May 12

May 12 is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (133rd in leap years). There are 233 days remaining.

Events

• 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 in Cracow, the oldest university in Poland, was founded in Cracow, Poland.
• 1551 – National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in South America, 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.
• 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 French Canadians 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 Lindbergh's home.
• 1937 – Coronation of King George VI of Britain at Westminster Abbey.
• 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.
• 1949 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
• 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.
• 1972 – The Rolling Stones release Exile On Main Street, often considered their best album.
• 1975 – Mayagüez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
• 1978 – In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba. The government of Zaire asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.
• 1989 A Southern Pacific Railroad freight train derails on Duffy Street on the very steep Cajon Pass in San Bernardino, California
• 1999 – David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
• 2000 – The Tate Modern art gallery opens in London.
• 2001 – In Copenhagen, Denmark, Tanel Padar & Dave Benton win the forty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia singing "Everybody".
• 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.

Births

• 1496 – Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1560)
• 1590 – Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1621)
• 1670 – King Frederick Augustus I of Poland (d. 1733)
• 1803 – Justus von Liebig, chemist (d. 1873)
• 1812 – Edward Lear, author and poet (d. 1888)
• 1820 – Florence Nightingale, English nurse (d. 1910)
• 1828 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (d. 1882)
• 1845 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (d. 1924)
• 1850 – Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (d. 1924)
• 1880 – Lincoln Ellsworth, American scientist and polar explorer (d. 1951)
• 1889 – Otto Frank, German writer, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
• 1892 – Fritz Kortner, director (d. 1970)
• 1899 – Indra Devi, yogi (d. 2002)
• 1900 – Helene Weigel, actress (d. 1971)
• 1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)
• 1910 – Charles B. Fulton, American jurist (d. 1996)
• 1910 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, chemist, winner of 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1994)
• 1912 – Archibald Cox, U.S. Solicitor General and Watergate special prosecutor (d. 2004)
• 1914 – Howard K. Smith, journalist (d. 2002)
• 1918 – Julius Rosenberg, convicted spy (d. 1953)
• 1921 – Joseph Beuys, artist (d. 1986)
• 1921 – Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and naturalist
• 1924 – Tony Hancock, comedian (d. 1968)
• 1925 – Yogi Berra, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1928 – Burt Bacharach, composer
• 1935 – Felipe Alou, Major League Baseball manager
• 1936 – Frank Stella, painter
• 1936 – Tom Snyder, journalist and television personality
• 1937 – George Carlin, comedian
• 1942 – Ian Dury, musician (d. 2000)
• 1948 – Steve Winwood, singer (Blind Faith and Traffic)
• 1950 – Bruce Boxleitner, actor
• 1950 – Billy Squier, singer and songwriter
• 1950 – Gabriel Byrne, actor
• 1955 – Kix Brooks, musician
• 1957 – Erik von Stroheim, director
• 1962 – Emilio Estevez, actor
• 1963 – Vanessa A. Williams, actress
• 1964 – Brett Gurewitz, guitarist (Bad Religion and NOFX)
• 1966 – Stephen Baldwin, actor
• 1968 – Tony Hawk, skateboarder
• 1969 – Kim Fields, actress
• 1970 – Mike Weir, Canadian golfer
• 1975 – Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby player
• 1977 – Graeme Dott, Scottish snooker player
• 1978 – Jason Biggs, actor
• 1995 – Jean Carlos Chera, Brazilian footballer
• 1995 – Sawyer Sweeten, actor

Deaths

• 1003 – Pope Silvester II
• 1012 – Pope Sergius IV
• 1641 – Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (b. 1593)
• 1684 – Edme Mariotte (b. 1620), French physicist and priest
• 1700 – John Dryden, English writer (b. 1631)
• 1845 – János Bacsanyi, Hungarian poet (b. 1763)
• 1867 – Friedrich William Eduard Gerhard, German archaeologist (b. 1795)
• 1884 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)
• 1889 – John Cadbury, chocolate entrepreneur (b. 1801)
• 1907 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (b. 1848)
• 1925 – Amy Lowell, poet (b. 1874)
• 1935 – Józef Piłsudski, Polish statesman (b. 1867)
• 1944 – Max Brand, author
• 1944  – Q, British writer (b. 1863)
• 1956 – Louis Calhern, film actor (b. 1895)
• 1963 – Bobby Kerr, Canadian runner (b. 1882)
• 1967 – John Masefield, British writer (b. 1878)
• 1971 – Heinie Manush, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1901)
• 1985 – Jean Dubuffet, painter (b. 1901)
• 1986 – Elisabeth Bergner, actress (b. 1897)
• 1992 – Robert Reed, actor (b. 1932)
• 1994 – John Smith, British politician (b. 1938)
• 2000 – Adam Petty, race car driver (b. 1980)
• 2001 – Perry Como, singer (b. 1912)
• 2003 – Sadruddin Aga Khan, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1965 – 1977
• 2005 – Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (b. 1937)

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Domitilla
  • Achilleus and Nereus
  • Saint Pancras
  • Epiphanius
  • Modoald
  • Imelda Lambertini
• Israel – Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israeli Independence Day) for 2005: the observed date of this national holiday is determined by the Jewish Calendar.
• International Nurses Day

Events

• Alpha Bootids meteor shower ends
• Mother's Day – 2002, 2013

External links

• BBC: On This Day

May 11 – May 13 – April 12 – June 12 – listing of all days