On This Day — 12 September

2021

Siberian Light Aviation Flight 51 crashes short of the runway at Kazachinskoye Airport, killing four.

Siberian Light Aviation Flight 51

2014

Synagogue Church building collapse saw the deaths of 115 people and several injured, in the Church run by Nigeria's, T. B. Joshua.

Synagogue Church building collapse

2013

NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.

NASA

2012

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, killing 10 and injuring four.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 (2012)

2008

The 2008 Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train kills 25 people.

2008 Chatsworth train collision

2007

Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder.

Joseph Estrada

2007

Two earthquakes measuring 8.4 and 7.9 on the Richter Scale hits the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing 25 people and injuring 161.

2007 Bengkulu earthquakes

2005

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is completed, leaving some 2,530 homes demolished.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

2003

The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

United Nations

2003

Iraq War: In Fallujah, U.S. forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers.

Iraq War

2003

Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan.

Typhoon Maemi

2001

Ansett Australia, Australia's first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry, leaving 10,000 people unemployed.

Ansett Australia

1994

Frank Eugene Corder fatally crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing. There were no other casualties.

Frank Eugene Corder

1993

NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51.

STS-51

1992

NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.

NASA

1992

Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, is captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well.

Abimael Guzmán

1991

NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-48 to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.

Space Shuttle Discovery

1990

The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification.

Allied Control Council

1990

The Red Cross organizations of mainland China and Taiwan sign Kinmen Agreement on repatriation of illegal immigrants and criminal suspects after two days of talks in Kinmen, Fujian Province in response to the two tragedies in repatriation in the previous two months. It is the first agreement reached by private organizations across the Taiwan Strait.

Red Cross Society of China

1988

Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.

Hurricane Gilbert

1984

Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.

Dwight Gooden

1983

A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.

Wells Fargo

1983

The USSR vetoes a United Nations Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet destruction of Korean Air Lines Flight 007.

Soviet Union

1980

The 43rd government of Turkey is overthrown in a coup d'état led by General Kenan Evren.

43rd government of Turkey

1977

South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody.

Internal resistance to apartheid

1974

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, 'Messiah' of the Rastafari movement, is deposed following a military coup by the Derg, ending a reign of 58 years.

Haile Selassie

1970

Dawson's Field hijackings: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Zarqa, Jordan, continuing to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman.

Dawson's Field hijackings

1969

Philippine Air Lines Flight 158 crashes in Antipolo, near Manila International Airport in the Philippines, killing 45 people.

Philippine Air Lines Flight 158

1966

Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions).

Gemini 11

1962

US President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University.

John F. Kennedy

1961

The African and Malagasy Union is founded.

African and Malagasy Union

1961

Air France Flight 2005 crashes near Rabat–Salé Airport, in Rabat, Morocco, killing 77 people.

Air France Flight 2005

1959

The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the Moon.

Soviet Union

1959

Bonanza, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color, is launched in the United States.

Bonanza

1958

Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.

Jack Kilby

1953

U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

John F. Kennedy

1944

World War II: The liberation of Yugoslavia from Axis occupation continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among the liberated cities.

World War II in Yugoslavia

1943

World War II: Benito Mussolini is rescued from house arrest by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny.

Gran Sasso raid

1942

World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life.

World War II

1942

World War II: First day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army troops.

Battle of Edson's Ridge

1940

Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.

Cave painting

1940

The Hercules Powder plant disaster in the United States kills 51 people and injures over 200.

Hercules Powder plant disaster

1938

Adolf Hitler demands autonomy and self-determination for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Adolf Hitler

1933

Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.

Leo Szilard

1923

Southern Rhodesia, today called Zimbabwe, is annexed by the United Kingdom.

Southern Rhodesia

1915

French soldiers rescue over 4,000 Armenian genocide survivors stranded on Musa Dagh.

Armenian genocide

1910

Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Munich (with a chorus of 852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players. Mahler's rehearsal assistant conductor was Bruno Walter).

Gustav Mahler

1906

The Newport Transporter Bridge is opened in Newport, South Wales by Viscount Tredegar.

Newport Transporter Bridge

1897

Tirah campaign: In the Battle of Saragarhi, ten thousand Pashtun tribesmen suffer several hundred casualties while attacking 21 Sikh soldiers in British service.

Tirah campaign

1890

Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded.

Harare

1885

Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, a world record scoreline in professional association football.

Arbroath F.C. 36–0 Bon Accord F.C.

1857

The SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the California gold rush.

SS Central America

1848

A new constitution marks the establishment of Switzerland as a federal state.

Federalism in Switzerland

1847

Mexican–American War: the Battle of Chapultepec begins.

Mexican–American War

1814

Battle of North Point: an American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore in the War of 1812.

Battle of North Point

1683

Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna: Several European armies join forces to defeat the Ottoman Empire.

Great Turkish War

1634

A gunpowder factory explodes in Valletta, Malta, killing 22 people and damaging several buildings.

1634 Valletta explosion

1609

Henry Hudson begins his exploration of the Hudson River while aboard the Halve Maen.

Henry Hudson

1309

The First siege of Gibraltar takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada resulting in a Castilian victory.

First siege of Gibraltar

1297

The Treaty of Alcañices, mediated by the pope, between the king Denis of Portugal and king Ferdinand IV of Castile defines the border between the two countries and establishes an alliance of friendship.

Treaty of Alcañices

1229

Battle of Portopí: The Aragonese army under the command of James I of Aragon disembarks at Santa Ponça, Mallorca, with the purpose of conquering the island.

Battle of Portopí

1213

Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, defeats Peter II of Aragon at the Battle of Muret.

Albigensian Crusade

372

Sixteen Kingdoms: Sima Yao, age 10, succeeds his father Emperor Jianwen as Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin dynasty.

Sixteen Kingdoms

-490

Battle of Marathon: The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians and their Plataean allies defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.

Battle of Marathon