May 12

Events
Up to 1900
254 - Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I, becoming the 23rd Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
304 - Roman Emperor Diocletian orders the beheading of the 14-year-old Pancras of Rome.
907 - China: Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating (giving up) the throne, ending Tang Dynasty rule after almost 300 years.
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.
1743 - Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia.
1780 - American Revolutionary War: Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.
1797 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice.
1821 - in Valtetsi, the first major battle of the Greek War of Independence is fought against the Turks.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch - The Confederacy wins the last major land battle of the war, despite being on the losing side in the war as a whole.
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.
1901 2000
1925 - Paul von Hindenburg becomes President of Germany.
1926 - UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends.
1926 - Italian airship Norge flies over the North Pole, as the first aircraft to do so.
1931 - The body of geologist Alfred Wegener is found in Greenland, more than six months after he went missing.
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.
1941 - Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first programmable, fully automatic, computer in Berlin.
1942 - World War II: US tanker Virginia is torpedoed at the mouth of the Mississippi River by German U-boat U-507.
1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle, the Soviets capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
1943 - In Hunan, China, Japanese Imperial Army officers commit the massacre of Chiangjiang, killing 30,000 civilians.
1948 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands announces that she is to abdicate the throne in September, when her daughter becomes Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.
1949 - Western occupying powers approve the basic law for the new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.
1949 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
1955 - Austria regains its independence after Allied occupation.
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 St., often considered their best album.
1975 - Mayaguez 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.
1990 - As the previous claim of Shigechiyo Izumi is no longer considered, Jeanne Calment is already considered to have become the oldest-recorded human ever on this date, more than five years earlier than previously thought.
1998 - Four students are shot at Trisakti University in Indonesia, leading to widespread riots and the resignation, on May 21, of President Suharto, who had ruled the country for over 30 years.
1999 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
2000 - The Tate Modern art gallery opens in London.
From 2001
2001 - In Copenhagen, Denmark, Tanel Padar & Dave Benton win the forty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Estonia singing "Everybody".
2002 - Former US 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.
2003 - International Development Secretary Clare Short resigns from the British government over the Iraq War.
2003 - The Riyadh compound bombings are carried out by Al-Qaeda. 26 people are killed.
2006 - Mass unrest in the Primeiro Comando de Capital begins in Sao Paulo, Brazil, leaving at least 150 people dead.
2007 - Riots in Karachi, Pakistan, kill at least 50 people.
2007 - Marija Serifovic wins the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest for Serbia in Helsinki, Finland.
2008 - A major earthquake occurs in China's Sichuan province, killing thousands of people.
2010 - An Afriqiyah Airlines plane crashes in Tripoli, Libya. 103 are killed, and only one survives.
2010 - The Unity Bridge over the Rovuma River, linking Tanzania and Mozambique, opens.
2015 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits Nepal, two weeks after one of slightly higher magnitude had killed over 8,000 people. Casualties are reported in Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh.
2017 - The WannaCry ransomware cyber attack affects computer systems around the world.
2018 - Israel's Netta Barzilai wins the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal; United Kingdom entrant SuRie was interrupted by a stage invasion during her performance.
2019 - Liverpool F.C. set a record points total for a second-placed team in the English Premier League, as their 97 points amount to one less than the 98 points of champions Manchester City F.C..
Births
Up to 1900
1401 - Emperor Shoko of Japan (d. 1428)
1496 - King Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1560)
1590 - Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1621)
1622 - Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor-General of New France (d. 1698)
1626 - Louis Hennepin, Flemish priest and missionary (d. 1705)
1670 - Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland (d. 1733)
1700 - Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian engineer and architect (d. 1773)
1725 - Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orleans (d. 1785)
1754 - Franz Anton Hoffmeister, German composer and publisher (d. 1812)
1755 - Giovanni Battista Viotti, Italian violinist (d. 1824)
1767 - Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (d. 1851)
1794 - George Cathcart, British general (d. 1854)
1803 - Justus Liebig, German chemist (d. 1873)
1804 - Robert Baldwin, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1858)
1806 - Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish statesman (d. 1881)
1809 - Robert Charles Winthrop, American politician (d. 1894)
1812 - Edward Lear, English writer, artist and poet (d. 1888)
1814 - Adolf von Henselt, German composer and pianist (d. 1889)
1820 - Florence Nightingale, British nurse (d. 1910)
1823 - John Russell Hind, British astronomer (d. 1895)
1823 - Frederik Vermehren, Danish painter (d. 1910)
1825 - Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, French lawyer and explorer (d. 1878)
1828 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, British painter (d. 1882)
1829 - Pavlos Carrer, Greek composer (d. 1896)
1840 - Alejandro Gorostiaga, Chilean military officer (d. 1912)
1842 - Jules Massenet, French composer (d. 1912)
1845 - Gabriel Faure, French composer (d. 1924)
1850 - Henry Cabot Lodge, American statesman (d. 1924)
1851 - Joseph Toole, Governor of Montana (d. 1929)
1867 - Frank Brangwyn, British artist (d. 1956)
1872 - Anton Korosic, Slovenian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (d. 1940)
1875 - Charles Holden, English architect (d. 1960)
1880 - Lincoln Ellsworth, American polar explorer and pilot (d. 1951)
1885 - Mario Sironi, Italian painter (d. 1961)
1886 - Ernst A. Lehmann, German captain (d. 1937)
1889 - Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
1889 - Abelardo L. Rodriguez, President of Mexico (d. 1967)
1892 - William Preston Lane, Jr., Governor of Maryland (d. 1967)
1895 - Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher, writer and spiritual teacher (d. 1986)
1895 - William Giauque, American chemist (d. 1982)
1899 - Indra Devi, Latvian-born Yoga teacher (d. 2002)
1900 - Helene Weigel, Austrian-German actress (d. 1971)
1901 1950
1903 - Lennox Berkeley, English composer (d. 1989)
1907 - Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)
1908 - Alejandro Scopelli, Argentine-born Italian footballer (d. 1987)
1910 - Johan Ferrier, first President of Suriname (d. 2010)
1910 - Dorothy Hodgkin, British biochemist (d. 1994)
1910 - Giulietta Simionato, Italian opera singer (d. 2010)
1913 - Igor Bondarevsky, Russian chess player (d. 1979)
1915 - Frere Roger, Swiss religious leader (d. 2005)
1918 - Mary Kay Ash, American businesswoman (d. 2001)
1918 - Julius Rosenberg, American, convicted of spying for the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
1920 - Vilem Flusser, Czech-Brazilian philosopher, writer and journalist (d. 1991)
1921 - Joseph Beuys, German artist (d. 1986)
1921 - Farley Mowat, Canadian environmentalist and author (d. 2014)
1921 - Giovanni Benelli, Italian cardinal (d. 1982)
1922 - Roy Salvadori, English racing driver (d. 2012)
1922 - Murray Gershenz, American actor (d. 2013)
1922 - Marco Denevi, Argentine writer (d. 1998)
1924 - Tony Hancock, British comedian (d. 1968)
1924 - Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Russian-American mathematician (d. 2016)
1925 - Yogi Berra, American baseball player and manager (d. 2015)
1926 - James Samuel Coleman, American sociologist (d. 1995)
1926 - Viren J. Shah, Indian politician, 21st Governor of West Bengal (d. 2013)
1928 - Burt Bacharach, American pianist and composer
1929 - Sam Nujoma, first, and former, President of Namibia
1929 - Dollard St. Laurent, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
1929 - Agnes Heller, Hungarian philosopher
1930 - Jesus Franco, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1930 - Manuel Marulanda, Colombian guerrilla (d. 2008)
1932 - Derek Malcolm, British movie critic and historian
1933 - Andrey Voznesensky, Russian poet (d. 2010)
1935 - Hoss Ellington, American NASCAR driver (d. 2014)
1935 - Gary Peacock, American jazz musician
1935 - Johnny Bucyk, Canadian ice hockey player
1936 - Frank Stella, American painter and sculptor
1936 - Tom Snyder, American television personality (d. 2007)
1936 - Guillermo Endara, President of Panama (d. 2009)
1937 - George Carlin, American stand-up comedian (d. 2008)
1937 - Beryl Burton, English cyclist (d. 1996)
1937 - Miriam Stoppard, English doctor, author and broadcaster
1938 - Andrei Amalrik, Russian historian, publicist, writer and dissident (d. 1980)
1939 - Reg Gasnier, Australian rugby league player (d. 2014)
1939 - Ron Ziegler, American White House Press Secretary (d. 2003)
1939 - Jalal Dabagh, Kurdish politician, writer and journalist
1942 - Ian Dury, British singer (d. 2000)
1944 - Chris Patten, British politician, last British Governor of Hong Kong
1945 - Alan Ball, Jr., English footballer (d. 2007)
1945 - Ian McLagan, English-American singer-songwriter and keyboardist (d. 2014)
1946 - Gareth Evans, British philosopher
1947 - Michael Ignatieff, Canadian politician
1948 - John Blackley, Scottish footballer
1948 - Ivan Kral, Czech-American musician
1948 - Steve Winwood, British musician
1948 - David Heineman, American politician, 39th Governor of Nebraska
1948 - Joe Tasker, English mountaineer (d. 1982)
1950 - Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor
1950 - Helena Kennedy, English judge and politician
1950 - Jenni Murray, English journalist and broadcaster
1950 - Renate Stecher, German athlete
1951 1975
1954 - Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Icelandic movie director
1958 - Eric Singer, American musician (KISS)
1961 - Jennifer Armstrong, American author
1961 - Billy Duffy, English guitarist and songwriter
1962 - Emilio Estevez, American actor
1962 - Brett Gurewitz, American guitarist and songwriter
1962 - April Grace, American actress
1963 - Stefano Modena, Italian racing driver
1963 - Panagiotis Fasoulas, Greek basketball player and politician
1963 - Gavin Hood, South African actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1966 - Stephen Baldwin, American actor
1966 - Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian singer
1967 - Paul D'Amour, American singer and musician
1967 - Bill Shorten, Australian politician
1968 - Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
1968 - Catherine Tate, British comedienne
1969 - Kevin Nalty, American comedian and blogger
1970 - Mark Foster, British swimmer
1970 - Samantha Mathis, American actress
1974 - Marc Capdevila, Spanish swimmer
1974 - Taraneh Javanbakht, Iranian poet, writer, artist, scientist and activist
1975 - Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2015)
From 1976
1977 - Graeme Dott, Scottish snooker player
1978 - Aya Ishiguro, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
1978 - Jason Biggs, American actor
1978 - Josh Phelps, American baseball player
1980 - Felipe Lopez, Puerto Rican baseball player
1981 - Kentaro Sato, Japanese-American composer and conductor
1981 - Rami Malek, American actor
1981 - Lorena Bernal, Argentine-Spanish model and actress
1983 - Charilaos Pappas, Greek footballer
1983 - Alina Kabayeva, Russian gymnast
1983 - Yujiro Kushida, Japanese professional wrestler
1983 - Francisco Javier Torres, Mexican footballer
1984 - Tommaso Reato, Italian rugby player
1984 - Justin Williams, American basketball player
1985 - Andrew Howe, Italian athlete
1986 - Jonathan Orozco, Mexican footballer
1986 - Emily VanCamp, Canadian actress
1987 - Robbie Rogers, American soccer player
1988 - Marcelo Vieira, Brazilian footballer
1992 - Erik Durm, German footballer
1992 - Malcolm David Kelley, American actor
1995 - Luke Benward, American actor
1995 - Sawyer Sweeten, American actor (d. 2015)
1995 - Sullivan Sweeten, American actor
2003 - Madeleine McCann, missing since 2007
Deaths
Up to 1900
1003 - Pope Silvester II
1012 - Pope Sergius IV
1182 - Valdemar I of Denmark (b. 1131)
1382 - Queen Joan I of Naples (b. 1327)
1465 - Thomas Palaeologus, titular Byzantine Emperor (b. 1409)
1641 - Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (b. 1593)
1684 - Edme Mariotte (b. 1620), French physicist and priest
1700 - John Dryden, English writer (b. 1631)
1708 - Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1658)
1784 - Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist (b. 1710)
1796 - Johann Peter Uz, German poet (b. 1720)
1845 - Janos Bacsanyi, Hungarian poet (b. 1763)
1856 - Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician, physicist and astronomer (b. 1786)
1859 - Sergei Aksakov, Russian writer (b. 1791)
1860 - Charles Barry, English architect (b. 1795)
1864 - J.E.B. Stuart, American general (b. 1833)
1867 - Friedrich William Eduard Gerhard, German archaeologist (b. 1795)
1876 - Georgi Benkovski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1843)
1884 - Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)
1889 - John Cadbury, English chocolate entrepreneur (b. 1801)
1890 - Frances Parthenope Vernay, sister of Florence Nightingale (b. 1819)
1901 2000
1907 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, French writer (b. 1848)
1913 - Enriqueta Marti, Spanish serial killer and kidnapper of children (b. 1868)
1916 - James Connolly, Irish socialist and Easter Rising leader (b. 1868)
1925 - Amy Lowell, poet (b. 1874)
1935 - Jozef Pilsudski, Polish statesman (b. 1867)
1944 - Max Brand, writer (b. 1892)
1944 - Q, British writer (b. 1863)
1956 - Louis Calhern, movie actor (b. 1895)
1957 - Erich von Stroheim, movie director and actor (b. 1885)
1957 - Alfonso de Portago, Spanish bobsledder and racing driver (b. 1928)
1963 - Bobby Kerr, Canadian runner (b. 1882)
1966 - Felix Martin Julius Steiner, German SS officer (b. 1896)
1967 - John Masefield, British writer (b. 1878)
1970 - Nelly Sachs, German writer (b. 1891)
1971 - Heinie Manush, American Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1901)
1973 - Frances Marion, American screenwriter and director (b. 1888)
1978 - Robert Coogan, American actor (b. 1924)
1985 - Jean Dubuffet, painter (b. 1901)
1986 - Elisabeth Bergner, actress (b. 1897)
1986 - Alicia Moreau de Justo, Argentine physician, politician, pacifist and activist (b. 1885)
1992 - Robert Reed, actor (b. 1932)
1994 - John Smith, British politician (b. 1938)
1994 - Erik Erikson, German psychoanalyst (b. 1902)
1995 - Mia Martini, Italian singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1942)
2000 - Adam Petty, race car driver (b. 1980)
From 2001
2001 - Perry Como, singer (b. 1912)
2001 - Alexei Tupolev, Russian aircraft designer (b. 1925)
2002 - Joseph Bonanno, Italian-American gangster (b. 1905)
2003 - Sadruddin Aga Khan, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1965 - 1977
2005 - Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (b. 1937)
2006 - Hussein Maziq, Prime Minister of Libya (b. 1918)
2008 - Irena Sendler, Polish humanitarian (b. 1910)
2008 - Robert Rauschenberg, American painter (b. 1925)
2009 - Antonio Vega, Spanish singer (b. 1957)
2013 - Gerd Langguth, German professor of political science (b. 1946)
2013 - Constantino Romero, Spanish actor (b. 1947)
2014 - Jacinto Convit, Venezuelan doctor and scientist (b. 1913)
2014 - H. R. Giger, Swiss artist (b. 1940)
2014 - Sarat Pujari, Indian actor, director and movie producer (b. 1934)
2014 - Lorenzo Zambrano, Spanish businessman, CEO of CEMEX (b. 1944)
2014 - Marco Ce, Italian cardinal (b. 1925)
2014 - Cornell Borchers, Lithuanian-German actress (b. 1925)
2014 - Nash the Slash, Canadian musician (b. 1948)
2015 - Peter Gay, German-American psychohistorian (b. 1923)
2015 - Suchitra Bhattacharya, Indian novelist (b. 1950)
2015 - William Zinsser, American writer (b. 1922)
2015 - William MacDonald, English-Australian serial killer (b. 1924)
2016 - Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (b. 1924)
2016 - Susannah Mushatt Jones, American supercentenarian (b. 1899)
2016 - Mike Agostini, Trinidadian sprinter (b. 1935)
2016 - Julius La Rosa, American pop singer (b. 1930)
2016 - Del Latta, American politician (b. 1920)
2016 - Yukio Ninagawa, Japanese film and theatre director (b. 1935)
2016 - Georges Sesia, French footballer (b. 1924)
2017 - Antonio Candido, Brazilian literary critic and sociologist (b. 1918)
2017 - Mauno Koivisto, 10th President of Finland (b. 1923)
2017 - Yale Lary, American football player, businessman and politician (b. 1930)
2017 - Henri Termeer, Dutch-American biotechnology expert (b. 1946)
2017 - Yu So-chow, Chinese actress (b. 1930)
2017 - Amotz Zahavi, Israeli evolutionary biologist (b. 1928)
2018 - Will Alsop, English architect (b. 1947)
2018 - Tessa Jowell, English politician (b. 1947)
2018 - Antonio Mercero, Spanish film and television director (b. 1936)
2018 - Dennis Nilsen, Scottish serial killer (b. 1945)
2018 - Kevin Tierney, Irish-Canadian film producer (b. 1950)
2018 - Donald Gary Young, American business executive (b. 1950)
2018 - Chuck Knox, American football coach (b. 1932)
2019 - Hector Enrique Olivares, Argentine politician (b. 1958)
2019 - Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Lebanese Maronite cardinal (b. 1920)
2019 - Alan Skirton, English footballer (b. 1939)
2019 - Hiralal Yadav, Indian folk singer (b. 1925)
Observances
International Nurses' Day, in honour of Florence Nightingale
Johan Vilhelm Snellman Day (Finland)
Days of the year