What Happened This Day In History

Today in History
December 12

1753		George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio River valley.
1770		The British soldiers responsible for the "Boston Massacre" are acquitted on murder charges.
1862		The Union loses its first ship to a torpedo, USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.
1863		Orders are given in Richmond, Virginia, that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.
1901		Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John’s Newfoundland.
1927		Communists forces seize Canton, China.
1930		The Spanish Civil War begins as rebels take a border town.
1930		The last Allied troops withdraw from the Saar region in Germany.
1931		Under pressure from the Communists in Canton, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president of the Nanking Government but remains the head of the Nationalist government that holds nominal rule over most of China.
1943		The German Army launches Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad.
1943		The exiled Czech government signs a treaty with the Soviet Union for postwar cooperation.
1956		The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.
1964		Kenya becomes a republic.
1964		Three Buddhist leaders begin a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon.
1967		The United States ends the airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.
1979		South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan, acting without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa, alleging that the chief of staff was involved in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
1985		Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland; among the 256 dead are 236 members of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
1991		The Russian Federation becomes independent from the USSR.
1995		Willie Brown beats incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco.
2000		The US Supreme Court announces its decision in Bush v. Gore, effectively ending legal changes to the results of that year’s Presidential election.
Born on December 12
1745		John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who negotiated treaties for the United States.
1805		William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist who published The Liberator.
1821		Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (Madame Bovary, A Simple Heart).
1863		Edvard Munch, Norwegian artist (The Scream).
1893		Edward G. Robinson, actor famous for gangster roles.
1897		Lillian Smith, Southern writer and civil rights activist.
1912		Henry Jackson Jr, boxer using the name Henry Armstrong, the only fighter to hold 3 professional boxing titles simultaneously.
1915		Frank Sinatra, American pop singer and actor.
1927		Robert Norton Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit.
1928		Helen Frankenthaler, abstract painter.
1929		John Osbourne, playwright and film producer (Look Back in Anger).
1938		Connie Francis, singer.
1940		Dionne Warwick, singer, actress.
1943		Grover Washington Jr, singer, songwriter, musician, producer.
1952		Cathy Rigby, gymnast, actress.