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On This Day
March
12
Events
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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