On this day: November 12

Events on November 12

• 1927 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1928 The British ocean liner SS Vestris sank in the western Atlantic Ocean, killing 111 people. Wikipedia
• 1933 Nazi Germany uses a referendum to ratify its withdrawal from the League of Nations. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrived in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis powers. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Free French forces captured Gabon from Vichy France. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C (10 °F) as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the decisive engagement in a series of sea battles between Allied and Japanese forces during the months-long Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands, began. Wikipedia
• 1944 Second World War: In Operation Catechism, the Royal Air Force sank the German battleship Tirpitz (video featured) near Tromsø, Norway, killing about 1,000 sailors on board. Wikipedia
• 1956 Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1956 In the midst of the Suez Crisis, Palestinian refugees are shot dead in Rafah by Israel Defense Force soldiers following the invasion of the Gaza Strip. Wikipedia
• 1969 Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre. Wikipedia
• 1971 Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1975 The Comoros joins the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1977 France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests series. Wikipedia
• 1979 Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran. Wikipedia
• 1980 The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings. Wikipedia
• 1982 USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev. Wikipedia
• 1999 The 7.2 Mw Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured. Wikipedia
• 2001 In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground. Wikipedia
• 2001 War in Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops. Wikipedia
• 2006 Although the Georgian government declared it illegal, South Ossetia held a referendum on independence, with more than 99 percent of voters in favour of preserving the region's status as a de facto independent state. Wikipedia
• 2011 Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the Euro area crisis. Wikipedia
• 2014 The European Space Agency's lander Philae touched down on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet. Wikipedia
• 2015 Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others. Wikipedia
• 2017 The 7.3 Mw Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern Iran–Iraq border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). At least 410 people are killed and over 7,000 are injured. Wikipedia

Born on November 12

• 1651 Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican nun, poet, and scholar (died 1695) Wikipedia
• 1729 Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French admiral and explorer (died 1811) Wikipedia
• 1815 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American activist (died 1902) Wikipedia
• 1817 Bahá'u'lláh, Persian spiritual leader, founded the Baháʼí Faith (died 1892) Wikipedia
• 1833 Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (died 1887) Wikipedia
• 1840 Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator, created The Thinker (died 1917) Wikipedia
• 1842 John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919) Wikipedia
• 1866 Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (died 1925) Wikipedia
• 1915 Roland Barthes, French philosopher, theorist, and critic (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1929 Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1929 Michael Ende, German author and fiction writer (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1934 Charles Manson, American cult leader (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1934 Vavá, Brazilian footballer and manager (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1943 Wallace Shawn, American actor, comedian and playwright Wikipedia
• 1945 Neil Young, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Wikipedia
• 1948 Hassan Rouhani, Iranian lawyer and politician; 7th President of Iran Wikipedia
• 1961 Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast and coach Wikipedia
• 1980 Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor, producer and singer Wikipedia
• 1982 Anne Hathaway, American actress Wikipedia
• 1988 Russell Westbrook, American basketball player Wikipedia
• 1995 Thomas Lemar, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1998 Jules Koundé, French footballer Wikipedia

Died on November 12

• 607 Pope Boniface III Wikipedia
• 1035 Cnut the Great, Danish-English king (born c.995) Wikipedia
• 1793 Jean Sylvain Bailly, French astronomer, mathematician, and politician, 1st Mayor of Paris (born 1736) Wikipedia
• 1865 Elizabeth Gaskell, English author (born 1810) Wikipedia
• 1916 Percival Lowell, American astronomer, mathematician, and author (born 1855) Wikipedia
• 1958 Gustaf Söderström, Swedish shot putter, discus thrower, and tug of war competitor (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1969 Liu Shaoqi, Chinese politician, 2nd Chairman of the People's Republic of China (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 1976 Mikhail Gurevich, Russian engineer, co-founded Mikoyan (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 1981 William Holden, American actor (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 1994 Wilma Rudolph, American sprinter and educator (born 1940) Wikipedia
• 2007 Ira Levin, American novelist, playwright, and songwriter (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2010 Henryk Górecki, Polish composer (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 2015 Jihadi John, terrorist (born 1988) Wikipedia
• 2018 Stan Lee, American comic book writer, editor, and publisher (born 1922) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Birth of Sun Yat-Sen, also Doctors' Day and Cultural Renaissance Day. (Republic of China) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Arsatius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Astrik (or Anastasius) of Pannonhalma Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cumméne Fota Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cunibert Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Emilian of Cogolla Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Imerius of Immertal Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Josaphat Kuntsevych (Roman Catholic Church, Greek Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Lebuinus (Liafwine) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Livinus of Ghent Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Machar Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Margarito Flores García Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nilus of Sinai Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Patiens Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: René d'Angers Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theodore the Studite Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ymar Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Azerbaijan) Wikipedia
• Father's Day (Indonesia) Wikipedia
• National Health Day (Indonesia) Wikipedia
• National Youth Day (East Timor) Wikipedia
• World Pneumonia Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 12” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.