This Day in History

Reno sworn in as attorney general

12 Mar 1054

Pope Leo IX escapes captivity & returns to Rome

12 Mar 1088

Odo of Lagery elected as Pope Urban II succeeding Victor III

12 Mar 1144

Gherardo Caccianemici elected Pope Lucius II succeeding Callistus II

12 Mar 1350

Orvieto city says it will behead & burn Jewish-Christian couples

More History

The Blizzard of 1888

The most severe winter storm ever to hit the New York City region reaches blizzard proportions costing hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in property da...

Germany annexes Austria

On March 12 1938 German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich.In early 1938 Austrian Nazis conspired for the seco...

Mohandas Gandhi begins 241-mile civil disobedience march

On March 12 1930 Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi begins a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt his boldest act of c...

FDR broadcasts first fireside chat during the Great Depression

On this day in 1933 eight days after his inauguration President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio addressor fireside chat...

McCarthy does well in the Democratic primary

Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) an outspoken critic of the Johnson administrations policies in Vietnam polls 42 percent of the vote in New Hamps...

Australians withdraw from South Vietnam

The last remnants of the First Australian Task Force withdraw from Vietnam. The Australian government had first sent troops to Vietnam in 1964 with a small avia...

New York Highlanders join American League

On March 12 1903 the New York Highlanders are given the go-ahead by team owners to join baseballs American League. The Highlanders had recently moved ...

Chinese laborers excluded from U.S.

Agreeing to cooperate with a policy unilaterally adopted by Congress six years earlier China approves a treaty forbidding Chinese laborers to enter the United ...

The Dixie Chicks backlash begins

In response to the critical comments made about him by Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq President George W. Bush o...

Jack Kerouac is born

Jack Kerouac is born in Lowell Massachusetts. Kerouac was the son of French-Canadian parents and learned English as a second language. In high school Kerouac ...

Richard Pryor releases Live on the Sunset Strip

On this day in 1982 Live on the Sunset Strip the latest concert film recorded by the provocative comedian Richard Pryor arrives in movie theaters.Born in 194...

Hail causes stampede at soccer match in Nepal

On this day in 1988 a sudden hail storm prompts fans at a soccer match in Kathmandu Nepal to flee. The resulting stampede killed at least 70 people and...

Police recover Elizabeth Smart and arrest her abductors

On this day in 2003 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart is finally found in Sandy Utah nine months after being abducted from her familys home. Her alleged ki...

London police conduct drug raid at home of George Harrison

The London drug squad appears at house of George Harrison and Pattie Boyd with a warrant and drug-sniffing canines. Boyd immediately used the direct hotline to ...

President Truman announces the Truman Doctrine

In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination ...

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