November 12

November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 49 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 764 – Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days.
• 1028 – Future Byzantine empress Zoe takes the throne as empress consort to Romanus Argyrus.
• 1439 – Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
• 1555 – The English Parliament re-establishes Catholicism.
• 1602 – Sebastian Viscaino lands at and names San Diego, California.
• 1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined.
• 1892 – William "Pudge" Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
• 1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line is signed between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan; the Durand Line has gained international recognition as an international border between the two nations.
• 1905 – Norway holds a referendum in favor of monarchy over republic.
• 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
• 1918 – Austria becomes a republic.
• 1920 – Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.
• 1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
• 1928 – SS Vestris sinks approximately 200 miles (320 km) off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.
• 1933 – Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster.
• 1936 – In California, the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
• 1938 – Hermann Göring proposes plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.
• 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy France forces.
• 1941 – World War II: temperatures around Moscow drop to -12° C as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
• 1941 – World War II: The Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.
• 1942 – World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days.
• 1944 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers in one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of war and sinks the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromsø, Norway.
• 1948 – In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.
• 1956 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.
• 1958 – A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.
• 1968 – Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre – Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.
• 1970 – The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.
• 1970 – The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.
• 1971 – Vietnam War: as part of Vietnamization, US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
• 1975 – The Comoros joins the United Nations.
• 1978 – Pope John Paul II takes possession of his Cathedral Church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, as the Bishop of Rome.
• 1979 – Iran hostage crisis: in response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.
• 1980 – The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.
• 1981 – Space Shuttle program: mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.
• 1982 – In the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov becomes the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.
• 1990 – Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.
• 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
• 1991 – Dili Massacre: Indonesian forces open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.
• 1996 – A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349. The deadliest mid-air collision to date.
• 1997 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• 1999 – The Düzce earthquake strikes Turkey with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale.
• 2001 – 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.
• 2001 – Attack on Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, Afghanistan, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.
• 2003 – Iraq war: in Nasiriya, 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.
• 2003 – Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record (501 kilometres per hour (311 mph)) for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.
• 2011– Silvio Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy due, in large part, to the European sovereign debt crisis.

Births

• 1528 – Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (d. 1588)
• 1547 – Claude of Valois, French princess (d. 1575)
• 1606 – Jeanne Mance, French settler of New France (d. 1673)
• 1615 – Richard Baxter, English clergyman (d. 1691)
• 1651 – Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican mystic and author (d. 1695)
• 1684 – Edward Vernon, English Royal Navy admiral (d. 1757)
• 1729 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (d. 1811)
• 1755 – Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general (d. 1813)
• 1790 – Letitia Christian Tyler, US First Lady (d. 1842)
• 1795 – Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (d. 1856)
• 1815 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American suffragette (d. 1902)
• 1817 – Bahá'u'lláh, Persian spiritual figure (d. 1892)
• 1833 – Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (d. 1887)
• 1840 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (d. 1917)
• 1842 – John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1919)
• 1848 – Eduard Müller, Swiss politician (d. 1919)
• 1850 – Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player (d. 1908)
• 1866 – Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary and politician (d. 1925)
• 1872 – William Fay, Irish actor and theatre producer (d. 1947)
• 1881 – Olev Siinmaa, Estonian architect (d. 1948)
• 1881 – Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (d. 1954)
• 1886 – Günther Dyhrenfurth, German geologist, and mountineer (d. 1975)
• 1886 – Ben Travers, British playwright (d. 1980)
• 1889 – DeWitt Wallace, American magazine publisher (d. 1981)
• 1890 – Lily Kronberger, Hungarian figure skater (d. 1974)
• 1892 – Tudor Davies, Welsh operatic tenor (d. 1958)
• 1896 – Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist (d. 1987)
• 1896 – Nima Yooshij , Iranian contemporary poet (d. 1960)
• 1897 – Karl Marx, German composer (d. 1985)
• 1898 – Leon Štukelj, Slovene gymnast (d. 1999)
• 1901 – James Luther Adams, American theologian (d. 1994)
• 1903 – Jack Oakie, American actor (d. 1978)
• 1908 – Harry Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1999)
• 1910 – Dudley Nourse, South African cricketer (d. 1981)
• 1911 – Buck Clayton, American jazz trumpet player (d. 1991)
• 1915 – Roland Barthes, French critic and writer (d. 1980)
• 1916 – Rogelio de la Rosa, Filipino actor and politician (d. 1986)
• 1916 – Paul Emery, English racing driver (d. 1993)
• 1916 – Jean Papineau-Couture, French-Canadian composer (d. 2000)
• 1917 – Jo Stafford, American singer (d. 2008)
• 1919 – Jackie Washington, Canadian blues musician (d. 2009)
• 1920 – Richard Quine, American actor (d. 1989)
• 1922 – Kim Hunter, American actress (d. 2002)
• 1923 – Vicco von Bülow, German film director (d. 2011)
• 1924 – Sam Jones, American jazz bassist and cellist (d. 1981)
• 1927 – Yutaka Taniyama, Japanese mathematician (d. 1958)
• 1928 – Bob Holness, English presenter and actor
• 1929 – Michael Ende, German writer (d. 1995)
• 1929 – Grace Kelly, American actress and Princely consort of Monaco (d. 1982)
• 1930 – Ann Flood, American actress
• 1931 – Bob Crewe, American songwriter and producer (The Four Seasons)
• 1933 – Jalal Talabani, Iraqi politician
• 1934 – Charles Manson, American cult leader and convicted murderer
• 1936 – Mills Lane, American jurist, TV personality, and boxing referee
• 1936 – Mort Shuman, American songwriter and singer (d. 1991)
• 1937 – Jack Betts, American actor
• 1938 – Denis DeJordy, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1938 – Benjamin Mkapa, Tanzanian politician
• 1939 – Ruby Nash Curtis, American singer (Ruby & the Romantics)
• 1939 – Terry McDonald, English footballer
• 1939 – Lucia Popp, Slovakian soprano (d. 1993)
• 1940 – Michel Audet, Quebec economist and politician
• 1940 – Jürgen Todenhöfer, German politician
• 1941 – Carol Gluck, American academic and Japanologist
• 1943 – Julie Ege, Norwegian actress (d. 2008)
• 1943 – Brian Hyland, American singer
• 1943 – Wallace Shawn, American actor and playwright
• 1943 – Björn Waldegård, Swedish rally driver
• 1944 – Booker T. Jones, American musician and songwriter (Booker T and the MG's)
• 1944 – Al Michaels, American television sportscaster
• 1945 – Tracy Kidder, American journalist and author
• 1945 – Neil Young, Canadian singer and guitarist (Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
• 1946 – Krister Henriksson, Swedish actor
• 1947 – Ron Bryant, American baseball player
• 1947 – Buck Dharma (born Donald Roeser), American vocalist and guitarist (Blue Öyster Cult)
• 1947 – Patrice Leconte, French film director and screenwriter
• 1948 – Errol Brown, English singer (Hot Chocolate)
• 1948 – Cliff Harris, American football player
• 1949 – Ron Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey coach (d. 1992)
• 1949 – Jack Reed, American politician
• 1949 – Sinyan Shen, American physicist and composer
• 1950 – Barbara Fairchild, US country music/Gospel singer
• 1952 – Ronald Burkle, American entrepreneur
• 1953 – Vasilis Karras, Greek singer
• 1953 – Baaba Maal, Senegalese singer and guitarist
• 1954 – Rob Lytle, American football player (d. 2010)
• 1955 – Katharine Weber, American novelist
• 1958 – Megan Mullally, American actress and singer
• 1958 – Nick Stellino, Italian-born American television chef
• 1959 – Vincent Irizarry, American actor
• 1959 – Toshihiko Sahashi, Japanese composer
• 1960 – Ismo Alanko, Finnish musician (Hassisen Kone, Sielun Veljet, Ismo Alanko Säätiö)
• 1960 – Maurane, Belgian singer
• 1961 – Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast
• 1961 – Enzo Francescoli, Uruguayan footballer
• 1961 – Jonathan Nossiter, American film director
• 1961 – Michaela Paetsch, American violinist
• 1962 – Mariella Frostrup, Norwegian journalist and television presenter
• 1962 – Mark Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – Neal Shusterman, American writer
• 1962 – Brix Smith, American singer and guitarist (The Fall, The Adult Net)
• 1962 – Naomi Wolf, American author and feminist
• 1963 – Sam Lloyd, American actor
• 1963 – Michael Rogers (activist), American blogger and media publisher
• 1963 – Susumu Terajima, Japanese actor
• 1964 – Vic Chesnutt, American singer and songwriter (d. 2009)
• 1964 – Dave Ellefson, American bassist (Megadeth)
• 1965 – Lex Lang, American voice actor
• 1967 – Michael Moorer, American boxer
• 1967 – Grant Nicholas, British singer (Feeder)
• 1968 – Glenn Gilbertti, American professional wrestler
• 1968 – Kathleen Hanna, American singer and songwriter
• 1968 – Aya Hisakawa, Japanese voice actress and singer
• 1968 – Sharon Shannon, Irish musician, known for playing the accordion
• 1968 – Sammy Sosa, Dominican baseball player
• 1968 – Aaron Stainthorpe, British singer (My Dying Bride)
• 1969 – Ian Bremmer, American political scientist
• 1969 – Jason Cundy, English footballer and broadcaster
• 1969 – Johnny Gosch, American kidnap victim
• 1970 – Donna Adamo, American professional wrestler
• 1970 – Tonya Harding, American figure skater
• 1970 – Sarah Harmer, Canadian singer-songwriter and activist
• 1970 – Craig Parker, New Zealand actor
• 1970 – Harvey Stephens, British actor
• 1972 – Vassilis Tsiartas, Greek footballer
• 1973 – Mayte Garcia, American dancer
• 1973 – Radha Mitchell, Australian actress
• 1973 – Ethan Zohn, American footballer and reality show contestant
• 1974 – Tamala Jones, American actress
• 1975 – Nina Brosh, Israeli model and actress
• 1975 – Jason Lezak, American swimmer
• 1975 – Angela Watson, American actress
• 1976 – Tevin Campbell, American R&B singer
• 1976 – Judith Holofernes, German singer (Wir sind Helden)
• 1976 – Richelle Mead, American writer
• 1976 – Mirosław Szymkowiak, Polish footballer
• 1977 – Dalene Kurtis, American model
• 1977 – Benni McCarthy, South African footballer
• 1977 – Lee Murray, English mixed martial artist
• 1978 – Aaron Heilman, American baseball player
• 1978 – Alexandra Maria Lara, Romanian-born German actress
• 1978 – Andrew Kinlochan, British singer (Phixx)
• 1978 – Ashley Williams, American actress
• 1978 – Lena Yada, American actress, model, surfer and professional wrestler
• 1979 – Matt Cappotelli, American professional wrestler
• 1979 – Cote de Pablo, Chilean actress
• 1979 – Lucas Glover, American professional golfer
• 1979 – Crown J, South Korean hip hop singer and rapper
• 1979 – Corey Maggette, American basketball player
• 1980 – Trent Acid, American professional wrestler (d. 2010)
• 1980 – Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor
• 1981 – D. J. Campbell, English footballer
• 1981 – Sergio Floccari, Italian footballer
• 1982 – Anne Hathaway, American actress
• 1982 – Mikele Leigertwood, English footballer
• 1983 – Carlton Cole, English footballer
• 1983 – Charlie Morton, American baseball player
• 1984 – Sepp De Roover, Belgian footballer
• 1984 – Omarion, American R&B singer, pianist and songwriter (B2K)
• 1984 – Sandara Park, South Korean actor, singer/rapper of (2NE1)
• 1984 – Conrad Rautenbach, Zimbabwean rally driver
• 1985 – Arianny Celeste, American model
• 1986 – Evan Yo, Taiwanese pop singer
• 1987 – Bryan Little, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1988 – Russell Westbrook, American basketball player
• 1992 – Adam Larsson, Swedish ice hockey player

Deaths

• 607 – Pope Boniface III, Roman-born (birth date unknown)
• 1035 – King Cnut the Great, Danish-born King of Denmark, England and Norway (b. 985 or 995)
• 1094 – King Duncan II of Scotland (b. 1060)
• 1434 – King Louis III of Naples (b. 1403)
• 1555 – Stephen Gardiner, English statesman (b. 1497)
• 1567 – Anne de Montmorency, Marshal and Constable of France (b. 1493)
• 1595 – John Hawkins, English shipbuilder and trader (b. 1532)
• 1606 – St. Nicholas Owen, English Jesuit and martyr (b. c. 1550)
• 1667 – Hans Nansen, Danish statesman (b. 1598)
• 1671 – Thomas Fairfax, English Civil War general (b. 1612)
• 1742 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (b. 1660)
• 1757 – Colley Cibber, English poet (b. 1671)
• 1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, first Mayor of Paris (b. 1736)
• 1836 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (b. 1773)
• 1865 – Elizabeth Gaskell, English novelist (b. 1810)
• 1916 – Percival Lowell, American amateur astronomer (b. 1855)
• 1933 – F. Holland Day, American photographer and publisher (b. 1864)
• 1939 – Norman Bethune, Canadian doctor and humanitarian (b. 1890)
• 1941 – Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, American mobster (b. 1907)
• 1944 – Otto Blumenthal, German mathematician (b. 1876)
• 1948 – Umberto Giordano, Italian composer (b. 1867)
• 1955 – Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (b. 1878)
• 1965 – Syedna Taher Saifuddin, Indian-born Bohra Spiritual Leader (b. 1888)
• 1969 – Liu Shaoqi, Chinese revolutionary, and statesman (b. 1898)
• 1972 – Rudolf Friml, Czech composer (b. 1879)
• 1976 – Walter Piston, American composer (b. 1894)
• 1976 – Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich, Russian aircraft designer (b. 1893)
• 1981 – William Holden, American actor (b. 1918)
• 1984 – Chester Himes, American writer (b. 1909)
• 1987 – Cornelis Vreeswijk, Dutch-Swedish musician (b. 1937)
• 1990 – Eve Arden, American actress (b. 1908)
• 1993 – H. R. Haldeman, American White House Chief of Staff (b. 1926)
• 1994 – Wilma Rudolph, American runner (b. 1940)
• 1997 – Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Leah Rabin (née Schlossberg), German-born widow of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (b. 1928)
• 2000 – Franck Pourcel, French popular orchestra leader (b. 1913)
• 2001 – Tony Miles, English chess player (b. 1955)
• 2001 – Albert Hague, German-born American actor and songwriter (b. 1920)
• 2003 – Cameron Duncan, New Zealand director (b. 1986)
• 2003 – Kay E. Kuter, American actor (b. 1925)
• 2003 – Penny Singleton, American actress (b. 1908)
• 2003 – Tony Thompson, American drummer (Chic, Power Station) (b. 1954)
• 2003 – Jonathan Brandis, American actor (b. 1976)
• 2005 – William G. Adams, Canadian politician (b. 1923)
• 2006 – General Jacob E. Smart, American World War II figure (b. 1909)
• 2007 – Khanmohammed Ibrahim, Indian cricketer (b. 1919)
• 2007 – Ira Levin, American novelist (b. 1929)
• 2008 – Catherine Baker Knoll, American politician (b. 1930)
• 2008 – Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (b. 1947)
• 2010 – Henryk Górecki, Polish composer (b. 1933)
• 2010 – Karl Plutus, Estonian jurist and centenarian (b. 1904)

Holidays and observances

• Birth of Bahá'u'lláh, celebration started at sunset the day before. (Bahá'í Faith)
• Birth of Sun Yat-Sen, also Doctors' Day and Cultural Renaissance Day. (Republic of China)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Cumméne Fota
  • Emilian of Cogolla
  • Josaphat Kuntsevych
  • Nilus of Sinai
  • Patiens
  • Arsatius
  • November 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Constitution Day (Azerbaijan)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada