March 12 - Events

Events

• 538 – Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius.
• 1622 – Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Jesuits, are canonized as saints by the Catholic Church.
• 1664 – New Jersey becomes a colony of England.
• 1689 – The Williamite war in Ireland begins.
• 1832 – The Filippo Taglioni ballet La Sylphide receives its première performance at the Paris Opéra's Salle Le Peletier.
• 1868 – Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.
• 1881 – Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player andcaptain.
• 1894 – In Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.
• 1912 – The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.
• 1913 – Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. (Melbourne remained temporary capital until 1927 while the new capital was still under construction.)
• 1918 – Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
• 1928 – In California, the St. Francis Dam fails, killing over 600 people.
• 1930 – Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march, known as the Dandi March, to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest theBritish monopoly on salt.
• 1933 – Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "fireside chats".
• 1934 – Konstantin Päts and General Johan Laidoner stage a coup in Estonia, and ban all political parties.
• 1938 – Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria.
• 1940 – Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and the remaining population are immediately evacuated.
• 1947 – The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
• 1964 – New Hampshire Lottery: New Hampshire becomes the first U.S. state to legally sell lottery tickets in the 20th century.
• 1966 – Suharto takes over from Sukarno to become President of Indonesia.
• 1968 – Mauritius achieves independence.
• 1971 – The March 12 Memorandum is sent to the Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.
• 1992 – Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1993 – Several bombs explode in Bombay (Mumbai), India, killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
• 1993 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
• 1993 – The Blizzard of 1993 – Snow begins to fall across the eastern portion of the US with tornadoes, thunder snow storms, high winds and record low temperatures. The storm lasts for 30 hours.
• 1994 – The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
• 1999 – Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
• 2003 – Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
• 2004 – The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its national assembly: the first such impeachment in the nation's history.
• 2005 – Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, steps down from his post after his resignation is approved by the Chinesecentral government.
• 2006 – In a One Day International cricket match between Australia and South Africa, the Australians set a world record with 434 runs, only to see South Africa successfully chase down their total with 438.