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.
1862 - U.S federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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.
1942 - 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
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
1997 - In the 7th inning of a baseball game between the Anaheim Angels, and the Chicago White Sox,the Angels score 13 runs.
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
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
1970 - Jim Furyk, U.S. 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)
1957 - Erich von Stroheim, film director and actor (b. 1885)
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)
1994 - Erik Erikson, psychoanalyst (b. 1902)
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)
- - Martin Lings, 96, Islamic scholar

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

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