March 12 in History

Historical Events on March 12

538

Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius
1550

Several hundred Spanish and indigenous troops under the command of Pedro de Valdivia defeat an army of 60,000 Mapuche at the Battle of Penco during the Arauco War in present-day Chile
1622

Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus, are canonized by the Roman Catholic Church
1689

The Williamite War in Ireland begins.
1811

Peninsular War: A day after a successful rearguard action, French Marshal Michel Ney once again successfully delayed the pursuing Anglo-Portuguese force at the Battle of Redinha
1864

American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as a US Navy fleet of 13 Ironclads and 7 Gunboats and other support ships enter the Red River
1881

Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.
1885

Tonkin Campaign: France captures the citadel of Bắc Ninh.
1894

Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph A. Biedenharn.
1912

The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.
1913

Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. (Melbourne remains temporary capital until 1927 while the new capital is still under construction.)
1918

Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
1920

The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin.
1921

İstiklâl Marşı is adopted in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
1922

Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan form the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
1928

In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kills 431 people.
1930

Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India
1933

Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his "fireside chats".
1934

Konstantin Päts and General Johan Laidoner stage a coup in Estonia, and ban all political parties.
1938

Anschluss: German troops occupy and absorb Austria.
1940

Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and the remaining population are immediately evacuated.
1942

Pacific War: The Battle of Java ends with an ABDACOM surrender to the Japanese Empire in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies.
1947

The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
1950

The Llandow air disaster occurs near Sigingstone, Wales, in which 80 people die when their aircraft crashed, making it the world's deadliest air disaster at the time.
1961

First winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger.
1967

Suharto take power from Sukarno when the MPRS inaugurated him as Acting President of Indonesia.
1968

Mauritius achieves independence from the United Kingdom.
1971

The March 12 Memorandum is sent to the Suleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.
1992

Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
1993

Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
1993

North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
1994

The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
1999

Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
2003

Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
2003

WHO officially released global warning on pandemic SARS disease.
2004

The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly: The first such impeachment in the nation's history.
2009

Financier Bernard Madoff pleads guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street's history.
2011

A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.
2014

A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others.

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