Deaths on August 12

John Williams (motorcyclist)

Died on August 12, 1978

John Williams, English motorcycle racer (b. 1946)

John Williams (27 May 1946 – 12 August 1978) was an English motorcycle short-circuit road racer who also entered selected Grands Prix on the near-continent. He mostly raced as a "privateer" having a personal sponsor, Gerald Brown. Williams died in Northern Ireland, following an accident when racing at an event held on closed public roads near Dundrod.

References

John Williams (motorcyclist)

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Events on 1978

11 Feb

Aristotle
Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
27 Apr

Watergate scandal
Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
25 Jul

In vitro fertilisation
Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.
22 Oct

Pope John Paul II
Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II.
18 Nov

Jim Jones
In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.

Deaths on August 12

John Williams (motorcyclist)

Died on August 12, 1978

References

Choose Another Date

Events on 1978

Aristotle

Watergate scandal

In vitro fertilisation

Pope John Paul II

Jim Jones