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On this day: January 12

January 12 is the 12th day of the year (12th in leap years), with 353 days left until the end of the year (354 in a leap year).

 

January 12 in one line

Headline entries for January 12, from Wikipedia: in 2010, An earthquake registering 7.0 Mw struck Haiti, killing more than 100,000 people; born 1876: Jack London, American novelist and journalist (died 1916); died 1976: Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright (born 1890). In 2026 it is a Monday, in 2027 a Tuesday.

Events on January 12

  • 475 Basiliscus became Byzantine emperor after Zeno was forced to flee Constantinople. Wikipedia
  • 1528 Gustav I of Sweden is crowned King of Sweden, having already reigned since his election in June 1523. Wikipedia
  • 1554 Bayinnaung, who later assembled what was probably the largest empire in the history of mainland Southeast Asia, was crowned as the king of the Burmese Toungoo dynasty. Wikipedia
  • 1659 The fort at Allahabad was surrendered to the forces of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Wikipedia
  • 1777 Mission Santa Clara de Asís, a Spanish mission in California that formed the basis of both the city of Santa Clara and Santa Clara University, was established by the Franciscans. Wikipedia
  • 1808 John Rennie's scheme to defend St Mary's Church in Reculver from coastal erosion was abandoned in favour of demolition, despite the church being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon architecture. Wikipedia
  • 1865 The foundation stone of Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork was laid. Wikipedia
  • 1879 Anglo-Zulu War: Natal Native Contingent and British troops defeated Zulu forces in the Action at Sihayo's Kraal. Wikipedia
  • 1895 The National Trust, a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was founded. Wikipedia
  • 1899 During a storm, the crew of Lynmouth Lifeboat Station transported their 10-ton lifeboat 15 mi (24 km) overland in order to rescue a damaged schooner. Wikipedia
  • 1915 The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposed constitutional amendment to require states to give women the right to vote. Wikipedia
  • 1916 Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann became the first German aviators to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest military honour. Wikipedia
  • 1918 An underground explosion at a coal mine in Staffordshire, England, killed 155 men and boys. Wikipedia
  • 1945 World War II: The Red Army begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive. Wikipedia
  • 1964 Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah was overthrown by rebels led by John Okello, ending 200 years of Arab dominance in Zanzibar. Wikipedia
  • 1966 Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended. Wikipedia
  • 1967 Seventy-three-year-old psychology professor James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation. Wikipedia
  • 1970 Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War. Wikipedia
  • 1976 The United Nations Security Council votes 11–1 to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights). Wikipedia
  • 1986 Space Shuttle program: Congressman and future NASA Administrator Bill Nelson lifts off from Kennedy Space Center aboard Columbia on mission STS-61-C as a payload specialist. Wikipedia
  • 1997 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-81 to the Russian space station Mir, carrying astronaut Jerry M. Linenger for a four-month stay on board the station, replacing astronaut John E. Blaha. Wikipedia
  • 2005 Deep Impact launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket. Wikipedia
  • 2007 Comet McNaught reached perihelion, becoming the brightest comet in over 40 years, with an apparent magnitude of −5.5. Wikipedia
  • 2010 Iranian physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was assassinated while leaving his home for the University of Tehran, where he was a professor. Wikipedia
  • 2010 An earthquake registering 7.0 Mw struck Haiti, killing more than 100,000 people. Wikipedia
  • 2016 Ten people are killed and 15 wounded in a bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Wikipedia

Born on January 12

  • 1591 Jusepe de Ribera, Spanish painter (died 1652) Wikipedia
  • 1628 Charles Perrault, French author and academic (died 1703) Wikipedia
  • 1729 Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher, academic, and politician (died 1797) Wikipedia
  • 1746 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss philosopher and educator (died 1827) Wikipedia
  • 1856 John Singer Sargent, American painter and academic (died 1925) Wikipedia
  • 1863 Swami Vivekananda, Indian monk and philosopher (died 1902) Wikipedia
  • 1876 Jack London, American novelist and journalist (died 1916) Wikipedia
  • 1893 Hermann Göring, German commander, pilot, and politician, Minister President of Prussia (died 1946) Wikipedia
  • 1893 Alfred Rosenberg, Estonian-German architect and politician, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (died 1946) Wikipedia
  • 1903 Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist and academic (died 1960) Wikipedia
  • 1906 Emmanuel Levinas, Lithuanian-French historian, philosopher, and academic (died 1995) Wikipedia
  • 1907 Sergei Korolev, Russian colonel and engineer (died 1966) Wikipedia
  • 1910 Luise Rainer, German-English actress (died 2014) Wikipedia
  • 1944 Joe Frazier, American boxer (died 2011) Wikipedia
  • 1949 Haruki Murakami, Japanese novelist, short-story writer, and essayist Wikipedia
  • 1951 Kirstie Alley, American actress and producer (died 2022) Wikipedia
  • 1956 Nikolai Noskov, Russian rock singer and singer-songwriter Wikipedia
  • 1964 Jeff Bezos, American computer scientist and businessman Wikipedia
  • 1973 Hande Yener, Turkish singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Wikipedia
  • 1989 Axel Witsel, Belgian footballer Wikipedia
  • 1993 Zayn Malik, English singer Wikipedia
  • 1994 Emre Can, German footballer Wikipedia

Died on January 12

  • 1519 Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1459) Wikipedia
  • 1665 Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and lawyer (born 1601) Wikipedia
  • 1829 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, German philosopher, poet, and critic (born 1772) Wikipedia
  • 1834 William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1759) Wikipedia
  • 1856 Ľudovít Štúr, Slovak philologist and politician (born 1815) Wikipedia
  • 1909 Hermann Minkowski, Lithuanian-German mathematician and academic (born 1864) Wikipedia
  • 1976 Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright (born 1890) Wikipedia
  • 1977 Henri-Georges Clouzot, French director and screenwriter (born 1907) Wikipedia
  • 1983 Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician (born 1903) Wikipedia
  • 1997 Charles Brenton Huggins, Canadian-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1901) Wikipedia
  • 2003 Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine general and politician, 44th President of Argentina (born 1926) Wikipedia
  • 2005 Amrish Puri, Indian actor (born 1932) Wikipedia
  • 2020 Sir Roger Scruton, English philosopher and writer (born 1944) Wikipedia
  • 2023 Lisa Marie Presley, American singer-songwriter (born 1968) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

Sources

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “January 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 January 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.

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