On This Day in History for August 12

Events 1 - 100 of 144

• 3 Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem
• 1099 Battle at Ascalon: Godfried of Broth leading the Crusaders beats Egyptians Fatimid army
• 1121 Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi
• 1164 Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
• 1323 Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time
• 1332 Battle of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle

• 1480 Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam

• 1499 First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets
• 1530 Florence surrenders for emperor Karel I
• 1549 French troops conquer Ambleteuse, in the Pas-de-Calais, and kill all the English prisoners.
• 1553 Pope Julius III orders confiscation & burning of Jewish Talmud
• 1588 Commander of the English fleet Lord Howard of Effingham calls off chase of the Spanish Armada off coast of Scotland
• 1588 Medemblik surrenders to Spanish army
• 1658 1st American police force forms (New Amsterdam)


• 1665 English fleet beat Dutch fleet
• 1676 1st war between American colonists & Indians ends in New England
• 1687 Charles of Lotharingen defeats Turkish leaders
• 1687 Battle of Mohacs: Ottoman invaders of Hungary routed by forces of Holy Roman Emperor under Charles of Lorraine
• 1759 Battle of Kunersdorf - Russian-Austrian army overpowers Prussians
• 1793 The Rhône départment is created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre).
• 1812 Duke of Wellington's troops enter Madrid
• 1813 Robert Southey is appointed British Poet Laureate by King George III
• 1831 Dutch troops conquer Leuven
• 1831 Netherlands & Belgium sign peace treaty
• 1833 The town of Chicago is incorporated (population 350)
• 1851 American inventor Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine
• 1856 Anthony Fass patents accordion
• 1861 Skirmish at Texas - rebels are attacked by Apache Indians
• 1862 Gen John Hunt Morgan & his raiders capture Gallatin, TX
• 1863 1st cargo of lumber leaves Burrard Inlet (Vancouver, BC)
• 1865 Joseph Lister performs 1st antiseptic surgery

• 1869 Self-proclaimed Emperor Joshua Abraham Norton of the USA issues edict abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties
• 1883 The last quagga (zebra subspecies) dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.

• 1898 Hawaii is formally annexed to US
• 1898 Peace protocol ends Spanish-American War, signed
• 1901 Boer general Kritzinger driven out of Cape colony
• 1903 The Japanese Minister to Russia presents a note to the Russian Government protesting against its failure to evacuate Manchuria


• 1905 King Leopold II opens Antwerp Central Station

• 1914 France and Great Britian declare war on Austria-Hungary
• 1914 Cavalry battle at Halen, Belgium ("Battle of the Silver Helmets")
• 1914 German 16.5"/12" guns fires on forts round Liege
• 1914 Russian troops take East-Prussia & occupy Marggrabowa
• 1915 "Of Human Bondage" by William Somerset Maugham, published

• 1918 WWI: Allies defeat Germans at the Battle of Amiens - the last great battle on the Western Front
• 1920 Battle of Warsaw between Poland and Russia begins
• 1922 Dedication of Frederick Douglas' home in Washington, D.C. as national shrine
• 1923 Dutch AR-leader Coair replaces De Geer as minister of finances
• 1923 Enrico Tiraboschi is 1st to swim English Channel westward
• 1925 KMA-AM in Shenandoah IA begins radio transmissions
• 1925 The first cast of Alpha Psi Omega, drawn from The Masquers of Fairmont College, West Virginia, is initiated.

• 1931 Yangtzee River floods after heavy rain crumbles dikes in China
• 1933 Cuban dictator Machado y Morales flees after military coup
• 1936 120°F (49°C), Seymour, Texas (state record)
• 1940 Luftwaffe bombs British radar stations, loses 31 aircraft
• 1940 Netherlands starts rationing textiles
• 1941 French Marshal Henri Petain gave full support to Nazi Germany

• 1942 German 1st tank leader captures Elista, Kalmukkensteppe

• 1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
• 1944 Churchill & Tito meet in Naples
• 1944 Pipeline under ocean (Pluto) begins operating
• 1944 Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

• 1948 Court of justice sentences General Friedrich Christiansen, commander of the German Wehrmacht in the Netherlands, to 12 years imprisonment
• 1950 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Humani generis
• 1952 Hussein ibn Talal proclaimed King of Jordan
• 1953 Heavy earthquake strikes the Ionian islands, 435 killed
• 1953 Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb
• 1954 Senator Eddie Yost draws his 100th walk for 5th year in a row

• 1959 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation Island
• 1959 Progressive Party under John Steytler forms in South Africa
• 1960 Echo 1, 1st communications satellite, is launched by NASA
• 1960 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to an altitude of 41,600 m
• 1962 1st time 2 people in space
• 1962 Russia launches Vostok 4, Pavel Popovich, who lands safely Aug 15
• 1963 Portuguese dictator Salazar firm on African colonization
• 1964 10th time Mantle switch-hits HR in a game, one goes 502 feet
• 1964 Race riot in Elizabeth, NJ
• 1965 Dame Elizabeth Lane becomes first female English High Court judge
• 1965 Race riot in West Side of Chicago
• 1969 Battle of the Bogside: RUC officers, backed by loyalists, entered the nationalist Bogside in armoured cars and tried to suppress the riot by using CS gas, water cannon and eventually firearms; the almost continuous rioting lasted for two days

• 1972 Last American combat ground troops leave Vietnam
• 1973 WPBA National Championship won by Betty Morris
• 1976 1st approach & lands test (ALT) of orbiter Enterprise
• 1976 Christian militia conquer Palestinian camp Tell al-Za'tar, 2000 killed
• 1977 For 2nd straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen foils a no-hit bid
• 1977 High Energy Astronomy Observatory {HEAO] 1 launched into Earth's orbit by NASA
• 1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric test flight
• 1978 Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
• 1978 China & Japan sign peace treaty

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next

• 1503 Christian III, King of Denmark and Norway (1534-59), born in Gottorf Castle, Germany (d. 1559)
• 1566 Isabella Clara Eugenia, Sovereign of the Netherlands (1598-1621), born in Palacio de Valsaín, Segovia, Spain (d. 1633)
• 1592 Willem earl of Nassau-Siegen, Dutch gov (Fort Emmerik/Heusden)
• 1604 Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
• 1620 Pieter Cuypers, S Neth lawyer
• 1629 Tsar Alexei I of Russia (d. 1676)
• 1647 Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
• 1686 John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
• 1744 Rowland Hill, preacher
• 1753 Thomas Bewick, England, artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables)
• 1762 King George IV of the United Kingdom (1820-30)
• 1774 Robert Southey, English writer (The Story of the Three Bears), Poet Laureate (1813-43) and biographer (Nelson), born in Bristol, England (d. 1843)
• 1778 Francis Horner, politician
• 1781 Robert Mills, American architect (Washington Monument)
• 1819 Daniel Davidson Bidwell, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Buffalo, New York (d. 1864)
• 1820 Oliver Mowat, a founder of the Canadian Confederation
• 1829 John Horace Forney, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1902)
• 1832 Hely Hutchinson Almond, politician/doctor
• 1833 William Price Sanders, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Frankfort, Kentucky (d. 1863)
• 1848 Macellus Emants, Dutch writer/poet (Along the Nile)
• 1849 Abbott Handerson Thayer, painter/naturalist
• 1854 Alfred Gilbert, sculptor/goldsmith
• 1856 "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
• 1859 Katharine Lee Bates, American author (America the Beautiful)
• 1866 Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, Spanish playwright (Nobel 1922)
• 1867 Edith Hamilton, American writer (Mythology)
• 1868 Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, 22nd Governor of New South Wales (1908-13) and Viceroy of British India (1916-21), born in London, England (d. 1933)
• 1872 Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1956)
• 1876 Mary Roberts Rinehart, American mystery writer ( The Circular Staircase), born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (d. 1958)
• 1880 Marguerite "John" Radclyffe-Hall, author
• 1883 Jan Schouten, Dutch co-founder (Daily Trouw)/chairman (ARP)
• 1884 Frank Arthur Swinnerton, English novelist (Summer Storm, Sanctuary)
• 1885 Jean Cabannes, French physicist (d. 1959)
• 1886 Sir Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist and newspaper owner (d. 1952)

• 1888 Willem Vogt, Dutch radio pioneer/founder (AVRO)
• 1889 Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (Dick and Jane) (d. 1981)
• 1897 Otto (von) Struve, German/US dir (Yerkes/MacDonald observatory)
• 1899 Alfred Kantorowicz, German historian (Spanish Diary)
• 1903 Frances Clode, CEO (WRVS)
• 1904 Aleksei N Romanov, son of Tsar Nicholas II [OS=July 30]
• 1904 Frank Ervin, harness racer (Hambletonian 1959, 66)

• 1907 James Herbert Lloyd Morrell, bishop
• 1907 Miguel Torga [Adolfo Correia da Rocha], Portuguese writer (O Quarto Dia da Criação do Mundo), born in São Martinho de Anta, Portugal (d. 1995)
• 1908 Lord Renton, QC/British government minister
• 1909 Maurice Heath, air marshal
• 1909 Richard Bare, American director
• 1910 Baroness Phillips, pres/general secretary (National Association of Women)
• 1910 Yusof bin Ishak, first President of Singapore (d. 1970)
• 1914 [Hendrik] Jan Bakker, Dutch resistance fighter/journalist (Parool)
• 1914 Gerd Buchdahl, German philosopher (d. 2001)
• 1917 Douglas Gunsekera, banker

• 1919 Peter Ambrose Cyprian Luke, playwright
• 1919 Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)
• 1920 Percy Mayfield, US singer (Please Send Me Someone to Love)
• 1921 Patrick Howard-Dobson, president (Royal British Legion)
• 1922 Andre Kloos, Dutch trade union leader (NVV/VARA)
• 1922 Lord Colinbrook, British government minister
• 1924 Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
• 1925 Dale Bumpers, American politician (Sen-D Arkansas, 1975-99), born in Charleston, Arkansas (d. 2016)
• 1925 Norris McWhirter, English author (founded Guinness Book of World Records), born in Winchmore Hill, England (d. 2004)
• 1925 Robin Nicholson, English metallurgist, born in Warwickshire, England
• 1925 Ross McWhirter, English author (founded Guinness Book of World Records), born in Winchmore Hill, England (d. 1975)
• 1925 George Wetherill, American scientist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2006)
• 1926 Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)
• 1928 Charles Blackman, Australian artist
• 1930 Ronald James Herron, architect
• 1930 Jacques Tits, Belgian mathematician

• 1931 William Goldman, American screenwriter and author (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2018)
• 1932 Queen Ferekit, of Thailand (Queens Day)
• 1932 Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer
• 1934 Kenneth Eaton, Controller (British Navy)
• 1935 Karl Mickel, German writer, born in Dresden, Germany (d. 2000)
• 1936 Geoff Hamilton, gardner/journalist
• 1936 Hans Haacke, artist (Right to Life, Dripper Boxes), born in Cologne, Germany
• 1936 John Poindexter, US Chief of Staff
• 1937 Walter Dean Myers, African-American author, born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, (d. 2014)
• 1938 Anthony Joliffe, mayor of London
• 1938 Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian Mayor of Quebec
• 1939 Roy Romanow, Canadian politician
• 1939 Sushil Koirala, Nepalese politician, Prime Minister of Nepal (2014-2015), born in Biratnagar, Morang (d. 2016)
• 1941 Réjean Ducharme, Quebec novelist and playwright
• 1948 Graham Zellick, principal (Queen Mary & Westfield College London)
• 1949 Anthony Akerman, South Africa, director
• 1949 Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil (1990-92)
• 1949 Panagiotis Chinofotis, Greek politician
• 1951 Charles E Brady Jr, Pinehurst NC, Cmdr USN/astronaut (STS 78)
• 1951 Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist

• 1955 Ann M. Martin, American author
• 1962 Miss Cleo [Youree Dell Harris], American psychic (Psychic Readers Network), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2016)
• 1970 Anthony Swofford, American novelist
• 1972 Takanohana, Sumo yokozuna
• 1973 Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr, Iranian Shia cleric, son of Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, born in Najaf, Iran
• 1973 Richard Reid, British terrorist, referred to as the "shoe bomber".

• 875 Louis II, king of Italy/emperor of France, dies at about 50
• 1158 Anselmus van Havelberg, Brandenburg bshp of Havelberg (1129-55), dies
• 1295 Charles Martel of Anjou, Son of Charles II of Naples, dies at 23
• 1424 Yongle, Emperor of the Ming Empire (1402-24), dies at 64
• 1484 Sixtus IV, [Francesco della Rovere], Pope (1471-84), dies
• 1484 George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)
• 1546 Francisco de Vitoria, Spanish theology/lawyer, dies
• 1577 Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)
• 1638 Johannes Althusius, [Althaut], German lawyer, dies at about 81
• 1648 Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)
• 1654 Cornelis Haga, ambassador to Constantinople (1611-39), dies at 76
• 1660 Gilbertus van Zinnik, Flemish architect, dies at about 33
• 1674 Philippe de Champaigne, French painter, dies at 72
• 1675 Karl Rabenhaupt, German/Neth baron of Sucha/army leader, dies at 73
• 1676 King Philip, [Metacomet], leader Wampanoag-indians, shot to death
• 1689 Innocent XI, [Benedetto Odescalchi], Italian, Pope (1676-89), dies at 78
• 1715 Nahum Tate, English poet/playwright/poet laureate, dies
• 1728 Henricus Zwaardecroon, gov-gen of Neth-Indies, dies at 61
• 1750 Rachel Ruysch, royal painter of soverign Johan von de Pfalz, dies
• 1778 Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
• 1809 Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal, dies at 71
• 1810 Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist, dies at 84
• 1811 John FE Acton, cruel premier of Naples, dies at 77
• 1822 Robert Stewart, 2nd marguess of Londonderry, commits suicide, dies

• 1849 Abraham AA "Albert" Gallatin, Min of Finance (1801-14), dies at 88
• 1857 William Daniel Conybeare, geologist, dies
• 1861 Eliphalet Remington, American inventor, designer of the Remington rifle (b. 1793)
• 1864 Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)
• 1865 William Jackson Hooker, botanist, dies
• 1877 James Drummond, Scottish historical painter, (b. 1816)
• 1883 Last Quagga, (zebra with less slashes), dies in Amsterdam zoo
• 1885 Georg Curtius, German classical linguist, dies at 65
• 1885 Helen Hunt Jackson, American author (Ramona), dies at 54
• 1891 James Russell Lowell, poet/critic/diplomat, dies
• 1896 Thomas Chamberlain, officer of the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg
• 1900 James E Keeler, US astronomer (rings of Saturn), dies at 42
• 1901 Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
• 1911 Jozef Israels, painter, dies
• 1911 Petrus H Hugenholtz, Dutch reformist vicar (Levenslicht), dies at 79

• 1922 Arthur Griffith, Irish nationalist/president (Sinn Fein), dies
• 1934 Hendrik P Berlage, architect (Stock exchange Amsterdam), dies at 78
• 1935 Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (Schottky's theorem), dies at 84
• 1938 Ludwig Borchardt, German Egyptologist, dies at 74
• 1944 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., brother of President John F. Kennedy (b. 1915)
• 1948 Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)
• 1952 David Bergelson, Yiddish language writer (b. 1884)

• 1955 James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)
• 1968 Pieter J Auld, mayor of Rotterdam (1945-52), dies at 81
• 1968 Esther Forbes, American novelist (Johnny Tremain), dies at 76
• 1973 Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)

• 1976 Thomas Edward Driberg, 1st baron Bradwell, journalist, dies
• 1982 Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)

• 1990 B. Kliban, American cartoonist known for his drawings of cats, usually with horrible puns (Love to Eat Them Mousies), dies at 55
• 1992 Mazoon al-Mashani, 2nd wife of Sultan Said bin Taimur and Queen Mother of Oman, dies at about 72
• 1994 Manfred Salzgeber, German film distributor/publicist, dies at about 51
• 1996 Anthony Derrick Parsons, diplomat, dies at 73
• 1996 Victor Ambartsumian, Russian astronomer (Stalin Prize 1946, 50), dies at 87
• 1999 Jean Drapeau, Quebec politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1916)
• 1999 John Rigby Hale, British linguist and historian, dies at 75
• 2004 Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1919)
• 2005 John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)
• 2005 Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan politician (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka), dies at 73
• 2007 Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (b. 1963)
• 2009 Lord John Gregson, British Labour politician and Baron, dies from injuries following a fall at 85
• 2010 Isaac Bonewits, founder of U.S. Druid organization Ar Ndraiocht Fein (b. 1949)
• 2010 Guido de Marco, 6th president of Malta, 45th President of the United Nations General Assembly (b. 1931)

• Share On Facebook
• Share On Twitter