What happened on August 12 ?

490 BC - the Battle of Marathon, in which Athens defeated an invasion army of Persians, may have been fought on this date in the proleptic Julian calendar - but see 12 September.

1099 - The First Crusade concluded with a decisive victory in the Battle of Ascalon over Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah.

1121 - The Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi at the Battle of Didgori.

1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg - Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time

1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol

1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shot and killed Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.

1851 - Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine

1854 - Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon is executed by shooting, in regard to the Battle of Guaymas.

1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos

1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam

1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War

1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.

1908 - First Model T Ford built

1914 - World War I - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.

1914 - World War I: Beginning of the Battle of Cer between Austria-Hungary and Serbia

1952 - The Night of Murdered Poets - Prominent Jewish intellectuals were murdered in Moscow.

1953 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.

1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched

1966 - Massacre of Braybrook Street as three policemen are shot dead in East Acton, London.

1969 - Battle of the Bogside, Catholic community of Derry engage in two-day "battle" with Royal Ulster Constabulary

1978 - Japan and China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China.

1980 - Signing of the Montevideo Treaty, which established the Latin American Integration Association.

1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 in the world's worst single-plane air disaster. Four people miraculously survive.

1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, was discovered near Faith, South Dakota.

1992 - Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1994 - The Woodstock '94 rock concert takes place in New York.

1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.

2004 - Sweden's nine millionth inhabitant is born.

2004 - Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as Singapore's 3rd Prime Minister.

2004 - World Youth Festival in Barcelona.

2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by a sniper in his home.

2005 - An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.

2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives

2005 - An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island