Wikipedia: March 12

March 12
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in Leap years). There are 294 days remaining.

Events

515 BC - Construction is completed on the Temple in Jerusalem.
1664 - New Jersey becomes a colony of Britain.
1894 - For the first time Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.
1912 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts in the US) are founded in the UK.
1913 - Canberra becomes the capital of Australia.
1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails killing 400.
1930 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march protest march to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt.
1933 - Great Depression: Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats."
1938 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
1940 - Winter War: Finland signs a harsh peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ceeding almost all of Karelia. Finnish troops and remaining population were immediately evacuated.
1947 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
1951 - The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the country for the first time.
1968 - Mauritius achieves independence.
1987 - Les Misérables opens on Broadway.
1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the British Commonwealth.
1993 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
1993 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites.
1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
1994 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
1997 - Mikail Markhasev is arrested in Los Angeles, California and charged with shooting Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis Cosby.
1999 - former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO.
2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison.
2003 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia assassinated in Belgrade.

Births

1607 - Paul Gerhardt, hymnist, (d. 1676)
1806 - Jane Pierce, First Lady of the United States, (d. 1863)
1831 - Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer
1896 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada, (d. 1893)
1824 - Gustav Kirchhoff, physicist, lends his name to Kirchhoff's Laws, (d. 1887)
1863 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, (d. 1938)
1881 - Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic, (d. 1938)
1888 - Vaslav Nijinsky, ballet dancer, (d. 1950)
1912 - Irving Layton, poet
1921 - Giovanni Agnelli, manager of Fiat
1921 - Gordon MacRae, singer, actor, (d. 1986)
1922 - Jack Kerouac, writer, (d. 1969)
1923 - Wally Schirra, astronaut
1928 - Edward Albee, dramatist
1932 - Andrew Young, civil rights activist, politician, ambassador to the United Nations
1940 - Al Jarreau, singer
1946 - Liza Minnelli, singer and actress
1947 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist, (d. 1987)
1948 - James Taylor, musician
1953 - Ron Jeremy, pornographic film actor
1953 - Carl Hiaasen, author
1957 - Steve Harris, musician ("Iron Maiden")
1962 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player
1969 - Graham Coxon, musician

Deaths

1507 - Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, (b. 1475)
1889 - Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia
1925 - Sun Yat Sen, Chinese revolutionary, politician, (b. 1866)
1935 - Michel Pupin, telephone pioneer
1937 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer, (b. 1844)
1944 - Werner Drechsler, of U-118
1945 - Anne Frank, diarist, (b. 1929)
1955 - Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist, (b. 1920)
1998 - Beatrice Wood, artist/ceramist, (b. 1893)
1999 - Sir Yehudi Menuhin, violinist, (b. 1916)
2001 - Morton Downey, Jr, television personality, (b. 1933)
2001 - Robert Ludlum, author of spy novels, (b. 1927)
2003 - Ronnie Burk, surrealist and AIDS activist
2003 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia, (b. 1952)
2003 - Howard Fast, author, (b. 1914)

Holidays and observances

Ancient Latvia - Gregoru Diena observed
Mauritius - National Day

See Also:

March 11 - March 13 - February 12 - April 12 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December