Historical Events on 12 May

Historical Events on 12 May

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, is founded in Kraków, Poland.
1551 - National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is 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.
1821 - The first big battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks occurs in Valtetsi.
1862 - U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps (ACW) turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army dur
1864 - American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
1865 - American Civil War: the Battle of Palmito Ranch: the first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1870 - The Manitoba Act is 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 beats 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 presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
1942 - Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov - in the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
1949 - The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
1949 - The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new German state - the Federal Republic of Germany.
1952 - Gaj Singh is crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur.
1955 - The last portion of the IRT Third Avenue Elevated in Manhattan closes.
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 the United States Military Academy.
1965 - The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
1965 - West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations.
1967 - At Queen Elizabeth Hall, England, Pink Floyd stages the first-ever quadraphonic rock concert.
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 local government asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.
1980 - West Ham United wins the FA Cup, beating Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. Midfield playmaker Trevor Brooking scores the winner with a rare header.
1981 - Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a republican campaign for political status to be granted to IRA prisoners.
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 refo
1994 - United Kingdom opposition leader John Smith dies in a London hospital after two serious heart attacks.
1999 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
2002 - Former US 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.
2003 - Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers bring the Texas Legislature to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan.
2006 - Justin Gatlin equals the 100 metres sprint world record with a time of 9.77 seconds in Doha, Qatar.
2008 - 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 60,000 people