Wikipedia defines history as the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. It came from the Greek word ‘historia’ – which means ‘inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation’.
Did you know? There are many who claim Herodotus, a fifth century BC Greek historian, as the “father of history”.
This website utilizes pages from Wikipedia to extract historical events from 3761 BC up to the present. There are 105,060 records in the database that include events, births and deaths of popular individuals. The present day Gregorian calendar was adopted to show dates of interest.
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What are the important events that happened on May 12? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 12: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 12 is the 132nd day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 233 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 29, 2025 – a Monday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 29,116,800 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatriacontadigon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 281 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,525 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 12 Historical Events
- 1588 –French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs.
- 1797 –First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice.
- 1941 –Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world’s first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
- 2003 –The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26 people.
- 2006 –Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead.
Who were born on May 12?
- 1850 –Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (d. 1924)
- 1907 –Leslie Charteris, British author and screenwriter (d. 1993)
- 1967 –Joe McKinney, Irish actor
- 1982 –David Thaxton, British stage actor and singer
- 1985 –Tally Hall, American footballer
Who died on May 12?
- 1699 –Lucas Achtschellinck, Flemish painter (b. 1626)
- 1708 –Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1658)
- 1860 –Charles Barry, English architect (b. 1795)
- 1889 –John Cadbury, English chocolate entrepreneur (b. 1801)
- 1999 –Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baaz, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia 1993-1999 (b. 1910)
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