What happened on May 12 ?

1191 - Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre.

1264 - The Battle of Lewes, between King Henry III of England and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, begins.

1328 - Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.

1364 - Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, was founded in Kraków, Poland.

1551 - National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.

1588 - French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city.

1689 - King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.

1780 - American Revolutionary War: Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.

1797 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice.

1862 - U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".

1870 - The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.

1873 - Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Sweden.

1881 - In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.

1885 - North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.

1890 - The first-ever official County Championship match begins. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets at Bristol. George Ulyett scores the first century in the competition.

1926 - UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends.

1932 - Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.

1937 - Coronation of King George VI of Britain at Westminster Abbey.

1941 - Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer in Berlin.

1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov ? In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.

1942 - 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.

1949 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.

1952 - Gaj Singh crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur.

1958 - A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.

1962 - Douglas MacArthur delivers his famous "Duty, Honor, Country" valedictory speech at West Point.

1965 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.

1966 - Busch Memorial Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals major league baseball team, opens in St. Louis, Missouri.

1967 - At Queen Elizabeth Hall, England, Pink Floyd stages the first-ever quadraphonic rock concert.

1970 - Ernie Banks becomes the ninth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois.

1975 - Mayagüez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.

1978 - In Zaïre, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba. The government of Zaïre asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.

1982 - During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, decided that the Pope must be killed for being an "agent of Moscow."

1989 - A Southern Pacific Railroad freight train derails on Duffy Street on the very steep Cajon Pass in San Bernardino, California, killing both crew members and 2 children, ages 7 and 9, also in the accident, 11 homes were severely damaged or completely destroyed. a memorial for the accident is now found on Tehachapi Loop facing the main hill.

1997 - In the 7th inning of a baseball game between the Anaheim Angels and the Chicago White Sox, the Angels score 13 runs.

1999 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.

2000 - The Tate Modern art gallery opens in London.

2002 - Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

2003 - The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26.

2006 - Justin Gatlin ties the fastest 100m sprint ever in a time of 9.77 seconds in Doha, Qatar.