What happened on March 12 ?

Choose another date »

 
 

 

Events

515 BCE - Construction is completed on the Temple in Jerusalem.

538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius.

1664 - New Jersey becomes a colony of Britain.

1868 - Henry James O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

1881 - Andrew Watson made his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.

1894 - Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.

1912 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the U.S..

1913 - Canberra, future capital of Australia, is officially named and construction of the new city begins (Melbourne remained temporary capital until 1927).

1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails, killing 400 people.

1930 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march known as Dandi March to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt.

1933 - Great Depression: Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats."

1938 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.

1940 - Winter War: Finland signs a harsh peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and remaining population are immediately evacuated.

 
 

1947 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.

1951 - The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the USA for the first time.

1956 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for the first time (500.24)

1958 - In Hilversum, Netherlands, André Claveau wins the third Eurovision Song Contest for France singing "Dors, mon amour" (Sleep, my love).

1960 - A fire at a chemical plant in Pusan, Korea kills 68.

1967 - Suharto takes over from Sukarno to become President of Indonesia.

1968 - Mauritius achieves independence.

1987 - Les Misérables opens on Broadway.

1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1992 - 13 are killed and several injured when a tram-car crashes into a crowd of people at the tram-station at Vasaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden.

1993 - Several bombs explode in Bombay (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 nuclear sites.

1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.

 
 

1994 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.

1999 - Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.

2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison. Her sentence would be overturned on appeal and she would end up being retried in 2006.

2003 - Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart is found alive in Sandy, Utah after missing from her Salt Lake City home for nine months.

2003 - Zoran ?in?i?, Prime Minister of Serbia, assassinated in Belgrade.

2004 - Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea is impeached by its national assembly for the first time in the nation's history.

2005 - Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, steps down from his post after his resignation is approved by the Chinese central government. New SAT is administered.

2006 - Australia scores a world record 434 runs in a One-day International cricket match against South Africa. South Africa replies by beating the record again to score 438/9 to win.

 

Events Births Deaths Holidays