What Happened on November 12th in History
30 historical events on this date
The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had...
Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
Vietnamization was a policy enacted in early 1969 by the Richard Nixon administration aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by expanding, equipping, and training the South Vietnamese...
Aeroflot Flight N-63 crashes on approach to Vinnytsia Airport, killing 48.
Aeroflot Flight N-63 was a flight which crashed killing 48 people in Ukraine in 1971.
The Comoros joins the United Nations.
The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeast Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean....
France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975â78 French nuclear tests series.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country primarily located in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in...
Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.
The Iran hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of...
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and...
Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for...
USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...
Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is...
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for 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...
Santa Cruz massacre: The Indonesian Army open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.
The Santa Cruz massacre was the murder of at least 250 East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili, on 12 November 1991, during the Indonesian...
Erdut Agreement regarding the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence is reached.
The Erdut Agreement, officially the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, is an agreement reached on 12 November 1995 between the authorities of the...
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell...
A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date.
Saudia is the first flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, headquartered in Jeddah. Its main hub is King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, with secondary hubs at Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz...
Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators and the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1994 bombing of Philippine Airlines...
The 7.2 Mw⯠DĂŒzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured.
The 1999 DĂŒzce earthquake occurred on 12 November at 18:57:22 local time with a moment magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing damage and at least 845 fatalities...
In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.
American Airlines Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, to Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo,...
War in Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.
The war in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict lasting from 2001 to 2021. It began with an invasion by a United Statesâled coalition under the name Operation Enduring Freedom in response to...
Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United Statesâled coalition, which resulted in the...
Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record of 501 kilometres per hour (311Â mph) for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.
The Shanghai maglev train (SMT) or Shanghai Transrapid is a magnetic levitation train (maglev) line that operates in Shanghai, China. The line uses technology developed by Transrapid, a ThyssenKrupp...
Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the Euro area crisis.
Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the...
A blast in Iran's Shahid Modarres missile base leads to the death of 17 of the Revolutionary Guards members, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program.
On 12 November 2011 at about 13:30 local time, a large explosion occurred at the Modarres garrison missile base in Tehran Province, Iran. The facility is also referred to as Shahid Modarres missile...
The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko.
Philae is a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until it separated to land on comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko, ten years and eight months after departing...
An Armenian Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter is shot down by Azerbaijani forces, killing all three people on board.
The Mil Mi-24 is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and was introduced by...
Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.
A suicide attack is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators intentionally end their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murderâsuicide that is often associated with...
The 7.3 Mw⯠Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern IranâIraq border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). At least 410 people are killed and over 7,000 are injured.
On 12 November 2017 at 18:18Â UTC, an earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.4 occurred on the IranâIraq border, with the Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja, and the Kurdish dominated places of Ezgeleh,...
The PlayStation 5 is released.
The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is the home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the fifth iteration of their PlayStation brand. It was announced as the successor to the...
The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14-year conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears.
The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, informally known as the Los Angeles County Superior Court, is the California Superior Court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County. It is...
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collide in mid-air over Dallas Executive Airport during an airshow, killing six.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft that was developed in the mid-1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber used...