May 12

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.
• 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: The "Bloody Angle" - thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die.
• 1870 - Manitoba becomes a province of Canada.
• 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.
• 1926 - UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a 9-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.
• 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 Bernadino, 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)
• 1820 - Florence Nightingale, nurse (d. 1910)
• 1828 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet, painter (d. 1882)
• 1845 - Gabriel Fauré, 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, 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, actress (d. 2003)
• 1910 - Charles B. Fulton, American jurist (d. 1996)
• 1910 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, chemist (d. 1994)
• 1912 - Archibald Cox, U.S. Solicitor General and Watergate special prosecutor
• 1914 - Howard K. Smith, journalist (d. 2002)
• 1918 - Julius Rosenberg, spy (d. 1953)
• 1921 - Joseph Beuys, artist (d. 1986)
• 1921 - Farley Mowat, writer, 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, TV personality
• 1937 - George Carlin, comedian
• 1942 - Ian Dury, rock star (d. 2000)
• 1948 - Steve Winwood, singer ("Blind Faith", "Traffic")
• 1950 - Bruce Boxleitner, actor
• 1950 - Billy Squier, singer/songwriter
• 1950 - Gabriel Byrne, actor
• 1955 - Kix Brooks, musician
• 1957 - Erik von Stronheim, director
• 1962 - Emilio Estevez, actor
• 1963 - Vanessa Williams, actress
• 1964 - Brett Gurewitz, guitarist for Bad Religion and NOFX
• 1966 - Stephen Baldwin, actor
• 1968 - Tony Hawk, skateboarding legend
• 1969 - Kim Fields, actress
• 1970 - Mike Weir, Canadian golfer, 2003 Masters champion
• 1975 - Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby player
• 1977 - Graeme Dott, Scottish snooker player
• 1978 - Jason Biggs, actor (American Pie)
• 1995 - Jean Carlos Chera, Brazilian football prodigy
• 1995 - Sawyer Sweeten, actor
• 1995 - Sullivan 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, poet (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, founder of chocolate company Cadbury (b. 1801)
• 1907 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (b. 1848)
• 1925 - Amy Lowell, poet (b. 1874)
• 1935 - Jósef Piłsudski, father of modern Poland (b. 1867)
• 1944 - Max Brand, author
• 1944 - Q, British writer (b. 1863)
• 1956 - Louis Calhern, silent film actor (b. 1895)
• 1963 - Bobby Kerr, Canadian sprinter (b. 1882)
• 1967 - John Masefield, British poet and 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, The Brady Bunch (b. 1932)
• 1994 - John Smith leader of British Labour Party (b. 1938)
• 2000 - Adam Petty, NASCAR driver (b. 1980)
• 2001 - Perry Como, singer (b. 1912)
• 2003 - Sadruddin Aga Khan, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1965 - 1977
  

  Holidays and observances

• Israel - Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israeli Independence Day) for 2005: the observed date of this national holiday is determined by the Jewish Calendar.
• International Nursing 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