September 12



Events

Up to 1900 
 1185  Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos is brutally put to death in Constantinople.
 1309  First Siege of Gibraltar during the Spanish Reconquista.
 1556  Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor gives up the throne for his brother, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor.
 1609  Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River.
 1683  Battle of Kahlenberg: Forces of John III Sobieski of Poland surprise Ottoman Empire forces under Kara Mustafa, defeating them decisively.
 1689  Tsar Peter I of Russia assumes absolute power.
 1814  War of 1812: Battle of North Point - An American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore, Maryland.
 1847  Mexican-American War: The Battle of Chapultepec begins.
 1848  Switzerland becomes a federal state.
 1857  The ship SS America sinks about 160 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with 426 people drowning. It was carrying gold from the California Gold Rush
 1861  American Civil War: Battle of Cheat Pike in Virginia.
 1885  Arbroath F.C. 36-0 Bon Accord: This scoreline in Scotland is the highest-recorded in professional football.
 1890  Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) is founded.

1901  2000 
 1905  Japanese battleship Mikasa sinks after a munitions explosion. Out of the 935 men on board, 256 are killed and 343 injured.
 1905  Copenhagen town hall is inaugurated in Denmark.
 1906  Newport Transporter Bridge is opened in Newport, south Wales.
 1910  First performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony Number 8, in Munich.
 1918  British passenger ship Galway Castle is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Land's End, Cornwall, England, killing 143 people.
 1920  The 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp begins.
 1928  A hurricane in Guadeloupe kills 1,200 people.
 1933  Leó Szilárd has the idea of a nuclear chain reaction.
 1940  World-famous cave paintings are discovered in the Lascaux in southern France.
 1940  An explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenil, New Jersey kills 51 and injures over 200.
 1942  World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers, and Italian POWs, is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa, with a heavy loss of life.
 1942  World War II: First Day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal Campaign. US Marines protecting Henderson Field in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, are attacked by Imperial Japanese forces.
 1943  World War II: Benito Mussolini is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, led by German commandos under Otto Skorzeny.
 1944  World War II: American troops enter Germany near Trier.
 1948  Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian army on the day after the death of Pakistan's leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
 1949  Theodor Heuss becomes the 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
 1953  John F. Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
 1958  Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit.
 1959  Showing of the first episode of Bonanza, first regularly scheduled television programme presented in colour.
 1959  The Soviet Union launches the Lunik II rocket.
 1959  Heinrich Lübke becomes the 2nd President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
 1961  The African and Malagasy Union is founded.
 1964  The Canyonlands National Park in Utah is created.
 1966  Gemini 11, of NASA's Gemini program, is launched. 
 1970  Palestinian terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Jordan. Passengers are held at secret locations in the capital city, Amman.
 1974  Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I is deposed in a military coup.
 1977  Anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody.
 1979  Indonesia is struck by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake.
 1980  A military coup occurs in Turkey.
 1988  Hurricane Gilbert hits Jamaica.
 1990  The Faroe Islands national football team scores a surprise 1-0 win over the Austria national football team. The Faroese players are celebrated as heroes after their return home from the match.
 1990  East Germany's national football team plays its last-ever match, winning 2-0 against the Belgium national football team.
 1992  NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on the STS-47 mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison (first African American woman in space), Mamoru Mohri (first Japanese citizen on a US spaceship), and Mark Lee and Jan Davis (first married couple in space).
 1992  Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman is arrested in Peru, by special forces.
 1994  Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 light aircraft into the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, killing himself.
 1999  Indonesia announces it will allow international peacekeepers into East Timor.

From 2001 
 2003  The UN lifts sanctions against Libya.
 2003  US Forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers in Fallujah.
 2005  Hong Kong Disneyland opens.
 2007  Former President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder.
 2008  The Chatsworth train collision occurs in Los Angeles, California, between a Metrolink commerce train and a Union Pacific Freight train, killing 25 people.
 2011  About 100 people are killed by an oil pipeline explosion in Nairobi, Kenya.
 2011  Russian ice hockey player Alexander Galimov dies, as the 44th, and final, victim of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, which occurred on September 7. The whole team was killed.
 2015  Jeremy Corbyn is elected leader of the British Labour Party.
 2015  An explosion in Petlawad in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh kills at least 105 people.
 2018  The European Parliament votes by a two-thirds majority to trigger possible sanctions (punishments) against the government of Hungary, over issues of democracy, human rights, judicial freedom and journalistic freedom.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1492  Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (d. 1519)
 1494  King Francis I of France (d. 1547)
 1575  Henry Hudson, English explorer (d. 1611)
 1605  William Dugdale, English antiquarian (d. 1686)
 1649  Giuseppe Maria Tomasi, Italian cardinal (d. 1713)
 1652  Frederick Charles, Duke of Württemberg-Winnental (d. 1697)
 1688  Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (d. 1731)
 1690  Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (d. 1775)
 1725  Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (d. 1792)
 1736  Hsinbyushin, King of Burma (d. 1776)
 1740  Johann Heinrich Jung, German writer (d. 1817)
 1759  Maximilian von Montgelas, Bavarian politician (d. 1838)
 1768  Benjamin Carr, American composer, singer, teacher and publisher (d. 1831)
 1800  Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, French chess player (d. 1872)
 1812  Richard Hoe, American inventor and industrialist (d. 1886)
 1818  Richard Gatling, American weapons inventor (d. 1903)
 1818  Theodor Kullak, German pianist and composer (d. 1915)
 1829  Anselm Feuerbach, German painter (d. 1880)
 1830  William Sprague, 72nd Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1915)
 1837  Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (d. 1892)
 1838  Arthur Auwers, German astronomer (d. 1915)
 1852  H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1928)
 1855  William Sharp, Scottish writer (d. 1905)
 1855  Simon-Napoleon Parent, 12th Premier of Quebec (d. 1920)
 1857  Manuel Espinosa Batista, Panamanian politician and businessman (d. 1919)
 1857  George Hendrik Breitner, Dutch painter (d. 1923)
 1865  Sophus Claussen, Danish writer (d. 1931)
 1866  Freeman Freeman-Thompson, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, 13th Governor General of Canada (d. 1941)
 1875  Matsunosuke Onoe, Japanese actor (d. 1926)
 1880  H. L. Mencken, American journalist and writer (d. 1956)
 1885  Heinrich Hoffmann, German photographer (d. 1957)
 1887  Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, Azerbaijani writer and statesman (d. 1943)
 1888  Maurice Chevalier, French singer and actor (d. 1972)
 1889  Ugo Pasquale Mifsud, 3rd Prime Minister of Malta (d. 1942)
 1891  Don Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate for Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965)
 1891  Fred Kelly, American athlete (d. 1974)
 1891  Arthur Hays Sulzberger, American publisher (d. 1968)
 1892  Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher (d. 1984)
 1894  Friedrich Ebert, Jr., German politician (d. 1979)
 1894  Billy Gilbert, American actor and composer (d. 1971)
 1897  Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1956)
 1898  Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer (d. 1963)

1901  1950 
 1901  Ben Blue, Canadian actor and comedian (d. 1975)
 1901  Shmuel Horowitz, Russian-Israeli agronomist (d. 1999)
 1902  Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
 1904  Gavriil Popov, Russian composer (d. 1972)
 1904  Istvan Horthy, Hungarian admiral (d. 1942)
 1907  Roger Bonvin, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1982)
 1912  Frances Lennon, English artist (d. 2015)
 1913  Jesse Owens, American athlete, four-time Olympic champion (d. 1980)
 1913  Eiji Toyoda, Japanese industrialist (d. 2013)
 1914  Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (d. 1999)
 1915  Frank McGee, American journalist (d. 1974)
 1916  Tony Bettenhausen, American race car driver (d. 1961)
 1921  Stanislaw Lem, Polish writer (d. 2006)
 1922  Antonio Cafiero, Argentine politician (d. 2014)
 1924  Amilcar Cabral, Cape Verdean-Guinea-Bissauan politician (d. 1973)
 1925  Stan Lopata, American baseball player (d. 2013)
 1925  Dickie Moore, American actor (d. 2015)
 1927  Mathé Altéry, French soprano and actress
 1928  Ernie Vandeweghe, American basketball player (d. 2014)
 1930  Gunder Gundersen, Norwegian skier (d. 2005)
 1930  Akira Suzuki, Japanese chemist
 1931  Sir Ian Holm, English actor
 1931  George Jones, American singer (d. 2013)
 1931  Adrian Rogers, American religious leader (d. 2005)
 1932  Atli Dam, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 2005)
 1933  Tatiana Doronina, Russian actress
 1934  Jaegwon Kim, Korean-American philosopher
 1934  Glenn Davis, American athlete (d. 2009)
 1937  George Chuvalo, Canadian boxer
 1938  Claude Ruel, French-Canadian ice hockey coach (d. 2015)
 1939  Nobuyuki Oishi, Japanese footballer
 1939  Henry Waxman, United States Congressman
 1940  Joachim Frank, German-American biophysicist, joint 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
 1940  Mickey Lolich, American baseball player
 1940  Linda Gray, American actress
 1943  Maria Muldaur, American singer
 1943  Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lankan-born writer
 1944  Leonard Peltier, Native American activist
 1944  Yoshio Kikugawa, Japanese footballer
 1944  Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)
 1944  Vladimir Spivakov, Russian violinist and conductor
 1944  Colin Young, American singer
 1949  Irina Rodnina, Russian figure skater
 1949  Charles Burlingame, American pilot (d. 2001)

1951  1975 
 1951  Joe Pantoliano, American actor
 1951  Bertie Ahern, Irish politician and former Taoiseach
 1951  Ali-Ollie Woodson, American singer and musician (d. 2010)
 1952  Neil Peart, Canadian musician and writer (Rush) (d. 2020)
 1952  Gerry Beckley, American musician
 1953  Fiona Mactaggart, Scottish politician
 1954  Peter Scolari, American actor
 1956  Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong singer (d. 2003)
 1956  Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
 1956  Sam Brownback, American politician, 46th Governor of Kansas
 1956  Brian Robertson, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1957  Hans Zimmer, German composer
 1957  Rachel Ward, English actress
 1958  Wilfredo Benitez, American boxer
 1959  Sigmar Gabriel, German politician
 1959  Scott Brown, United States Senator
 1959  Hisashi Kaneko, Japanese footballer
 1960  Stefanos Korkolis, Greek songwriter and pianist
 1961  Mylène Farmer, French singer-songwriter
 1962  Amy Yasbeck, American actress
 1964  Dieter Hecking, German footballer
 1966  Ben Folds, American musician
 1966  Vezio Sacratini, Italian ice hockey player
 1967  Mirko Slomka, German footballer and manager
 1967  Pat Listach, American baseball player
 1968  Paul F. Tompkins, American comedian, actor and screenwriter
 1969  Mika Myllyla, Finnish cross-country skier (d. 2011)
 1969  Angel Cabrera, Argentine golfer
 1969  Shigeki Maruyama, Japanese golfer
 1971  Chandra Sturrup, Bahamanian athlete
 1973  Darren Campbell, British athlete
 1973  Martin Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey player
 1973  Paul Walker, American actor (d. 2013)
 1974  Caroline Aigle, French pilot (d. 2007)
 1974  Nuno Valente, Portuguese footballer

From 1976 
 1976  Maciej Zurawski, Polish footballer
 1976  2 Chainz, American rapper
 1976  Lauren Stamile, American actress
 1977  Nathan Bracken, Australian cricketer
 1977  James McCartney, British musician
 1978  Ruben Studdard, American singer
 1980  Sean Burroughs, American baseball player
 1980  Josef Vasicek, Czech ice hockey player (d. 2011)
 1980  Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player
 1981  Jennifer Hudson, American singer and actress
 1983  Sergio Parisse, Argentine-born Italian rugby player
 1984  September, Swedish singer
 1985  Hiroki Mizumoto, Japanese footballer
 1986  Yuto Nagatomo, Japanese footballer
 1986  Joanne Jackson, British swimmer
 1986  Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer
 1987  Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstani tennis player
 1988  Amanda Jenssen, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1989  Freddie Freeman, American baseball player
 1992  Sviatlana Pirazhenka, Belarussian tennis player
 1993  Kelsea Ballerini, American singer
 1994  Elina Svitolina, Ukrainian tennis player
 1994  Mhairi Black, Scottish politician
 1996  Colin Ford, American actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 640  Sak K'uk', Maya Queen of Palenque
 1185  Andronikos I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1118)
 1213  Peter II of Aragon (b. 1174)
 1348  Joan the Lame, Queen of France (b. 1293)
 1362  Pope Innocent VI (b. 1295)
 1369  Blanche of Lancaster (b. 1345)
 1500  Albert III, Duke of Saxony (b. 1443)
 1612  Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (b. 1552)
 1660  Jacob Cats, Dutch poet, jurist and politician (b. 1577)
 1683  King Afonso VI of Portugal (b. 1643)
 1691  John George III, Elector of Saxony (b. 1647)
 1764  Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (b. 1683)
 1829  Juan Ignacio Molina, Chilean naturalist (b. 1740)
 1870  Fitz Hugh Ludlow, American writer (b. 1836)
 1874  François Guizot, 22nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1787)
 1885  Ranbir Singh, 2nd Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir (b. 1830)

1901  2000 
 1903  Duncan Gillies, Australian politician, 14th Premier of Victoria (b. 1834)
 1907  Ilia Chavchavadze, Georgian poet, journalist and lawyer (b. 1837)
 1918  George Reid, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
 1919  Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (b. 1871)
 1929  Rainis, Latvian poet, playwright and politician (b. 1865)
 1938  Prince Arthur of Connaught (b. 1883)
 1945  Hajime Sugiyama, Japanese general (b. 1880)
 1956  Hans Carossa, German writer (b. 1878)
 1956  Sandor Festetics, Hungarian politician (b. 1882)
 1960  Dino Borgioli, Italian tenor (b. 1891)
 1977  Steve Biko, South African anti-Apartheid activist (b. 1946)
 1977  Robert Lowell, American poet (b. 1917)
 1981  Eugenio Montale, Italian poet (b. 1896)
 1982  Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer (b. 1891)
 1986  Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer (b. 1894)
 1992  Anthony Perkins, American actor (b. 1932)
 1993  Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (b. 1917)
 1994  Boris Yegorov, Russian physician and cosmonaut (b. 1937)
 1995  Jeremy Brett, English actor (b. 1933)
 1995  Yasutomo Nagai, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1965)
 1996  Ernesto Geisel, President of Brazil (b. 1907)
 2000  Gary Olsen, English actor (b. 1957)

From 2001 
 2001  Victor Wong, Chinese-American actor (b. 1927)
 2003  Johnny Cash, American country music singer (b. 1932)
 2004  Max Abramowitz, American architect (b. 1908)
 2008  David Foster Wallace, American writer (b. 1962)
 2009  Norman Borlaug, American agronomist (b. 1914)
 2009  Jack Kramer, American tennis player (b. 1921)
 2009  Willy Ronis, French photographer (b. 1910)
 2010  Claude Chabrol, French movie director (b. 1930)
 2011  Alexander Galimov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1985)
 2012  Sid Watkins, British neurosurgeon (b. 1928)
 2012  Derek Jameson, British tabloid journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
 2013  Erich Loest, German writer (b. 1926)
 2013  Otto Sander, German actor (b. 1941)
 2013  Ray Dolby, American engineer and inventor (b. 1933)
 2014  Atef Ebeid, Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1932)
 2014  Ian Paisley, Northern Irish religious and political leader (b. 1926)
 2014  John Bardon, English actor (b. 1939)
 2014  Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (b. 1939)
 2014  Antony Kidman, Australian psychologist, biochemist and writer (b. 1938)
 2015  Adrian Frutiger, Swiss typeface designer (b. 1928)
 2016  Gunilla Bernadotte, Swedish duchess (b. 1923)
 2016  Ellen Burka, Canadian-Dutch figure skater (b. 1921)
 2016  Stanley Steinbaum, American activist (b. 1920)
 2017  Heiner Geissler, German politician (b. 1930)
 2017  Alex Hawkins, American football player (b. 1937)
 2017  Siegfried Köhler, German conductor (b. 1923)
 2017  Allan MacEachen, Canadian politician (b. 1921)
 2017  Edith Windsor, American LGBT rights activist and technological manager at IBM (b. 1929)
 2018  Henry Kalis, American politician (b. 1937)
 2018  Hans Kloss, German artist and graphic designer (b. 1938)
 2018  Walter Mischel, Austrian-American psychologist (b. 1930)
 2018  Billy O'Dell, American baseball player (b. 1933)
 2018  Shen Chun-shan, Taiwanese physicist and academic (b. 1932)
 2018  Rachid Taha, Algerian singer, songwriter and activist (b. 1958)

Observances 
 National Day of Cape Verde
 Ethiopian New Year
 Day of Conception (Russia)
 Defenders Day (Maryland)

Days of the year