On This Day — 12 June

2025

Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashes shortly after takeoff into the B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, India, killing 241 out of 242 onboard as well as 19 on the ground. This marked the first fatal crash and hull loss of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Air India Flight 171

2024

A fire in a residential building in Mangaf, Kuwait City kills at least 50 people.

2024 Mangaf building fire

2019

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is inaugurated as the second president of Kazakhstan.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

2018

United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore.

United States

2016

Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police.

Pulse nightclub shooting

2014

Between 1,095 and 1,700 Shia Iraqi people are killed in an attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. It is the second deadliest act of terrorism in history, only behind 9/11.

Shia Islam in Iraq

2009

A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide-ranging local and international protests.

2009 Iranian presidential election

1999

Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force, Kosovo Force (KFor), enters the province of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Kosovo War

1993

An election takes place in Nigeria and is won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Its results are later annulled by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida.

1993 Nigerian presidential election

1991

In modern Russia's first democratic election, Boris Yeltsin is elected as the President of Russia.

1991 Russian presidential election

1991

Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the Eastern Province town of Batticaloa.

1991 Kokkadichcholai massacre

1990

Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.

Russia Day

1988

Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.

Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 046

1987

The Central African Republic's former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.

Central African Republic

1987

Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

Cold War

1982

A nuclear disarmament rally and concert is held in New York City.

New York City

1981

The first of the Indiana Jones film franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is released in theaters.

Indiana Jones

1979

Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man-powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.

Bryan Allen (hang glider)

1975

State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain: Judge Jagmohanlal Sinha rules against Indira Gandhi in a case on her election to the Indian Parliament, and that she should be banned from holding any public office, triggering a political crisis.

State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain

1967

The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws that prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

Supreme Court of the United States

1964

Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.

Apartheid

1963

NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.

NAACP

1963

The film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is released in US theaters. It was the most expensive film made at the time.

Cleopatra (1963 film)

1954

Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared as saints.

Pope Pius XII

1950

An Air France Douglas DC-4 crashes near Bahrain International Airport, killing 46 people.

1950 Bahrain Air France Douglas DC-4 crashes

1944

World War II: Battle of Carentan: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.

Battle of Carentan

1943

The Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city's old Jewish graveyard and shot.

The Holocaust

1942

Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

Anne Frank

1940

World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

World War II

1939

Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures' Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.

Paramount Pictures

1939

The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

1935

A ceasefire is negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, ending the Chaco War.

Bolivia

1921

Mikhail Tukhachevsky orders the use of chemical weapons against the Tambov Rebellion, bringing an end to the peasant uprising.

Mikhail Tukhachevsky

1914

Massacre of Phocaea: Turkish irregulars slaughter 50 to 100 Greeks and expel thousands of others in an ethnic cleansing operation in the Ottoman Empire.

Massacre of Phocaea

1900

The Reichstag approves new legislation continuing Germany's naval expansion program, providing for construction of 38 battleships over a 20-year period. Germany's fleet would be the largest in the world.

Reichstag building

1899

New Richmond tornado: The ninth deadliest tornado in U.S. history kills 117 people and injures around 200.

1899 New Richmond tornado

1898

Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.

Philippine Declaration of Independence

1864

American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their position at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.

American Civil War

1830

Beginning of the Invasion of Algiers: Thirty-four thousand French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.

Invasion of Algiers (1830)

1821

Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Isma'il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.

Badi VII

1817

The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.

Bicycle

1813

Capture of USRC Surveyor.

USRC Surveyor

1798

Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.

Irish Rebellion of 1798

1776

The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.

Virginia Declaration of Rights

1775

American War of Independence: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.

American Revolutionary War

1772

French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and 25 of his men are killed by Māori in New Zealand.

Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne

1758

French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe's attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, commences.

French and Indian War

1665

Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City.

Thomas Willett

1653

First Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of the Gabbard begins, lasting until the following day.

First Anglo-Dutch War

1550

The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.

Helsinki

1429

Hundred Years' War: On the second day of the Battle of Jargeau, Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk.

Hundred Years' War

1418

Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War: Parisians slaughter sympathizers of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, along with all prisoners, foreign bankers, and students and faculty of the College of Navarre.

Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War

1381

Peasants' Revolt: In England, rebels assemble at Blackheath, just outside London.

Peasants' Revolt

1240

At the instigation of Louis IX of France, an inter-faith debate, known as the Disputation of Paris, starts between a Christian monk and four rabbis.

Louis IX of France

1206

The Ghurid general Qutb ud-Din Aibak founds the Delhi Sultanate.

Ghurid dynasty

910

Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under King Louis the Child, using the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors.

Battle of Lechfeld (910)