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

Events

• 490 BC - Athens defeats Persia at the Battle of Marathon
• 1213 - Peter II of Aragon, the king of Aragon, died at the Battle of Muret.
• 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River
• 1683 - Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna - Several European armies joined forces to defeat the Ottoman Empire.
• 1846 - Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning.
• 1847 - Battle of Chapultepec
• 1890 - Salisbury, Rhodesia is founded.
• 1933 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
• 1938 - Adolf Hitler demands autonomy for the Germans of the Czechoslovakia
• 1940 - Cave paintings discovered in France
• 1940 - The Hercules Munitions Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.
• 1942 - RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
• 1943 - Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest by German commando Otto Skorzeny
• 1947 - Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath
• 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• 1953 - John F. Kennedy marries Jackie Bouvier
• 1957 - NORAD began operations.
• 1959 - Bonanza premiers. First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color
• 1962 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade
• 1974 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the Rastafarian 'Messiah', is deposed following a military coup by the Derg.
• 1980 - Military coup in Turkey
• 1983 - A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut was robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros
• 1990 - The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German re-unification.
• 1992 - Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African-American woman in space
• 1992 - Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, was captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well.
• 1994 - The Netscape web browser is released.
• 2001 - NATO Article V of the NATO agreement is invoked for the first time in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States of America.
• 2003 - During the Ontario general election, 2003, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party issued a press release that called the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party an "Evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet".
• 2003 - The United Nations lifted Libya after Libya agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Births

• 1449 - Lorenzo de Medici, Italian politician (d. 1492)
• 1812 - Richard Hoe, inventor, industrialist (d. 1886)
• 1818 - Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun (d. 1903)
• 1880 - H. L. Mencken, journalist, author (d. 1956)
• 1888 - Maurice Chevalier, singer, actor (d. 1972)
• 1891 - Don Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate for Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965)
• 1892 - Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher (d. 1984)
• 1897 - Irene Joliot-Curie, scientist (d. 1956)
• 1901 - Ben Blue, vaudeville star (d. 1975)
• 1902 - Margaret Hamilton, actress (d. 1985)
• 1912 - Jacques Fath, French couturier (d. 1954)
• 1913 - Jesse Owens, athlete (d. 1980)
• 1914 - Desmond Llewelyn, actor (d. 1999)
• 1915 - Frank McGee, journalist (d. 1974)
• 1916 - Tony Bettenhausen, race car driver (d. 1961)
• 1921 - Stanislaw Lem, science fiction writer
• 1931 - Sir Ian Holm, actor
• 1931 - George Jones, country music singer
• 1934 - Glenn Davis, Olympic Games track and field gold medalist
• 1937 - George Chuvalo, Croatian - Canadian boxing champion
• 1940 - Mickey Lolich, baseball pitcher
• 1943 - Maria Muldaur, singer
• 1943 - Michael Ondaatje, author and poet
• 1944 - Barry White, singer (d. 2003)
• 1951 - Joe Pantoliano, actor (The Matrix, The Sopranos)
• 1952 - Neil Peart, musician
• 1954 - Peter Scolari, actor
• 1956 - Ricky Rudd, NASCAR race car driver
• 1957 - Rachel Ward, actress
• 1958 - Wilfredo Benitez, three time world champion boxer
• 1966 - Ben Folds, musician
• 1973 - Paul Walker, actor
• 1973 - Darren Campbell, British athlete
• 1978 - Ruben Studdard, winner of the second American Idol
• 1980 - Yao Ming, Chinese NBA star
• 1980 - Sean Burroughs, Major league baseball player

Deaths

• 1213 - King Peter II of Aragon
• 1362 - Pope Innocent VI
• 1764 - Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer
• 1918 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1927 - Sarah Frances Whiting, physicist and astronomer (b. 1847)
• 1968 - Tommy Armour, golfer (b. 1894)
• 1972 - William Boyd, actor
• 1977 - Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist
• 1992 - Anthony Perkins, actor
• 1993 - Willie Mosconi, billiards champion
• 1993 - Raymond Burr, actor
• 1994 - Tom Ewell, actor
• 1994 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
• 2003 - Johnny Cash, country music singer and guitarist
• 2003 - John Ritter, American actor

Holidays and observances

• National Day in Cape Verde

See also:

September 11 - September 13 - August 12 - October 12 -- listing of all days