the North Pole, an overflight on 11 through 14 May 1926. It was also the first aircraft to fly...
The 1926 United Kingdom general strike ends.
A general strike took place in the United Kingdom from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British...
Ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, is found dead near Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Col. Charles Lindbergh and his wife, aviator and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was murdered after being abducted from his...
The Agricultural Adjustment Act, which restricts agricultural production through government purchase of livestock for slaughter and paying subsidies to farmers when they remove land from planting, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) of 1933 was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for...
President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction...
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom are crowned in Westminster Abbey.
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the...
Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional...
World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: In eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.
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...
World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.
A tanker is a ship designed to transport or store liquids or gases in bulk. Major types of tanker ship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, cargo ships, and a gas carrier. Tankers also carry...
Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.
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 Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation,...
Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Indochina Wars: Democratic Kampuchea naval forces capture the SS Mayaguez.
During the aftermath of World War II and the Cold War, the Indochina wars were a series of wars which were waged in Indochina from 1945 to 1991, by communist forces against the opponents. The term...
In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga); the local government asks the US, France and Belgium to restore order.
Zaire, officially the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1971 and Republic of Zaire from 1971 to 1997, was a country in Central Africa headed by Mobutu Sese Seko from 1965 to 1997. It...
During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen,...
The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people, only to be followed a week later by an underground gasoline pipeline explosion, which kills two more people.
The San Bernardino train disaster was a combination of two separate but related incidents that occurred in San Bernardino, California, United States: a runaway train derailment on May 12, 1989; and...
Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban Revolution.
James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served as the 76th...
The Riyadh compound bombings in Saudi Arabia, carried out by al-Qaeda, kill 39 people.
Two major bombings took place in residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 12 May 2003, 39 people were killed, and over 160 wounded when bombs went off at three compounds in Riyadh—Dorrat Al...
Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead.
The 2006 São Paulo violence outbreak began on the night of May 12, 2006 in São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America. It was among the worst outbreaks of violence in recorded Brazilian...
Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.
Iranian Azerbaijanis are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Iranian Azerbaijan region. They also live in smaller numbers in other provinces, such as Kurdistan, Qazvin, Hamadan, Gilan, Markazi and...
An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.
An earthquake occurred in the province of Sichuan, China at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Measuring at 8.0 Ms, the earthquake's epicenter was located 80 kilometres (50 mi)...
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. Its stated mission is to conduct criminal...
Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes on final approach to Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 out of the 104 people on board.
Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 was a scheduled international Afriqiyah Airways passenger flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Tripoli, Libya. On 12 May 2010 at about 06:01 while on approach to...
A train derailment in Philadelphia, United States, kills eight people and injures more than 200.
On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak Northeast Regional train from Washington, D.C., bound for New York City derailed and wrecked on the Northeast Corridor near the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia,...
Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3,500.
A major earthquake occurred in Nepal on 12 May 2015 at 12:50 pm local time with a moment magnitude of 7.2–7.3, 18 kilometres (11 mi) southeast of Kodari. The epicenter was on the border of Dolakha...
The WannaCry ransomware attack impacts over 400,000 computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom's National Health Services and Telefónica computers.
The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack in May 2017 by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting...
Paris knife attack: A man is fatally shot by police in Paris after killing one and injuring several others.
On 12 May 2018, a 20-year-old Chechnya-born French citizen, armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured four others near the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, France, before being...
Middle/end of the May 2024 solar storms, the most powerful set of geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.
The solar storms of May 2024 were a series of powerful solar storms with extreme solar flares and geomagnetic storm components that occurred from 10 to 13 May 2024 during solar cycle 25. They are...