12 March

Events

• 515 BC - Construction is completed on the Temple in Jerusalem.
• 1664 - New Jersey becomes a colony of Britain.
• 1894 - For the first time Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.
• 1912 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts in the US) are founded in the UK.
• 1913 - Canberra becomes the capital of Australia.
• 1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails killing 400.
• 1930 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march protest 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, ceeding almost all of Karelia. Finnish troops and remaining population were 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 country for the first time.
• 1968 - Mauritius achieves independence.
• 1987 - Les Misérables opens on Broadway.
• 1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the British Commonwealth.
• 1993 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, 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.
• 1997 - Mikail Markhasev is arrested in Los Angeles, California and charged with shooting Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis Cosby.
• 1999 - former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined 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.
• 2003 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia assassinated in Belgrade.

Births

• 1607 - Paul Gerhardt, hymnist, (d. 1676)
• 1806 - Jane Pierce, First Lady of the United States, (d. 1863)
• 1831 - Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer
• 1896 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada, (d. 1893)
• 1824 - Gustav Kirchhoff, physicist, lends his name to Kirchhoff's Laws, (d. 1887)
• 1863 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, (d. 1938)
• 1881 - Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic, (d. 1938)
• 1888 - Vaslav Nijinsky, ballet dancer, (d. 1950)
• 1912 - Irving Layton, poet
• 1921 - Giovanni Agnelli, manager of Fiat
• 1921 - Gordon MacRae, singer, actor, (d. 1986)
• 1922 - Jack Kerouac, writer, (d. 1969)
• 1923 - Wally Schirra, astronaut
• 1928 - Edward Albee, dramatist
• 1932 - Andrew Young, civil rights activist, politician, ambassador to the United Nations
• 1940 - Al Jarreau, singer
• 1946 - Liza Minnelli, singer and actress
• 1947 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist, (d. 1987)
• 1948 - James Taylor, musician
• 1953 - Ron Jeremy, pornographic film actor
• 1953 - Carl Hiaasen, author
• 1957 - Steve Harris, musician ("Iron Maiden")
• 1962 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player
• 1969 - Graham Coxon, musician

Deaths

• 1507 - Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, (b. 1475)
• 1889 - Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia
• 1925 - Sun Yat Sen, Chinese revolutionary, politician, (b. 1866)
• 1935 - Michel Pupin, telephone pioneer
• 1937 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer, (b. 1844)
• 1944 - Werner Drechsler, of U-118
• 1945 - Anne Frank, diarist, (b. 1929)
• 1955 - Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist, (b. 1920)
• 1998 - Beatrice Wood, artist/ceramist, (b. 1893)
• 1999 - Sir Yehudi Menuhin, violinist, (b. 1916)
• 2001 - Morton Downey, Jr., television personality, (b. 1933)
• 2001 - Robert Ludlum, author of spy novels, (b. 1927)
• 2003 - Ronnie Burk, surrealist and AIDS activist
• 2003 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia, (b. 1952)
• 2003 - Howard Fast, author, (b. 1914)

Holidays and observances

• Ancient Latvia - Gregoru Diena observed
• Mauritius - National Day

March 11 - March 13 - February 12 - April 12 -- listing of all days

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Referenced By