July 12

Events
Up to 1900
927 - Aethelstan, King of England, secures a pledge from Constantine II of Scotland that he (Constantine) will not ally with Viking Kings, beginning the process of unifying Great Britain.
1191 - Third Crusade: Saladin's garrison surrenders to Philip Augustus, ending the two-year siege of Acre.
1470 - The Ottoman Empire capture Euboea.
1493 - Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the best-documented early printed books, is published.
1543 - King Henry VIII of England married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr at Hampton Court Palace.
1561 - Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral is consecrated.
1562 - Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya.
1573 - Spanish forces under the Duke of Alva capture Haarlem after a seven-month siege.
1580 - The Ostrog Bible is published. It is one of the early printed Bibles in a Slavic language.
1690 - Williamite War in Ireland: Battle of the Boyne (Gregorian calendar) - The army of William III of England defeats that of the deposed King James VII of Scotland and II of England.
1691 - Williamite War in Ireland: Battle of Aughrim (Julian calendar) - The decisive victory of William III's forces in Ireland.
1730 - Lorenzo Corsini, in old age and almost blind, becomes Pope Clement XII.
1759 - Seven Years' War - French and Indian War: British cannon start firing on French at Quebec City, from Levis, Quebec.
1776 - James Cook begins his voyage.
1801 - French Revolutionary Wars: British Royal Navy ships inflict heavy damage against Spanish and French ships in the Second Battle of Algeciras.
1806 - Sixteen German imperial states leave the Holy Roman Empire and formed the Confederation of the Rhine. On the same day, Liechtenstein is granted full sovereignty.
1812 - War of 1812: The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario.
1862 - Medal of Honor authorized by the United States Congress.
1879 - The National Guards Unit of Bulgaria is founded.
1892 - A hidden lake bursts out of a glacier on the side of Mont Blanc, flooding the valley below and killing around 200 villagers and holidaymakers in Saint Gervais.
1901 2000
1906 - French military officer Alfred Dreyfus is rehabilitated after his wrongful conviction in the so-called Dreyfus Trial over 12 years earlier.
1913 - Second Balkan War: Serbian forces begin their siege of the Bulgarian city of Vidin.
1917 - World War I: German troops first use mustard gas.
1917 - Bisbee Deportation: Vigilantes kidnap and deport near 1,300 striking miners and others from Bisbee, Arizona.
1918 - Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachiblows up at Shunan, Western Honshu, killing 621 people.
1920 - In the Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty, Soviet Russia recognizes Lithuanian independence.
1924 - The marathon at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris is run in the heat of 45 degrees Celsius. Only 15 out of 38 runners reach the finish line. Paavo Nurmi of Finland finishes first.
1932 - Lambeth Bridge, London, opened by King George V of the United Kingdom
1932 - Hedley Verity establishes a first-class record by taking all ten wickets for only ten runs against Nottinghamshire on a pitch affected by a storm.
1933 - Congress passes the first federal minimum wage law in the United States: 33 cents per hour.
1943 - World War II: Battle of Kursk - German and Soviet forces engage in largest tank engagement of all time.
1950 - Rene Pleven becomes Prime Minister of France.
1960 - Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, is founded.
1961 - Due to heavy rain, two reservoirs in the Indian state of Maharashtra break, causing heavy flooding in the city of Pune, killing 1,000 to 2,000 people.
1962 - The Rolling Stones perform their first concert at the Marquee Club in London.
1967 - Four days of race riots begin in Newark, New Jersey that will claim the lives of 27 people.
1970 - Fire destroys the wooden home of Norwegian composer Geir Tveitt. 90 percent of his output is destroyed.
1971 - The Australian Aboriginal Flag is flown for the first time.
1973 - The 1973 National Archives Fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center.
1975 - Sao Tome and Principe declare independence.
1979 - The island nation of Kiribati declares independence.
1979 - Reinhold Messner and Michael Dacher climb to the top of K2 without oxygen supplies.
1979 - Disco Demolition Night held at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois
1993 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off the shore of Hokkaido, Japan launches a devastating tsunami, killing 202 on the small island of Okushiri.
1998 - KDE 1.0 released.
1998 - 1998 FIFA World Cup: The France national football team beats the Brazil national football team 3-0, to win the FIFA World Cup for the first time, and in front of their home support. Before the final, there had been controversy over whether Brazil's Ronaldo would play in the game.
From 2001
2002 - Gay rights: The Superior Court of Ontario orders Ontario to recognize same-sex marriages.
2004 - An earthquake strikes in Posocje, Slovenia, with 2 dead, and measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale.
2004 - Pedro Santana Lopes is officially appointed Prime Minister of Portugal.
2005 - Prince Albert II is enthroned as ruler of the Principality of Monaco.
2006 - War erupts between Israel and Lebanon.
2012 - A tank truck explosion in Okogie, Nigeria, kills over 100 people.
2013 - Malala Yousafzai speaks at the UN Headquarters on her 16th birthday, in support of education for all.
2013 - A train crash near Paris kills 6 people.
2014 - 2014 FIFA World Cup: After being humiliated a few days earlier (7-1) by the Germany national football team in the Semi-Final, the Brazil national football team, hosting the tournament, also loses the Third-Place play-off against the Netherlands national football team, 3-0.
2016 - A train collision in Apulia, South-eastern Italy, kills 27 people.
2017 - A massive iceberg, 5,800 square kilometres (2,200 square miles) large, breaks away from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica.
2017 - Malta's parliament votes to legalise same-sex marriage.
2018 - US President Donald Trump starts a four-day visit to the United Kingdom.
2019 - Asasey hotel attack: Gunmen storm the Asasey hotel in Kismayo, Somalia, killing 26 people.
Births
Up to 1850
100 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman soldier and politician (d. 44 BC)
1394 - Ashikaga Yoshinori, Japanese shogun (d. 1441)
1468 - Juan del Encina, poet and composer
1596 - Tsar Michael I of Russia (d. 1645)
1607 - Jean Petitot, Swiss painter (d. 1691)
1675 - Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1742)
1730 - Josiah Wedgwood, English potter (d. 1795)
1784 - Juan Mora Fernandez, Costa Rican Head of State (d. 1854)
1803 - Peter Chanel, French priest and saint (d. 1841)
1807 - Thomas Hawksley, English civil engineer (d. 1893)
1813 - Claude Bernard, French physiologist (d. 1878)
1817 - Henry David Thoreau, American writer and philosopher (d. 1862)
1819 - Charles Kingsley, English writer (d. 1875)
1824 - Eugene Boudin, French painter (d. 1898)
1828 - Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher (d. 1889)
1849 - Sir William Osler, Canadian physician, writer, professor of medicine (d. 1919)
1850 - Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (d. 1912)
1851 1900
1852 - Hipolito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (d. 1933)
1854 - George Eastman, American inventor (d. 1932)
1854 - Juan Gualberto Gomez, Cuban revolutionary leader (d. 1933)
1855 - Edward 'Ned' Hanlan, rower (d. 1908)
1861 - Anton Arensky, Russian composer, pianist and educator (d. 1906)
1863 - Albert Calmette, French physician (d. 1933)
1863 - Paul Drude, German physicist (d. 1906)
1864 - George Washington Carver, American botanist (d. 1943)
1868 - Stefan George, German poet (d. 1933)
1870 - Louis II of Monaco (d. 1949)
1876 - Max Jacob, French poet (d. 1944)
1880 - Tod Browning, American movie director (d. 1962)
1884 - Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1920)
1886 - Jean Hersholt, Danish movie director and actor (d. 1956)
1892 - Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (d. 1942)
1892 - Harry Piel, actor, movie director, and producer (d. 1963)
1895 - Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (d. 1962)
1895 - R. Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)
1895 - Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (d. 1960)
1901 1950
1902 - Gunther Anders, philosopher and writer (d. 1992)
1904 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize recipient (d. 1973)
1905 - Prince John of the United Kingdom (d. 1919)
1906 - Pietro Tordi, Italian actor (d. 1990)
1908 - Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
1909 - Joe DeRita, American actor and comedian (d. 1993)
1909 - Fritz Leonhardt, German engineer (d. 1999)
1913 - Willis Lamb, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
1916 - Robert E. Gilka, American photojournalist (d. 2013)
1917 - Andrew Wyeth, American artist (d. 2009)
1920 - Beah Richards, American actress (d. 2000)
1920 - Pierre Berton, Canadian journalist and writer (d. 2004)
1922 - Mark Hatfield, U.S. Senator and Governor from Oregon (d. 2011)
1922 - Michael Ventris, English architect and philologist (d. 1956)
1923 - Rene Favaloro, Argentine heart surgeon (d. 2000)
1923 - Jonas Gomez Gallo, Chilean businessman and politician (d. 2019)
1925 - Roger B. Smith, American automobile executive
1926 - Carl Adam Petri, German mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2010)
1927 - Conte Candoli, American trumpeter (d. 2001)
1928 - Jo Myong-rok, North Korean politician (d. 2010)
1928 - Elias James Corey, American chemist
1928 - Kathy Staff, English actress (d. 2008)
1930 - Gordon Pinsent, Canadian actor, director, and writer
1932 - Otis Davis, American runner
1932 - Monte Hellman, American movie director, producer and editor
1932 - Eddy Wally, Belgian singer (d. 2016)
1933 - Brian Cant, English actor, presenter and writer (d. 2017)
1933 - Donald E. Westlake, American writer (d. 2008)
1934 - Van Cliburn, American pianist (d. 2013)
1935 - Roy Barraclough, English actor (d. 2017)
1935 - Hans Tilkowski, German footballer
1937 - Bill Cosby, American comedian and actor
1937 - Lionel Jospin, former Prime Minister of France
1937 - Michel Louvin, Canadian singer
1938 - Jaishankar, Indian actor (d. 2000)
1943 - Paul Silas, American basketball player and coach
1943 - Christine McVie, singer, musician, and songwriter (Fleetwood Mac)
1944 - Delia Ephron, American author, screenwriter and playwright
1945 - Leopoldo Mastelloni, Italian actor
1946 - Valentina Tolkunova, Russian singer (d. 2010)
1946 - Gareth Edwards, Welsh rugby player
1947 - Wilko Johnson, English singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
1948 - Richard Simmons, American fitness trainer, actor, comedian, producer and writer
1948 - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sufi musician (d. 1997)
1948 - Jay Thomas, American actor (d. 2017)
1948 - Ben Burtt, American sound designer
1948 - Walter Egan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 - Eric Carr, American drummer (Kiss) (d. 1991)
1950 - Gilles Meloche, Canadian ice hockey player
1951 1975
1951 - Cheryl Ladd, American actress and singer
1952 - Voja Antonic, Serbian inventor and journalist
1952 - Irina Bokova, Bulgarian politician, Director-General of UNESCO
1952 - Philip Taylor Kramer, American bass player (Iron Butterfly) (d. 1995)
1952 - Liz Mitchell, Jamaican performer (Boney M)
1953 - John Ausonius, Swedish criminal
1954 - Wolfgang Dremmler, German footballer
1955 - Jimmy LaFave, American singer-songwriter and folk musician (d. 2017)
1956 - Mario Soto, Dominican baseball player
1957 - Dave Semenko, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2017)
1959 - King Tupou VI of Tonga
1959 - Charlie Murphy, American actor and writer (d. 2016)
1960 - Corynne Charby, French model, actress and singer
1961 - Masaaki Mori, Japanese footballer
1961 - Shiva Rajkumar, Indian actor, singer and producer
1962 - Luc De Vos, Belgian musician and writer (d. 2014)
1962 - Dean Wilkins, English footballer
1964 - Gaby Roslin, English television presenter
1966 - Annabel Croft, English tennis player
1966 - Tamsin Greig, English actress
1966 - Ana Torrent, Spanish actress
1967 - Richard Herring, English comedian
1967 - John Petrucci, American guitarist
1967 - Bruny Surin, Haitian-Canadian athlete
1969 - Jesse Pintado, American guitarist (d. 2006)
1969 - Chantal Jouanno, French politician
1971 - Kristi Yamaguchi, American figure skater
1972 - Travis Best, NBA player
1973 - Magoo, American rapper
1973 - Christian Vieri, Italian footballer
1974 - Stelios Giannakopoulos, Greek footballer
1974 - Sharon den Adel, Dutch singer and composer
1974 - Gregory Helms, American professional wrestler
1975 - Cheyenne Jackson, American actor and singer
1975 - Carolina Kasting, Brazilian actress
1975 - Anastassia Michaeli, Israeli journalist, television presenter and politician
From 1976
1976 - Anna Friel, English actress
1977 - Brock Lesnar, American professional wrestler
1978 - Topher Grace, American actor
1978 - Michelle Rodriguez, American actress
1980 - Tom Price, Welsh actor
1982 - Antonio Cassano, Italian footballer
1984 - Gareth Gates, English singer
1984 - Michael McGovern, Northern Irish footballer
1985 - Emil Hegle Svendsen, Norwegian biathlete
1985 - Paulo Vitor Barreto, Brazilian footballer
1986 - Simone Laudehr, German footballer
1986 - Didier Digard, French footballer
1986 - Krystal Forscutt, Australian model, actress and singer
1988 - Patrick Beverley, American basketball player
1989 - Nick Palmieri, American ice hockey player
1989 - Phoebe Tonkin, Australian actress and model
1991 - James Rodriguez, Colombian footballer
1991 - Erik Per Sullivan, American actor
1992 - Eoghan Quigg, Northern Irish singer
1995 - Luke Shaw, English footballer
1995 - Jordyn Wieber, American artistic gymnast
1996 - Jordan Romero, American mountain climber
1996 - Moussa Dembele, French footballer
1997 - Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for education
Deaths
Up to 1900
783 - Bertrada, wife of Pippin III (b. 720)
1441 - Ashikaga Yoshinori, Japanese shogun (b. 1394)
1536 - Erasmus, Dutch writer and philosopher (b. around 1466)
1645 - Tsar Michael I of Russia (b. 1596)
1664 - Stefano della Bella, Italian printmaker (b. 1610)
1682 - Jean Picard, French astronomer (b. 1620)
1712 - Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (b. 1626)
1742 - Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, Italian composer (b. 1675)
1773 - Johann Joachim Quantz, German flutist and composer (b. 1697)
1804 - Alexander Hamilton, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1755)
1838 - Ezra Butler, American politician, Governor of Vermont (b. 1763)
1845 - Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian writer (b. 1808)
1845 - Ludwig Persius, Prussian architect (b. 1803)
1855 - Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral (b. 1802)
1849 - Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (b. 1768)
1892 - Alexander Cartwright, American inventor of baseball (b. 1820)
1901 2000
1901 - Richard B. Hubbard, 17th Governor of Texas (b. 1832)
1910 - Charles Stewart Rolls, British engineer and aviator (b. 1887)
1918 - Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (b. 1864)
1923 - William P. Dillingham, Governor of Vermont (b. 1843)
1926 - Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator (b. 1868)
1931 - Nathan Soderblom, Swedish clergyman, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1866)
1934 - Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American inventor (b. 1877)
1935 - Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer (b. 1859)
1944 - Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., American general and politician (b. 1887)
1945 - Boris Galerkin, Russian mathematician and engineer (b. 1871)
1945 - Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, German field marshal (b. 1895)
1947 - Jimmie Lunceford, American saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1902)
1949 - Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)
1950 - Elsie De Wolfe, actress and interior decorator (b. 1865)
1960 - Buddy Adler, American movie producer (b. 1909)
1962 - Roger Wolfe Kahn, American band leader (b. 1907)
1969 - Henry George Lamond, Australian novelist (b. 1885)
1978 - Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere, English politician and media magnate (b. 1898)
1979 - Minnie Riperton, American singer (b. 1947)
1982 - Kenneth More, English actor (b. 1914)
1988 - Josh Logan, movie director and writer
1990 - Joao Saldanha, Brazilian footballer, manager and journalist (b. 1917)
1996 - John Chancellor, American television journalist (b. 1927)
1996 - Jonathan Melvoin, musician and keyboardist (The Smashing Pumpkins) (b. 1961)
1998 - Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (b. 1907)
1999 - Bill Owen, British actor (b. 1914)
1999 - Rajendra Kumar, Indian actor (b. 1929)
From 2001
2003 - Benny Carter, American musician (b. 1907)
2007 - Kesha Wizzart, British singer (b. 1988)
2008 - Tony Snow, American journalist (b. 1955)
2010 - Gunter Behnisch, German architect (b. 1922)
2010 - Harvey Pekar, American comic book writer and artist (b. 1939)
2011 - Sherwood Schwartz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1916)
2012 - Dara Singh, Indian wrestler and actor (b. 1928)
2013 - Pran, Indian actor (b. 1920)
2013 - Amar Bose, American sound engineer and entrepreneur (b. 1929)
2013 - Alan Whicker, English broadcaster (b. 1925)
2014 - Nestor Basterretxea, Basque artist (b. 1924)
2014 - Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Russian liberal politician (b. 1950)
2014 - Emil Bobu, Romanian politician (b. 1927)
2014 - Kenneth J. Gray, American politician (b. 1924)
2014 - Alberto Cassano, Argentine engineer and academic (b. 1935)
2015 - Chenjerai Hove, Zimbabwean writer (b. 1956)
2015 - Cheng Siwei, Chinese economist (b. 1935)
2015 - Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist monk (b. 1950)
2015 - Javier Krahe, Spanish singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
2016 - Zygmunt Zimowski, Polish Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1949)
2017 - Chuck Blazer, American soccer administrator (b. 1945)
2017 - Gerrit Braks, Dutch politician (b. 1933)
2017 - Sam Glanzman, American comic artist (b. 1924)
2017 - Tamara Miansarova, Russian pop singer (b. 1931)
2017 - Ray Phiri, South African jazz musician (b. 1947)
2017 - Tod Sloan, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1927)
2018 - Abbas Amir-Entezam, Iranian politician and political prisoner (b. 1932)
2018 - Alain Faure, French politician (b. 1962)
2018 - Roger Perry, American actor (b. 1933)
2018 - Dada Vaswani, Indian spiritual leader and writer (b. 1918)
2018 - Robert Wolders, Dutch actor (b. 1936)
2018 - Xerardo Fernandez Albor, Spanish politician, President of Galicia (b. 1917)
2019 - Fernando J. Corbato, American computer scientist (b. 1926)
2019 - Hodan Nalayeh, Somali-Canadian journalist (b. 1976)
2019 - Claudio Naranjo, Chilean psychiatrist (b. 1932)
2019 - M. J. Radhakrishnan, Indian cinematographer (b. 1957/1958)
2019 - Jean-Pierre Worms, French sociologist and politician (b. 1934)
Observances
Independence Day in Kiribati and Sao Tome and Principe
Second Day of Naadam (Mongolia)
The Twelfth, or Orangeman's Day, commemorating the Battle of the Boyne (Northern Ireland)
Days of the year