On this day: August 12

Events on August 12

• 1099 Crusades: Fatimid forces under al-Afdal Shahanshah began retreating to Egypt after the Battle of Ascalon, concluding the First Crusade. Wikipedia
• 1121 Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi. Wikipedia
• 1323 Sweden and the Novgorod Republic signed the Treaty of Nöteborg, resulting in a hiatus in the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars. Wikipedia
• 1492 Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World. Wikipedia
• 1676 Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War. Wikipedia
• 1834 A race riot in Philadelphia, United States, destroyed African-American businesses and killed two people. Wikipedia
• 1851 Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine. Wikipedia
• 1865 Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performs the first antiseptic surgery. Wikipedia
• 1881 Franco-American children as young as seven years old began striking against Cabot Mill in Brunswick, Maine, shutting down operations for three days. Wikipedia
• 1883 The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: Belgian troops won a victory at the Battle of Halen, but were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: France, the United Kingdom and the British Empire declare war on Austria-Hungary. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: In Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Italy, the Waffen-SS and the Brigate Nere murdered about 560 local villagers and refugees and burned their bodies. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which at least 40,000 people are killed indiscriminately or in mass executions. Wikipedia
• 1945 An official administrative history of the Manhattan Project, written by American physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth, was released to the public days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wikipedia
• 1952 Thirteen Jewish poets were executed in Moscow for espionage based on false confessions. Wikipedia
• 1969 The Troubles: Riots erupted in the neighbourhood of Bogside in Derry, and spread across much of Northern Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1981 The IBM Personal Computer is released. Wikipedia
• 1985 Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed into Mount Takamagahara in Japan, killing 520 of 524 people on board, including singer Kyu Sakamoto, in the world's deadliest single-aircraft aviation disaster. Wikipedia
• 1990 Near Faith, South Dakota, American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons, nicknamed Sue. Wikipedia
• 1992 Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Wikipedia
• 2000 Kursk, an Oscar-class submarine of the Russian Navy, suffered an on-board explosion and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing 118 people. Wikipedia
• 2015 At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China. Wikipedia
• 2016 The state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company inaugurated the first beer festival in North Korea. Wikipedia
• 2017 The Unite the Right rally occurs in Charlottesville, Virginia, leading to three deaths and injuring nearly 50 more. Wikipedia
• 2021 Six people, including the perpetrator, were killed in a mass shooting in Plymouth, England. Wikipedia

Born on August 12

• 1762 George IV of the United Kingdom (died 1830) Wikipedia
• 1774 Robert Southey, English poet and author (died 1843) Wikipedia
• 1831 Helena Blavatsky, Russian theosophist and scholar (died 1891) Wikipedia
• 1860 Klara Hitler, Austrian mother of Adolf Hitler (died 1907) Wikipedia
• 1866 Jacinto Benavente, Spanish playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1954) Wikipedia
• 1881 Cecil B. DeMille, American director and producer (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1887 Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1924 Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician, 6th President of Pakistan (died 1988) Wikipedia
• 1930 George Soros, Hungarian-American businessman and investor, founded the Soros Fund Management Wikipedia
• 1932 Sirikit, Queen mother of Thailand (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1949 Mark Knopfler, Scottish-English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Wikipedia
• 1954 François Hollande, French lawyer and politician, 24th President of France Wikipedia
• 1964 Txiki Begiristain, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1971 Pete Sampras, American tennis player Wikipedia
• 1975 Casey Affleck, American actor Wikipedia
• 1981 Djibril Cissé, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1983 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Tom Cleverley, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1990 Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 Cara Delevingne, English model and actress Wikipedia
• 1993 Ewa Farna, Czech singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1999 Matthijs de Ligt, Dutch footballer Wikipedia

Died on August 12

• 30 BC Cleopatra, Egyptian queen (born 69 BC) Wikipedia
• 1484 Sixtus IV, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1414) Wikipedia
• 1689 Pope Innocent XI (born 1611) Wikipedia
• 1827 William Blake, English poet and painter (born 1757) Wikipedia
• 1848 George Stephenson, English engineer and academic (born 1781) Wikipedia
• 1900 Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player and theoretician (born 1836) Wikipedia
• 1955 Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1964 Ian Fleming, English spy, journalist, and author (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1982 Henry Fonda, American actor (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 1989 William Shockley, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 1992 John Cage, American composer and theorist (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 1996 Victor Ambartsumian, Georgian-Armenian astrophysicist and academic (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 2000 Loretta Young, American actress (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2014 Lauren Bacall, American model, actress, and singer (born 1924) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Euplius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eusebius of Milan Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Herculanus of Brescia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Innocent XI Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jænberht Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jane Frances de Chantal Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Karl Leisner Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Muiredach (or Murtagh) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Porcarius II Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Victoria Díez Bustos de Molina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Glorious Twelfth (United Kingdom) Wikipedia
• HM the Queen Mother's Birthday and National Mother's Day (Thailand) Wikipedia
• International Youth Day (United Nations) Wikipedia
• Russian Air Force Day (Russia) Wikipedia
• Sea Org Day (Scientology) Wikipedia
• World Elephant Day (International) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “August 12” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/August 12” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 12” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for August 12 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.