On this day: May 12

Events on May 12

• 1497 Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. Wikipedia
• 1510 Zhu Zhifan, the Prince of Anhua (in modern Shaanxi, China), began an unsuccessful rebellion against the reign of the Zhengde Emperor. Wikipedia
• 1743 War of the Austrian Succession: Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia after Austrian forces drove French troops from the territory. Wikipedia
• 1846 The Donner Party, an American pioneer group which became known for resorting to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Sierra Nevada, left Independence, Missouri, for California. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: The Confederates were routed in the Battle of Raymond, a small battle that had an inordinately large impact on the Vicksburg campaign. Wikipedia
• 1881 Under threat of invasion, Muhammad III as-Sadiq, Bey of Tunis, signed the Treaty of Bardo to make Tunisia a French protectorate. Wikipedia
• 1888 North Borneo was established as a British protectorate. Wikipedia
• 1926 The crew of the airship Norge, led by Roald Amundsen, became the first people to make a verified trip to the North Pole. Wikipedia
• 1932 Nazi deputies assaulted journalist Helmuth Klotz in the German parliament building after he publicized the homosexuality of a senior Nazi politician. Wikipedia
• 1938 During an exercise to demonstrate air power, United States Army Air Corps bomber aircraft intercepted the Italian ocean liner SS Rex 620 nautical miles (1,100 km) off the US Atlantic coast. Wikipedia
• 1941 German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the first working programmable and fully automatic computer, to an audience of scientists in Berlin. Wikipedia
• 1948 The United Kingdom publicly announced that it was independently developing nuclear weapons, after the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended cooperation on the matter. Wikipedia
• 1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the critically acclaimed and widely influential debut album Are You Experienced. Wikipedia
• 1968 Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force began the defence of Fire Support Base Coral in the largest unit-level action of the war for the Australian Army. Wikipedia
• 1975 The Cambodian navy seized the American container ship SS Mayaguez in what they claimed to be Cambodian territorial waters. Wikipedia
• 1982 The Coppergate Helmet, the best preserved of the six known Anglo-Saxon helmets, was discovered. Wikipedia
• 1982 Juan María Fernández y Krohn attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II with a bayonet in Fátima, Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1998 Four students were shot and killed by Indonesian soldiers at Trisakti University in Jakarta, which led to widespread riots and the resignation of President Suharto nine days later. Wikipedia
• 2002 Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban Revolution. Wikipedia
• 2008 In Postville, Iowa, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted the largest-ever raid of a workplace and arrested nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud. Wikipedia
• 2008 An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people. Wikipedia
• 2010 On arrival at Tripoli International Airport, Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashed into the ground at a speed of 262 kn (485 km/h; 302 mph) and exploded, killing all but one of the 304 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2015 An earthquake in Nepal killed 218 people and injured more than 3,500 others. Wikipedia
• 2015 A train derailment killed eight people and injured more than 200 others in Philadelphia. Wikipedia
• 2017 The WannaCry ransomware attack affected more than 400,000 computers worldwide, including systems used by the National Health Service and Telefónica. Wikipedia
• 2022 The Event Horizon Telescope released the first image of Sagittarius A*. Wikipedia

Born on May 12

• 1496 Gustav I of Sweden (died 1560) Wikipedia
• 1670 Augustus II the Strong, Polish king (died 1733) Wikipedia
• 1803 Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (died 1873) Wikipedia
• 1812 Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (died 1888) Wikipedia
• 1820 Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse, social reformer, and statistician (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1828 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1842 Jules Massenet, French composer (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1845 Gabriel Fauré, French pianist, composer, and educator (died 1924) Wikipedia
• 1895 Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian-American philosopher and author (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1895 William Giauque, Canadian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1907 Katharine Hepburn, American actress (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1910 Dorothy Hodgkin, English biochemist, crystallographer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1921 Joseph Beuys, German sculptor and illustrator (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1929 Sam Nujoma, Namibian politician, 1st President of Namibia (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1937 George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1962 Emilio Estevez, American actor Wikipedia
• 1977 Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1978 Malin Åkerman, Swedish-Canadian model, actress, and singer Wikipedia
• 1980 Rishi Sunak, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Wikipedia
• 1981 Rami Malek, American actor Wikipedia
• 1988 Marcelo, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1997 Frenkie de Jong, Dutch footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 12

• 1003 Sylvester II, pope of the Catholic Church (born 946) Wikipedia
• 1012 Sergius IV, pope of the Catholic Church (born 970) Wikipedia
• 1700 John Dryden, English poet, playwright, and critic (born 1631) Wikipedia
• 1884 Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer and educator (born 1824) Wikipedia
• 1907 Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author and critic (born 1848) Wikipedia
• 1916 James Connolly, executed Scottish-born Irish socialist and rebel leader (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1935 Józef Piłsudski, Polish field marshal and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Poland (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1957 Erich von Stroheim, Austrian-American actor, director, and producer (born 1885) Wikipedia
• 1970 Nelly Sachs, German poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1891) Wikipedia
• 1973 Frances Marion, American screenwriter, novelist and journalist (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1985 Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (born 1901) Wikipedia
• 1994 Erik Erikson, German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 2008 Irena Sendler, Polish nurse and humanitarian (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 2017 Mauno Koivisto, Finnish banker and politician, ninth President of Finland (born 1923) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Blessed Joan of Portugal Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Crispoldus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dominic de la Calzada Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Epiphanius of Salamis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregory Dix (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Imelda Lambertini Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Modoald Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla, and Pancras Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople (Catholic and Eastern Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philip of Agira Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Rictrude Wikipedia
• International ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia Awareness Day Wikipedia
• International Nurses Day Wikipedia
• J. V. Snellman Day or the Finnish Heritage Day (Finland) Wikipedia

Sources

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