What happened on November 12 ?

764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days.

1028 - Future Byzantine empress Zoe marries Romanus Argyrus according to the wishes of the dying Constantine VIII

1439 - Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

1905 - (November 12 & 13) Norway holds referendum in favour 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.

1922 - Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., was founded on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1927 - Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1927 - The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

1933 - Hugh Gray of the British Aluminium Company takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster.

1934 - The musical Babes in Toyland debuts, featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as comic relief (see Laurel and Hardy).

1936 - In California, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1938 - Hermann Göring announces Nazi Germany plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that actually was first considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.

1941 - World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 ° C and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.

1941 - A Soviet cruiser "Chervona Ukraina" was destroyed during the battle of Sevastopol

1942 - World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal, will last for three days.

1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force launches one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of war and sinks the German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of Norway.

1946 - A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows.

1948 - In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II.

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 Gray whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous exploding whale incident

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.

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.

1982 - In the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov is selected to become the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Leonid I. Brezhnev.

1982 - Lech Wa??sa, Solidarity leader, is released from a Polish prison after eleven months.

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 opened fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.

1992 - Absolutely Fabulous airs its first episode on BBC1.

1993 - Decree of President of Kazakhstan "About introducing national currency of Republic of Kazakhstan" was issued.

1996 - A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, India killing 349.

1997 - Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

1998 - Daimler-Benz completes a merger with Chrysler to form Daimler-Chrysler.

2001 - In New York City, an Airbus A300 carrying American Airlines Flight 587 crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board.

2001 - 2001 Attack on Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.

2003 - Occupation of Iraq: In Nasiriya, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 Iraq war are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.

2004 - Scott Peterson is found guilty of first degree murder of his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner after a five-and-a-half month long trial.

2004 - Resignation of Colin Powell as Secretary of State.