On this day: 12 August
Events, births and deaths on 12 August. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
Nothing recorded for that year.
100 years ago1926
- Births · John Derek
- Births · Douglas Croft
- Births · Joe Jones
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1099 · Events · Battle of Ascalon
- 1121 · Events · Battle of Didgori
Events · 24
- 1099(Julian date)Battle of Ascalon — 1099 middle ages battle
- 1121(Julian date)Battle of Didgori — 1121 battle fought between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Great Seljuq Empire
- 1164Battle of Harim — 1164 battle fought between Zengids and a combined army of Crusaders
- 1323(Julian date)Treaty of Nöteborg — 1323 peace treaty between Kingdom of Sweden and the Novgorod Republic
- 1687Battle of Mohács — 1687 battle
- 1765Treaty of Allahabad — treaty between the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II and East India company
- 1793Rhône — French department
- 18341834 Philadelphia race riot — racial riot in Philadelphia in 1834
- 1908Ford Model T — American car (1908-1927)
- 1914Battle of Haelen — 1914 battle
- 1944Wola massacre — 1944 systematic mass-murder in Wola, Warsaw District in Masovian, Poland
- 1944Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre — 1944 war crimes committed in Tuscany, Italy
- 1948Babrra massacre — 1948 mass shooting by police in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
- 1950Bloody Gulch massacre — War crime of the Korean War
- 1952Night of the Murdered Poets — execution of thirteen Soviet Jews
- 19531953 Ionian Earthquake — August 1953 earthquake causing extensive damage in Kefalonia and Zakynthos, Greece
- 1969Battle of the Bogside — 1969 riots in Derry (Northern Ireland)
- 1976Tel al-Zaatar massacre — armed siege of a refugee camp in Beirut 1976
- 1978
- 1985Japan Air Lines Flight 123 — 1985 aviation accident in Japan
- 2000Russian submarine Kursk explosion — accidental wrecking of a Russian nuclear submarine in 2000
- 20112011 Summer Universiade — summer sporting event held in Shenzhen
- 20152015 Tianjin explosions — explosions in Tianjin on 12 August 2015
- 2021Plymouth shooting — fatal incident in Plymouth, United Kingdom in August 2021
Births · 60
- 1503(Julian date)Christian III of Denmark — king of Denmark and Norway
- 1604Tokugawa Iemitsu — The third shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (1604–1651)
- 1644Heinrich Biber — Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist (1644–1704)
- 1762George IV of the United Kingdom — King of the United Kingdom and Hanover from 1820 to 1830
- 1774Robert Southey — English romantic poet (1774–1843)
- 1831Helena Blavatsky — Russian occult writer (1831-1891)
- 1860Klara Hitler — mother of Adolf Hitler mi vrg (1860–1907)
- 1866Jacinto Benavente — Spanish writer (1866-1954)
- 1880Radclyffe Hall — British poet and author (1880–1943)
- 1881Cecil B. DeMille — American film director, producer and actor (1881–1959)
- 1887Erwin Schrödinger — Austrian physicist (1887–1961)
- 1897Otto Struve — Baltic German astronomer (1897–1963)
- 1902Mohammad Hatta — 1st vice president of Indonesia from 1945 to 1956 (1902–1980)
- 1904Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia — Last Russian tsesarevich and heir apparent of the Russian Empire (1904–1918); youngest child of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)
- 1910Yusof bin Ishak — 1st President of Singapore (1910–1970)
- 1910Jane Wyatt — American actress (1910–2006)
- 1911Cantinflas — Mexican comic film actor, producer, and screenwriter (1911–1993)
- 1912Samuel Fuller — American screenwriter, actor and film director (1912–1997)
- 1919Margaret Burbidge — British-born American astronomer (1919–2020)
- 1919Vikram Sarabhai — father of Indian space programme (1919–1971)
- 1924Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq — President of Pakistan from 1978 to 1988, of Saudi origin
- 1930George Soros — Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist (born 1930)
- 1931William Goldman — American novelist, screenwriter and playwright (1931-2018)
- 1932Sirikit — Queen Consort of Thailand from 1950 to 2016, since then Queen Mother (1932–2025)
- 1935John Cazale — American actor (1935–1978)
Deaths · 60
- 30 BCE(Julian date)Cleopatra — Queen of Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE
- 875(Julian date)Louis II of Italy — Ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 844 to 875
- 1222(Julian date)Vladislaus III, Duke of Bohemia — Duke of Bohemia (c. 1160 – 1222)
- 1274Emperor Duzong of Song — emperor of the Song Dynasty
- 1295(Julian date)Charles Martel of Anjou — former King of Hungary (1290–1295)
- 1319(Julian date)Rudolf I — Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine
- 1335(Julian date)Moriyoshi-shinnō — Japanese prince in the Nanbokucho period
- 1424(Julian date)Yongle Emperor — emperor of Ming dynasty China from 1402 to 1424
- 1484(Julian date)Sixtus IV — pope of the Catholic Church from 1471 to 1484 (1414-1484)
- 1546(Julian date)Francisco de Vitoria — Spanish philosopher
- 1602Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak — Grand vizier of Mughal emperor Akbar from 1579 to 1602
- 1612Giovanni Gabrieli — Italian composer (1557–1612)
- 1638Johannes Althusius — German–Dutch jurist and Calvinist political philosopher and father of modern federalism (1563-1638)
- 1674Philippe de Champaigne — French painter (1602–1674)
- 1689Innocent XI — pope of the Catholic Church from 1676 to 1689
- 1822Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh — British politician (1769–1822)
- 1827William Blake — English poet and artist (1757–1827)
- 1848George Stephenson — English civil and mechanical engineer and the "Father of Railways" (1781-1848)
- 1849Albert Gallatin — Swiss and American politician, diplomat and scholar (1761-1849)
- 1864Sakuma Shōzan — Japanese politician (1811-1864)
- 1865William Jackson Hooker — English botanist and botanical illustrator (1785-1865)
- 1891James Russell Lowell — American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)
- 1900Wilhelm Steinitz — Austrian-American chess player (1836–1900)
- 1900James Edward Keeler — American astronomer (1857–1900)
- 1901Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld — Finland Swedish baron, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer (1832–1901)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.