Historical Events on Wednesday, 12th November
62 significant events took place on Wednesday, 12th November — stretching from 954 to 2022. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
Wednesday, 12th November marks a date of significant historical events across multiple decades and continents. In 2014, the European Space Agency achieved a landmark moment when the Philae lander successfully reached the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, deployed from the Rosetta probe. This achievement represented a pinnacle of space exploration and scientific collaboration. Earlier in that same year, an Armenian Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter was shot down by Azerbaijani forces, resulting in the deaths of all three personnel on board. The incident underscored ongoing regional tensions in the South Caucasus.
Italy experienced a notable political moment on this date in 2011 when Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister at the time, tendered his resignation effective 16th November. The decision came largely in response to the Euro area crisis, which was creating significant economic pressures across the European Union. Berlusconi’s departure marked a pivotal moment in Italian politics during a period of considerable financial instability affecting the continent.
The date carries weather associated with late autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, occurring when the Scorpio zodiac sign is present. The moon phase on this date is in its waxing gibbous stage, moving towards fullness. DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about weather conditions on any given date and location, alongside detailed records of historical events, notable births and deaths, enabling users to explore what happened on significant dates throughout history.
Explore all events today 15th April.
12/11/2022
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collide in mid-air over Dallas Executive Airport during an airshow, killing six.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft that was developed in the mid-1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber used primarily in the European Theater of Operations, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the third-most produced bomber in history, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. The B-17 was also employed in transport, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue roles.
12/11/2021
The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14-year conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears.
The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, informally known as the Los Angeles County Superior Court, is the California Superior Court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States.
12/11/2020
The PlayStation 5 is released.
The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is the home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the fifth iteration of their PlayStation brand. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, and South Korea, and was released worldwide a week later. The PS5 is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, along with Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S consoles, which were released in the same month.
12/11/2017
The 7.3 Mw Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern Iran–Iraq border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). At least 410 people are killed and over 7,000 are injured.
On 12 November 2017 at 18:18 UTC, an earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.4 occurred on the Iran–Iraq border, with the Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja, and the Kurdish dominated places of Ezgeleh, Salas-e Babajani County, Kermanshah province in Iran, closest to the epicentre, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the city of Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan.
12/11/2015
Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.
A suicide attack is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators intentionally end their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is often associated with terrorism or war. When the attackers are labelled as terrorists, the attacks are sometimes referred to as an act of suicide terrorism. Military use of suicide is not directly regulated by international law, but suicide attacks sometimes violate prohibitions against perfidy or targeting civilians. Suicide attacks have occurred in various contexts, ranging from military campaigns—such as the Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II (1944–1945)—to more contemporary Islamic terrorist campaigns—including the September 11 attacks in 2001. Suicide attacks have been used by a wide range of political ideologies, from far-right to far-left.
12/11/2014
The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Philae was a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until it separated to land on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, ten years and eight months after departing Earth. On 12 November 2014, Philae touched down on the comet, but it bounced when its anchoring harpoons failed to deploy and a thruster designed to hold the probe to the surface did not fire. After bouncing off the surface twice, Philae achieved the first-ever "soft" (nondestructive) landing on a comet nucleus, although the lander's final, uncontrolled touchdown left it in a non-optimal location and orientation.
An Armenian Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter is shot down by Azerbaijani forces, killing all three people on board.
The Mil Mi-24 is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and was introduced by the Soviet Air Force in 1972. As of 2025, the helicopter is in use with 52 countries.
12/11/2011
Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the Euro area crisis.
Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001. At the time of his death in 2023, he had a net worth of US$6.8 billion according to Forbes, making him the 352nd-richest man in the world and the third-wealthiest person in Italy.
A blast in Iran's Shahid Modarres missile base leads to the death of 17 of the Revolutionary Guards members, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program.
On 12 November 2011 at about 13:30 local time, a large explosion occurred at the Modarres garrison missile base in Tehran Province, Iran. The facility is also referred to as Shahid Modarres missile base, and the Alghadir missile base. Seventeen members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in this incident, including Major General Hassan Moqaddam, described as "a key figure in Iran's missile programme".
12/11/2003
Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. During the US occupation of Iraq, the conflict persisted as an insurgency that arose against coalition forces and the newly established Iraqi government. US forces were officially withdrawn in 2011. In 2014, the US became re-engaged in Iraq, leading a new coalition under Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, as the conflict evolved into the ongoing Islamic State insurgency.
Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record of 501 kilometres per hour (311 mph) for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.
The Shanghai maglev train (SMT) or Shanghai Transrapid is a magnetic levitation train (maglev) line that operates in Shanghai, China. The line uses technology developed by Transrapid, a ThyssenKrupp and Siemens joint venture. The Shanghai maglev is the world's first commercial high-speed maglev and has a maximum cruising speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). Prior to May 2021 the cruising speed was 431 km/h (268 mph), at the time this made it the fastest train service in commercial operation.
12/11/2001
In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.
American Airlines Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, to Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. On November 12, 2001, the Airbus A300B4-605R flying the route crashed into the neighborhood of Belle Harbor on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York City, shortly after takeoff, killing all 251 passengers and 9 crew members aboard, as well as five people on the ground. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States, behind the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in 1979, and the second-deadliest aviation incident involving an Airbus A300, after Iran Air Flight 655.
War in Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.
The war in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict lasting from 2001 to 2021. It began with an invasion by a United States–led coalition under the name Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the 11 September attacks (9/11) carried out by the Taliban-allied and Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda. The Taliban were expelled from major population centers by American-led forces supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, thus toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate. In 2004, the U.S.-backed Islamic Republic was established, but by then, the Taliban, led by founder Mullah Omar, had reorganized and begun an insurgency against the Afghan government and coalition forces. The conflict ended as the 2021 Taliban offensive reestablished the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in United States military history, surpassing the Vietnam War by six months.
12/11/1999
The 7.2 Mw Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured.
The 1999 Düzce earthquake occurred on 12 November at 18:57:22 local time with a moment magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing damage and at least 845 fatalities in Düzce, Turkey. The epicenter was approximately 100 km (62 mi) to the east of the extremely destructive 1999 İzmit earthquake that happened nearly three months earlier. Both strike-slip earthquakes were caused by movement on the North Anatolian Fault.
12/11/1997
Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators and the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1994 bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434; he was also a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot.
12/11/1996
A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date.
Saudia is the first flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, headquartered in Jeddah. Its main hub is King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, with secondary hubs at Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Medina and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, and a hub at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, which it plans to vacate by 2030 for the launch of Riyadh Air.
12/11/1995
Erdut Agreement regarding the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence is reached.
The Erdut Agreement, officially the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, is an agreement reached on 12 November 1995 between the authorities of the Republic of Croatia and the local Serb authorities of the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia region on the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence in eastern Croatia. It effectively ended the ethno-nationalist conflict in the region and initiated the process of peaceful reintegration of the region to central government control of Croatia. The reintegration was directly implemented by the United Nations. The agreement provided a set of guarantees on human and minority rights as well as on the refugee return. It was named after Erdut, the village in which it was signed by local Serb representatives.
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985. Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J made from October 3 to 7, 1985.
12/11/1991
Santa Cruz massacre: The Indonesian Army open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.
The Santa Cruz massacre was the murder of at least 250 East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili, on 12 November 1991, during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and is part of the East Timor genocide.
12/11/1990
Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent.
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow at the University of Oxford and a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
12/11/1982
USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.
12/11/1981
Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.
12/11/1980
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into mission directorates for Science, Space Operations, Exploration Systems Development, Space Technology, Aeronautics Research, and Mission Support. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.
12/11/1979
Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.
The Iran hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. The incident occurred after the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line stormed and occupied the building in the months following the Iranian Revolution. With support from Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led the Iranian Revolution and would eventually establish the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran, the hostage-takers demanded that the United States extradite Iranian king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been granted asylum by the Carter administration for cancer treatment. Notable among the assailants were Hossein Dehghan, Mohammad Ali Jafari, and Mohammad Bagheri. The hostage crisis contributed to a dramatic decline in Iran–United States relations. After 444 days, it came to an end with the signing of the Algiers Accords between the Iranian and American governments; Iran's king had died in Cairo, Egypt, on July 27, 1980.
12/11/1977
France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests series.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country primarily located in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north; Germany to the northeast; Switzerland to the east; Italy and Monaco to the southeast; Andorra and Spain to the south; and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the northwest. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its 18 integral regions—five of which are overseas—span a combined area of 632,702 km2 (244,288 sq mi), with a total population estimated at over 69.1 million in 2026. Its capital, largest city and main cultural and economic centre is Paris.
12/11/1975
The Comoros joins the United Nations.
The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni. The religion of the majority of the population—and the official state religion—is Islam. Comoros proclaimed its independence from France on 6 July 1975. The Comoros is the only country of the Arab League which is entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a member state of the African Union, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, and the Indian Ocean Commission. The country has three official languages: Comorian, French and Arabic.
12/11/1971
Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
Vietnamization was a policy enacted in early 1969 by the Richard Nixon administration aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by expanding, equipping, and training the South Vietnamese armed forces (ARVN) and increasing their combat role, while at the same reducing involvement of U.S. combat troops. The policy of Vietnamization, despite its successful execution, was ultimately a failure as the improved ARVN forces were unable to stop North Vietnam and its People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The South Vietnamese government collapsed with the fall of Saigon in April 1975 and north and south Vietnam were subsequently unified under communism as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Aeroflot Flight N-63 crashes on approach to Vinnytsia Airport, killing 48.
Aeroflot Flight N-63 was a flight which crashed killing 48 people in Ukraine in 1971.
12/11/1970
The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Department which, along with the Oregon State Highway Commission, was created by an act of the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1913. It works closely with the five-member Oregon Transportation Commission in managing the state's transportation systems.
The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan, becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.
The 1970 Bhola cyclone, also known as the Great Cyclone of 1970 or simply the Bhola Cyclone, was the deadliest tropical cyclone on record, as well as one of the deadliest humanitarian disasters ever recorded. It struck East Pakistan and India's West Bengal on 12 November 1970. At least 300,000 people died in the storm, possibly as many as 500,000, primarily as a result of the storm surge that flooded much of the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta. The Bhola cyclone was the sixth and strongest cyclonic storm of the 1970 North Indian Ocean cyclone season.
12/11/1969
Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
12/11/1961
Terry Jo Duperrault is the sole survivor of a series of brutal murders aboard the ketch Bluebelle.
A ketch is a two-masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast, and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast being stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch from a yawl, which has its mizzen mast stepped aft of its rudder post. In the 19th and 20th centuries, ketch rigs were often employed on larger yachts and working watercraft, but ketches are also used as smaller working watercraft as short as 15 feet, or as small cruising boats, such as Bill Hanna's Tahiti ketches or L. Francis Herreshoff's Rozinante and H-28.
12/11/1958
A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.
Warren Harding was an American rock climber. He was the leader of the first team to climb El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, in 1958. Harding made many first ascents in Yosemite, some 28 in all, including The Wall of Early Morning Light.
12/11/1956
Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to the east, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the south, occupied by Morocco since 1975. Morocco also claims the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and several small Spanish-controlled islands off its coast. Morocco also claims to share a border with Mauritania through the disputed territory of Western Sahara. It has a population of approximately 37 million. Islam is both the official and predominant religion, while Arabic and Berber are the official languages. Additionally, French and the Moroccan dialect of Arabic are widely spoken. The culture of Morocco is a mix of Arab, Berber, European, and African cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca.
In the midst of the Suez Crisis, Palestinian refugees are shot dead in Rafah by Israel Defense Force soldiers following the invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The Suez Crisis, also known as the second Arab–Israeli war, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 31 October, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had nationalised earlier in the year.
12/11/1954
Ellis Island ceases operations.
Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, about 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there; according to one estimate, two-fifths of Americans may be descended from these immigrants. It has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965 and is accessible to the public only by ferry. The north side of the island is a national museum of immigration, while the south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is open to the public through guided tours.
12/11/1948
Aftermath of World War II: In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.
The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementation of the United Nations as an intergovernmental organization, and the decolonization of Asia, Oceania, South America and Africa by European and East Asian powers, most notably by the United Kingdom, France, and Japan.
12/11/1944
World War II: The Royal Air Force sink the German battleship Tirpitz, moored off Tromsø, Norway.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918 through the merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world. Since its formation, the RAF has played a significant role in British military history. In particular, during the Second World War, the RAF defeated the German Luftwaffe's efforts to establish air superiority over England during the Battle of Britain, and played a key role in the Combined Bomber Offensive alongside the USAAF.
12/11/1942
World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days and ends with an American victory.
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal took place from 12 to 15 November 1942 and was the decisive engagement in a series of naval battles between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces during the months-long Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands during World War II. The action consisted of combined air and sea engagements over four days, most near Guadalcanal and all related to a Japanese effort to reinforce land forces on the island. The only two U.S. Navy admirals to be killed in a surface engagement in the war were lost in this battle.
12/11/1941
World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C (10 °F) as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.
World War II: The Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.
Chervona Ukraina was an Admiral Nakhimov-class light cruiser of the Soviet Navy assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. During World War II, she supported Soviet forces during the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol before being sunk at Sevastopol on 12 November 1941 by German aircraft. She was raised in 1947 and was used as a training hulk before becoming a target ship in 1950.
12/11/1940
World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
World War II: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary. He was one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies and one of the most prominent figures in the Soviet government during his rule. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars from 1930 to 1941, he held office as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and again from 1953 to 1956.
12/11/1938
Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.
Like many other nations at the time, Germany suffered the economic effects of the Great Depression, with unemployment soaring after the Wall Street crash of 1929. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he introduced policies aimed at improving the economy. The changes included privatization of state-owned industries, tariffs, and an attempt to achieve autarky. Weekly earnings increased by 19% in real terms from 1933 to 1939, but this was largely due to employees working longer hours, while the hourly wage rates remained close to the lowest levels reached during the Great Depression. Reduced foreign trade would mean rationing of consumer goods like poultry, fruit, and clothing for many Germans.
12/11/1936
In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It includes one of the longest bridge spans in the United States.
12/11/1933
Nazi Germany uses a referendum to ratify its withdrawal from the League of Nations.
Nazi Germany, officially the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and the German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.
12/11/1928
SS Vestris sinks approximately 200 miles (320 km) off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.
SS Vestris was a 1912 steam ocean liner operated by Lamport and Holt Line and used on its service between New York and the River Plate. On 12 November 1928 she began listing in heavy seas about 200 miles (300 km) off Hampton Roads, Virginia, was abandoned, and sank, killing more than 100 people. Her wreck is thought to lie some 1.2 miles (2 km) beneath the North Atlantic.
12/11/1927
Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
Lev Davidovich Trotsky, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas and beliefs inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.
12/11/1920
The 1920 Cork hunger strike by Irish republicans ends after three deaths.
After the death of the Irish revolutionary Thomas Ashe on hunger strike Irish Republicans prisoners carried out several hunger strikes with their demands being granted. The 1920 Cork hunger strike occurred in late 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, when 65 men interned without trial in Cork County Gaol went on hunger strike, demanding release from prison, and reinstatement of their status as political prisoners. Beginning on 11 August 1920, they were joined the following day by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney imprisoned in HM Prison Brixton, London. A week into the hunger strike, all but 11 of the hunger strikers were released or deported to prison in England, with MacSwiney being among the latter. The remaining 11 internees in Cork were being held without charges and were never convicted of a crime.
Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and was colloquially known as "Yugoslavia" due to its origins.
12/11/1918
Dissolution of Austria-Hungary: Austria becomes a republic. After the proclamation, a coup attempt by the communist Red Guard is defeated by the social-democratic Volkswehr.
The dissolution of Austria-Hungary was a major political event that occurred as a result of the growth of internal social contradictions and the separation of different parts of Austria-Hungary. The more immediate reasons for the collapse of the state were World War I, the worsening food crisis since late 1917, general starvation in Cisleithania during the winter of 1917–1918, the demands of Austria-Hungary's military alliance with the German Empire and its de facto subservience to the German High Command, and its conclusion of the Bread Peace of 9 February 1918 with Ukraine, resulting in uncontrollable civil unrest and nationalist secessionism. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had additionally been weakened over time by a widening gap between Hungarian and Austrian interests. Furthermore, a history of chronic overcommitment rooted in the 1815 Congress of Vienna in which Metternich pledged Austria to fulfill a role that necessitated unwavering Austrian strength and resulted in overextension. Upon this weakened foundation, additional stressors during World War I catalyzed the collapse of the empire. The 1917 October Revolution and the Wilsonian peace pronouncements from January 1918 onward encouraged socialism on the one hand, and nationalism on the other, or alternatively a combination of both tendencies, among all peoples of the Habsburg monarchy.
12/11/1912
First Balkan War: King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.
The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–13.
12/11/1905
Norway holds a referendum resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly independent country.
A referendum regarding the choice of the new monarch was held in Norway on 12 and 13 November 1905. Voters were asked whether they approved of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly self-ruling country. The Storting had wanted to offer the throne to Prince Carl of Denmark, but the prince insisted that the Norwegian people had a chance to decide if they wanted him to be the future King or not.
12/11/1893
Abdur Rahman Khan accepts the Durand Line as the border between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the British Raj.
Abdur Rahman Khan Barakzai, also known by his epithet as the Iron Emir, was Emir of Afghanistan from 11 August 1880 until his death on 1 October 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of strong decentralization and internal fighting, and for the negotiation of the Durand Line agreement with British India.
12/11/1892
Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger, also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the greatest lineman of his time, and the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to play in 1892 for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
12/11/1835
Construction is completed on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.
The Wilberforce Monument is a monument honouring English politician and abolitionist William Wilberforce in Kingston Upon Hull, England. The ashlar structure consists of a Doric column topped by a statue of Wilberforce. Construction on the monument began in 1834 and was completed the following year. In 2011, it was designated a Grade II listed structure.
12/11/1439
Plymouth becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.
Plymouth is a port city and unitary authority in Devon, England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers Plym and Tamar, about 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Exeter and 193 miles (311 km) southwest of London. It is the most populous city in Devon.
12/11/1330
Battle of Posada ends: Wallachian Voievode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army by ambush.
The Battle of Posada was fought between Basarab I of Wallachia and Charles I of Hungary . The small Wallachian army led by Basarab, formed of cavalry and foot archers, as well as local peasants, managed to ambush and defeat the 30,000-strong Hungarian army, in a mountainous region.
12/11/1028
Future Byzantine empress Zoe takes the throne as empress consort to Romanos III Argyros.
The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, which fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised sovereign authority are included, to the exclusion of junior co-emperors who never attained the status of sole or senior ruler, as well as of the various usurpers or rebels who claimed the imperial title.
12/11/0954
The 13-year-old Lothair III is crowned at the Abbey of Saint-Remi as king of the West Frankish Kingdom.
Lothair, sometimes called Lothair II, III or IV, was the penultimate Carolingian king of West Francia, reigning from 10 September 954 until his death in 986.