On this day: March 12

Events on March 12

• 538 The Gothic king Vitiges ended his year-long siege of Rome, which was defended by the Byzantine general Belisarius Wikipedia
• 1088 Odo of Châtillon was elected as the 159th pope of the Catholic Church. Wikipedia
• 1537 Croatian–Ottoman wars: After the execution of feudal lord Petar Kružić, Croatian forces at Klis surrendered to the Ottoman forces in exchange for their safe passage to northern locations. Wikipedia
• 1622 Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Jesuits, were canonized by Pope Gregory XV. Wikipedia
• 1881 Andrew Watson captained the Scotland national football team against England, becoming the world's first black international footballer. Wikipedia
• 1913 The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. Wikipedia
• 1920 The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin. Wikipedia
• 1928 The failure of the St. Francis Dam northwest of Los Angeles resulted in a flood that killed 400 people. Wikipedia
• 1930 Mahatma Gandhi began the Salt March, a 24-day nonviolent walk to defy the British salt tax in colonial India. Wikipedia
• 1934 Supported by the Estonian army, Konstantin Päts staged a coup d'état, beginning the Era of Silence. Wikipedia
• 1938 Anschluss: German troops occupy and annex Austria. Wikipedia
• 1940 The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1947 Cold War: U.S. president Harry S. Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine to help stem the spread of communism. Wikipedia
• 1952 British diplomat Lord Ismay was appointed the first secretary general of NATO. Wikipedia
• 1967 General Suharto seized power from President Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly sworn him in as acting president of Indonesia. Wikipedia
• 1971 The Turkish Armed Forces executed a "coup by memorandum", forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel. Wikipedia
• 1989 Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web. Wikipedia
• 1992 Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Wikipedia
• 1993 North Korea announces that it will withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites. Wikipedia
• 1999 Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO. Wikipedia
• 2003 The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Wikipedia
• 2004 President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly, the first such impeachment in the nation's history. Wikipedia
• 2006 U.S. Army soldiers gang-raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family members. Wikipedia
• 2011 A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Wikipedia
• 2014 A gas leak caused an explosion in East Harlem, New York City, destroying two apartment buildings and causing eight deaths. Wikipedia
• 2020 The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wikipedia

Born on March 12

• 1613 André Le Nôtre, French gardener and architect (died 1700) Wikipedia
• 1685 George Berkeley, Irish bishop and philosopher (died 1753) Wikipedia
• 1784 William Buckland, English geologist and paleontologist; Dean of Westminster (died 1856) Wikipedia
• 1824 Gustav Kirchhoff, Russian-German physicist and academic (died 1887) Wikipedia
• 1863 Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian soldier, journalist, poet, and playwright (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1863 Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian and Ukrainian mineralogist and chemist (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1877 Wilhelm Frick, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of the Interior (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1922 Jack Kerouac, American author and poet (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1925 Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1925 Harry Harrison, American author and illustrator (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1927 Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine lawyer and politician, 46th President of Argentina (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1928 Edward Albee, American director and playwright (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1943 Ratko Mladić, Bosnian Serb military officer and war criminal (died 2026) Wikipedia
• 1946 Liza Minnelli, American actress, singer and dancer Wikipedia
• 1947 Mitt Romney, American businessman and politician, 70th Governor of Massachusetts Wikipedia
• 1952 Yasuhiko Okudera, former Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1956 Steve Harris, English bass player and songwriter Wikipedia
• 1959 Milorad Dodik, Bosnian Serb politician and president of Republika Srpska Wikipedia
• 1968 Aaron Eckhart, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1982 Hisato Satō, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Shreya Ghoshal, Indian singer Wikipedia
• 1994 Christina Grimmie, American singer-songwriter (died 2016) Wikipedia

Died on March 12

• 417 Innocent I, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 604 Gregory I, pope of the Catholic Church (born 540) Wikipedia
• 1916 Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian author (born 1830) Wikipedia
• 1925 Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (born 1866) Wikipedia
• 1942 William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862) Wikipedia
• 1946 Ferenc Szálasi, Hungarian soldier and politician, Head of State of Hungary (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1955 Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 1957 Josephine Hull, American actress (born 1877) Wikipedia
• 1991 Ragnar Granit, Finnish-Swedish neuroscientist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1999 Yehudi Menuhin, American-Swiss violinist and conductor (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2001 Robert Ludlum, American author (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 2003 Zoran Đinđić, Serbian philosopher and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Serbia (born 1952) Wikipedia
• 2015 Terry Pratchett, English journalist, author, and screenwriter (born 1948) Wikipedia
• 2016 Lloyd Shapley, American mathematician and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Arbor Day (China) Wikipedia
• Arbor Day (Taiwan) Wikipedia
• Aztec New Year Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Alphege Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Angela Salawa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernard of Carinola (or of Capua) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gorgonius, Peter Cubicularius and Dorotheus of Nicomedia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Mura (McFeredach) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maximilian of Tebessa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paul Aurelian Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Gregory I (Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Church, and Anglican Communion) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theophanes the Confessor Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• National Day (Mauritius) Wikipedia
• World Day Against Cyber Censorship Wikipedia
• Youth Day (Zambia) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 12” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 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 “March 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 March 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.