September 12: Day of the year

September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 110 days remaining until the end of the year.

Up to 1900

• 1185 – Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos is brutally put to death in Constantinople.
• 1309 – First Siege of Gibraltar during the Spanish Reconquista.
• 1556 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor gives up the throne for his brother, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1609 – Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River.
• 1683 – Battle of Kahlenberg: Forces of John III Sobieski of Poland surprise Ottoman Empire forces under Kara Mustafa, defeating them decisively.
• 1689 – Tsar Peter I of Russia assumes absolute power.
• 1814 – War of 1812: Battle of North Point - An American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1847 – Mexican-American War: The Battle of Chapultepec begins.
• 1848 – Switzerland becomes a federal state.
• 1857 – The ship SS America sinks about 160 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with 426 people drowning. It was carrying gold from the California Gold Rush
• 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Cheat Pike in Virginia.
• 1885 – Arbroath F.C. 36-0 Bon Accord: This scoreline in Scotland is the highest-recorded in professional football.
• 1890 – Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) is founded.

1901 – 2000

• 1905 – Japanese battleship Mikasa sinks after a munitions explosion. Out of the 935 men on board, 256 are killed and 343 injured.
• 1905 – Copenhagen town hall is inaugurated in Denmark.
• 1906 – Newport Transporter Bridge is opened in Newport, south Wales.
• 1910 – First performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony Number 8, in Munich.
• 1918 – British passenger ship Galway Castle is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Land's End, Cornwall, England, killing 143 people.
• 1920 – The 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp begins.
• 1928 – A hurricane in Guadeloupe kills 1,200 people.
• 1933 – Leó Szilárd has the idea of a nuclear chain reaction.
• 1940 – World-famous cave paintings are discovered in the Lascaux in southern France.
• 1940 – An explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenil, New Jersey kills 51 and injures over 200.
• 1942 – World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers, and Italian POWs, is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa, with a heavy loss of life.
• 1942 – World War II: First Day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal Campaign. US Marines protecting Henderson Field in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, are attacked by Imperial Japanese forces.
• 1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, led by German commandos under Otto Skorzeny.
• 1944 – World War II: American troops enter Germany near Trier.
• 1948 – Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian army on the day after the death of Pakistan's leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
• 1949 – Theodor Heuss becomes the 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1953 – John F. Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit.
• 1959 – Showing of the first episode of Bonanza, first regularly scheduled television programme presented in colour.
• 1959 – The Soviet Union launches the Lunik II rocket.
• 1959 – Heinrich Lübke becomes the 2nd President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1961 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded.
• 1964 – The Canyonlands National Park in Utah is created.
• 1966 – Gemini 11, of NASA's Gemini program, is launched.
• 1970 – Palestinian terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Jordan. Passengers are held at secret locations in the capital city, Amman.
• 1974 – Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I is deposed in a military coup.
• 1977 – Anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody.
• 1979 – Indonesia is struck by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake.
• 1980 – A military coup occurs in Turkey.
• 1988 – Hurricane Gilbert hits Jamaica.
• 1990 – The Faroe Islands national football team scores a surprise 1-0 win over the Austria national football team. The Faroese players are celebrated as heroes after their return home from the match.
• 1990 – East Germany's national football team plays its last-ever match, winning 2-0 against the Belgium national football team.
• 1992 – NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on the STS-47 mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison (first African American woman in space), Mamoru Mohri (first Japanese citizen on a US spaceship), and Mark Lee and Jan Davis (first married couple in space).
• 1992 – Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman is arrested in Peru, by special forces.
• 1994 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 light aircraft into the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, killing himself.
• 1999 – Indonesia announces it will allow international peacekeepers into East Timor.

From 2001

• 2003 – The UN lifts sanctions against Libya.
• 2003 – US Forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers in Fallujah.
• 2005 – Hong Kong Disneyland opens.
• 2007 – Former President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder.
• 2008 – The Chatsworth train collision occurs in Los Angeles, California, between a Metrolink commerce train and a Union Pacific Freight train, killing 25 people.
• 2011 – About 100 people are killed by an oil pipeline explosion in Nairobi, Kenya.
• 2011 – Russian ice hockey player Alexander Galimov dies, as the 44th, and final, victim of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, which occurred on September 7. The whole team was killed.
• 2015 – Jeremy Corbyn is elected leader of the British Labour Party.
• 2015 – An explosion in Petlawad in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh kills at least 105 people.
• 2018 – The European Parliament votes by a two-thirds majority to trigger possible sanctions (punishments) against the government of Hungary, over issues of democracy, human rights, judicial freedom and journalistic freedom.

Up to 1900

• 1492 – Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (d. 1519)
• 1494 – King Francis I of France (d. 1547)
• 1575 – Henry Hudson, English explorer (d. 1611)
• 1605 – William Dugdale, English antiquarian (d. 1686)
• 1649 – Giuseppe Maria Tomasi, Italian cardinal (d. 1713)
• 1652 – Frederick Charles, Duke of Württemberg-Winnental (d. 1697)
• 1688 – Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (d. 1731)
• 1690 – Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (d. 1775)
• 1725 – Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (d. 1792)
• 1736 – Hsinbyushin, King of Burma (d. 1776)
• 1740 – Johann Heinrich Jung, German writer (d. 1817)
• 1759 – Maximilian von Montgelas, Bavarian politician (d. 1838)
• 1768 – Benjamin Carr, American composer, singer, teacher and publisher (d. 1831)
• 1800 – Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, French chess player (d. 1872)
• 1812 – Richard Hoe, American inventor and industrialist (d. 1886)
• 1818 – Richard Gatling, American weapons inventor (d. 1903)
• 1818 – Theodor Kullak, German pianist and composer (d. 1915)
• 1829 – Anselm Feuerbach, German painter (d. 1880)
• 1830 – William Sprague, 72nd Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1915)
• 1837 – Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (d. 1892)
• 1838 – Arthur Auwers, German astronomer (d. 1915)
• 1852 – H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1928)
• 1855 – William Sharp, Scottish writer (d. 1905)
• 1855 – Simon-Napoleon Parent, 12th Premier of Quebec (d. 1920)
• 1857 – Manuel Espinosa Batista, Panamanian politician and businessman (d. 1919)
• 1857 – George Hendrik Breitner, Dutch painter (d. 1923)
• 1865 – Sophus Claussen, Danish writer (d. 1931)
• 1866 – Freeman Freeman-Thompson, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, 13th Governor General of Canada (d. 1941)
• 1875 – Matsunosuke Onoe, Japanese actor (d. 1926)
• 1880 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and writer (d. 1956)
• 1885 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German photographer (d. 1957)
• 1887 – Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, Azerbaijani writer and statesman (d. 1943)
• 1888 – Maurice Chevalier, French singer and actor (d. 1972)
• 1889 – Ugo Pasquale Mifsud, 3rd Prime Minister of Malta (d. 1942)
• 1891 – Don Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate for Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965)
• 1891 – Fred Kelly, American athlete (d. 1974)
• 1891 – Arthur Hays Sulzberger, American publisher (d. 1968)
• 1892 – Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher (d. 1984)
• 1894 – Friedrich Ebert, Jr., German politician (d. 1979)
• 1894 – Billy Gilbert, American actor and composer (d. 1971)
• 1897 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1956)
• 1898 – Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer (d. 1963)

1901 – 1950

• 1901 – Ben Blue, Canadian actor and comedian (d. 1975)
• 1901 – Shmuel Horowitz, Russian-Israeli agronomist (d. 1999)
• 1902 – Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
• 1904 – Gavriil Popov, Russian composer (d. 1972)
• 1904 – Istvan Horthy, Hungarian admiral (d. 1942)
• 1907 – Roger Bonvin, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1982)
• 1912 – Frances Lennon, English artist (d. 2015)
• 1913 – Jesse Owens, American athlete, four-time Olympic champion (d. 1980)
• 1913 – Eiji Toyoda, Japanese industrialist (d. 2013)
• 1914 – Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (d. 1999)
• 1915 – Frank McGee, American journalist (d. 1974)
• 1916 – Tony Bettenhausen, American race car driver (d. 1961)
• 1921 – Stanislaw Lem, Polish writer (d. 2006)
• 1922 – Antonio Cafiero, Argentine politician (d. 2014)
• 1924 – Amilcar Cabral, Cape Verdean-Guinea-Bissauan politician (d. 1973)
• 1925 – Stan Lopata, American baseball player (d. 2013)
• 1925 – Dickie Moore, American actor (d. 2015)
• 1927 – Mathé Altéry, French soprano and actress
• 1928 – Ernie Vandeweghe, American basketball player (d. 2014)
• 1930 – Gunder Gundersen, Norwegian skier (d. 2005)
• 1930 – Akira Suzuki, Japanese chemist
• 1931 – Sir Ian Holm, English actor
• 1931 – George Jones, American singer (d. 2013)
• 1931 – Adrian Rogers, American religious leader (d. 2005)
• 1932 – Atli Dam, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 2005)
• 1933 – Tatiana Doronina, Russian actress
• 1934 – Jaegwon Kim, Korean-American philosopher
• 1934 – Glenn Davis, American athlete (d. 2009)
• 1937 – George Chuvalo, Canadian boxer
• 1938 – Claude Ruel, French-Canadian ice hockey coach (d. 2015)
• 1939 – Nobuyuki Oishi, Japanese footballer
• 1939 – Henry Waxman, United States Congressman
• 1940 – Joachim Frank, German-American biophysicist, joint 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
• 1940 – Mickey Lolich, American baseball player
• 1940 – Linda Gray, American actress
• 1943 – Maria Muldaur, American singer
• 1943 – Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lankan-born writer
• 1944 – Leonard Peltier, Native American activist
• 1944 – Yoshio Kikugawa, Japanese footballer
• 1944 – Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)
• 1944 – Vladimir Spivakov, Russian violinist and conductor
• 1944 – Colin Young, American singer
• 1949 – Irina Rodnina, Russian figure skater
• 1949 – Charles Burlingame, American pilot (d. 2001)

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Joe Pantoliano, American actor
• 1951 – Bertie Ahern, Irish politician and former Taoiseach
• 1951 – Ali-Ollie Woodson, American singer and musician (d. 2010)
• 1952 – Neil Peart, Canadian musician and writer (Rush) (d. 2020)
• 1952 – Gerry Beckley, American musician
• 1953 – Fiona Mactaggart, Scottish politician
• 1954 – Peter Scolari, American actor
• 1956 – Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong singer (d. 2003)
• 1956 – Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
• 1956 – Sam Brownback, American politician, 46th Governor of Kansas
• 1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1957 – Hans Zimmer, German composer
• 1957 – Rachel Ward, English actress
• 1958 – Wilfredo Benitez, American boxer
• 1959 – Sigmar Gabriel, German politician
• 1959 – Scott Brown, United States Senator
• 1959 – Hisashi Kaneko, Japanese footballer
• 1960 – Stefanos Korkolis, Greek songwriter and pianist
• 1961 – Mylène Farmer, French singer-songwriter
• 1962 – Amy Yasbeck, American actress
• 1964 – Dieter Hecking, German footballer
• 1966 – Ben Folds, American musician
• 1966 – Vezio Sacratini, Italian ice hockey player
• 1967 – Mirko Slomka, German footballer and manager
• 1967 – Pat Listach, American baseball player
• 1968 – Paul F. Tompkins, American comedian, actor and screenwriter
• 1969 – Mika Myllyla, Finnish cross-country skier (d. 2011)
• 1969 – Angel Cabrera, Argentine golfer
• 1969 – Shigeki Maruyama, Japanese golfer
• 1971 – Chandra Sturrup, Bahamanian athlete
• 1973 – Darren Campbell, British athlete
• 1973 – Martin Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1973 – Paul Walker, American actor (d. 2013)
• 1974 – Caroline Aigle, French pilot (d. 2007)
• 1974 – Nuno Valente, Portuguese footballer

From 1976

• 1976 – Maciej Zurawski, Polish footballer
• 1976 – 2 Chainz, American rapper
• 1976 – Lauren Stamile, American actress
• 1977 – Nathan Bracken, Australian cricketer
• 1977 – James McCartney, British musician
• 1978 – Ruben Studdard, American singer
• 1980 – Sean Burroughs, American baseball player
• 1980 – Josef Vasicek, Czech ice hockey player (d. 2011)
• 1980 – Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player
• 1981 – Jennifer Hudson, American singer and actress
• 1983 – Sergio Parisse, Argentine-born Italian rugby player
• 1984 – September, Swedish singer
• 1985 – Hiroki Mizumoto, Japanese footballer
• 1986 – Yuto Nagatomo, Japanese footballer
• 1986 – Joanne Jackson, British swimmer
• 1986 – Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer
• 1987 – Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstani tennis player
• 1988 – Amanda Jenssen, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1989 – Freddie Freeman, American baseball player
• 1992 – Sviatlana Pirazhenka, Belarussian tennis player
• 1993 – Kelsea Ballerini, American singer
• 1994 – Elina Svitolina, Ukrainian tennis player
• 1994 – Mhairi Black, Scottish politician
• 1996 – Colin Ford, American actor

Up to 1900

• 640 – Sak K'uk', Maya Queen of Palenque
• 1185 – Andronikos I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1118)
• 1213 – Peter II of Aragon (b. 1174)
• 1348 – Joan the Lame, Queen of France (b. 1293)
• 1362 – Pope Innocent VI (b. 1295)
• 1369 – Blanche of Lancaster (b. 1345)
• 1500 – Albert III, Duke of Saxony (b. 1443)
• 1612 – Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (b. 1552)
• 1660 – Jacob Cats, Dutch poet, jurist and politician (b. 1577)
• 1683 – King Afonso VI of Portugal (b. 1643)
• 1691 – John George III, Elector of Saxony (b. 1647)
• 1764 – Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (b. 1683)
• 1829 – Juan Ignacio Molina, Chilean naturalist (b. 1740)
• 1870 – Fitz Hugh Ludlow, American writer (b. 1836)
• 1874 – François Guizot, 22nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1787)
• 1885 – Ranbir Singh, 2nd Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir (b. 1830)

1901 – 2000

• 1903 – Duncan Gillies, Australian politician, 14th Premier of Victoria (b. 1834)
• 1907 – Ilia Chavchavadze, Georgian poet, journalist and lawyer (b. 1837)
• 1918 – George Reid, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
• 1919 – Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (b. 1871)
• 1929 – Rainis, Latvian poet, playwright and politician (b. 1865)
• 1938 – Prince Arthur of Connaught (b. 1883)
• 1945 – Hajime Sugiyama, Japanese general (b. 1880)
• 1956 – Hans Carossa, German writer (b. 1878)
• 1956 – Sandor Festetics, Hungarian politician (b. 1882)
• 1960 – Dino Borgioli, Italian tenor (b. 1891)
• 1977 – Steve Biko, South African anti-Apartheid activist (b. 1946)
• 1977 – Robert Lowell, American poet (b. 1917)
• 1981 – Eugenio Montale, Italian poet (b. 1896)
• 1982 – Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer (b. 1891)
• 1986 – Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer (b. 1894)
• 1992 – Anthony Perkins, American actor (b. 1932)
• 1993 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (b. 1917)
• 1994 – Boris Yegorov, Russian physician and cosmonaut (b. 1937)
• 1995 – Jeremy Brett, English actor (b. 1933)
• 1995 – Yasutomo Nagai, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1965)
• 1996 – Ernesto Geisel, President of Brazil (b. 1907)
• 2000 – Gary Olsen, English actor (b. 1957)

From 2001

• 2001 – Victor Wong, Chinese-American actor (b. 1927)
• 2003 – Johnny Cash, American country music singer (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Max Abramowitz, American architect (b. 1908)
• 2008 – David Foster Wallace, American writer (b. 1962)
• 2009 – Norman Borlaug, American agronomist (b. 1914)
• 2009 – Jack Kramer, American tennis player (b. 1921)
• 2009 – Willy Ronis, French photographer (b. 1910)
• 2010 – Claude Chabrol, French movie director (b. 1930)
• 2011 – Alexander Galimov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1985)
• 2012 – Sid Watkins, British neurosurgeon (b. 1928)
• 2012 – Derek Jameson, British tabloid journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
• 2013 – Erich Loest, German writer (b. 1926)
• 2013 – Otto Sander, German actor (b. 1941)
• 2013 – Ray Dolby, American engineer and inventor (b. 1933)
• 2014 – Atef Ebeid, Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1932)
• 2014 – Ian Paisley, Northern Irish religious and political leader (b. 1926)
• 2014 – John Bardon, English actor (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Antony Kidman, Australian psychologist, biochemist and writer (b. 1938)
• 2015 – Adrian Frutiger, Swiss typeface designer (b. 1928)
• 2016 – Gunilla Bernadotte, Swedish duchess (b. 1923)
• 2016 – Ellen Burka, Canadian-Dutch figure skater (b. 1921)
• 2016 – Stanley Steinbaum, American activist (b. 1920)
• 2017 – Heiner Geissler, German politician (b. 1930)
• 2017 – Alex Hawkins, American football player (b. 1937)
• 2017 – Siegfried Köhler, German conductor (b. 1923)
• 2017 – Allan MacEachen, Canadian politician (b. 1921)
• 2017 – Edith Windsor, American LGBT rights activist and technological manager at IBM (b. 1929)
• 2018 – Henry Kalis, American politician (b. 1937)
• 2018 – Hans Kloss, German artist and graphic designer (b. 1938)
• 2018 – Walter Mischel, Austrian-American psychologist (b. 1930)
• 2018 – Billy O'Dell, American baseball player (b. 1933)
• 2018 – Shen Chun-shan, Taiwanese physicist and academic (b. 1932)
• 2018 – Rachid Taha, Algerian singer, songwriter and activist (b. 1958)

• National Day of Cape Verde
• Ethiopian New Year
• Day of Conception (Russia)
• Defenders Day (Maryland)