What happened on June 12 ?

1381 - Peasants' Revolt: In England rebels arrive at Blackheath.

1418 - An insurrection delivers Paris to the Burgundians.

1429 - Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.

1653 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Gabbard ? lasted until June 13.

1665 - England installs a municipal government in New York City. This was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.

1758 - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg ? James Wolfe's attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia commences.

1775 - American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offered a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.

1830 - Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers landed 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.

1859 - The Comstock Lode is discovered near Virginia City, Nevada.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor ? General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.

1885 - At a murder trial in France, a roof collapses, killing 30 people.

1889 - 88 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in Northern Ireland.

1896 - J.T. Hearne sets a cricket record for the earliest date of taking 100 first-class wickets.

1898 - Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.

1899 - New Richmond Tornado: 8th deadliest tornadoe in U.S. history - killing 117 and injuring around 200 people.

1902 - Australia: Women in the four Australian States without female suffrage achieved the right to vote in Commonwealth elections under Section 3 of the Commonwealth Franchise Act for an Uniform Federal Franchise. Specifically excluded from enrolling to vote were 'aboriginal native[s] of Australia Africa Asia or the Islands of the Pacific except New Zealand' unless covered under Section 41 of the Constitution of Australia.

1903 - Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.

1922 - St.Louis Brown pitcher Hub Pruett strikes out Babe Ruth three consecutive times.

1922 - In Windsor Castle, King George V receives the colours of the six Irish regiments that are to be disbanded - the Royal Irish Regiment, the Connaught Rangers, the South Irish Horse, the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

1931 - Charlie Parker equals cricket record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets. Tich Freeman reaches 100 wickets a day later.

1935 - Chaco War ends: A truce is called between Bolivia and Paraguay, fighting since 1932.

1939 - The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.

1940 - World War II: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

1942 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot dead in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith.

1964 - South Africa sentences Nelson Mandela to life in prison.

1967 - The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. [1]

1967 - Venera program: Venera 4 is launched (it will become the first space probe to enter another planet's atmosphere and successfully return data).

1978 - David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer in New York City, is sentenced to 365 years in prison for six killings.

1979 - Bryan Allen flies the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.

1981 - Major League Baseball players begin a 49 day strike over the issue of free-agent compensation.

1982 - in New York City's Central Park, 750,000 people rally against nuclear weapons. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt are in attendance.

1987 - The Central African Republic's former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.

1987 - Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate.

1988 - Rusty Wallace wins the last Nascar Winston Cup race at the Riverside International Raceway

1990 - Russia Day ? The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.

1991 - Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of their republic.

1993 - Nigerian presidential elections held with the largest turnout ever. Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (popularly known and called M. K. O.), an international businessman and politician, who was the candidate of the Social Democratic Party overwhelmingly defeated rival Alhaji Bashir Tofa, candidate of the National Republican Convention. After most of the results were announced, the election was annulled by military president Ibrahim Babangida. Subsequent nationwide and international protests forced Babangida to relinquish power albeit to his handpicked Interim National Government.

1994 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.

1994 - German districts Röbel and Waren are merged to form Müritz

1996 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet.

1997 - Interleague play begins in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series (with the exception of the All-Star Game).

1997 - The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant. [2]

1998 - The Philippines celebrates its centennial year of Independence from Spain.

1999 - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins ? NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force KFor enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

2000 - Sandro Rosa do Nascimento takes hostages while robbing Bus #174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the highly-publicized standoff becomes a media circus and ends with the death of do Nascimento and a hostage.

2004 - A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries.