History of 12 March
1903 – The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.
1905 – In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife.
1906 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits.
1909 – The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.
1909 – Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.
1911 – Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.
1912 – The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.
1923 – Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated photo film. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.
1930 – Gandhi began his 200-mile march to the sea that symbolized his defiance of British rule over India.
1933 – President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side.
1933 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the “Fireside Chats.”
1935 – Parimutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska.
1938 – The “Anschluss” took place as German troops entered Austria.
1940 – Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War.
1944 – Britain barred all travel to Ireland.
1947 – U.S. President Truman established the “Truman Doctrine” to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1959 – The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.
1966 – Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season.
1974 – “Wonder Woman” debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV.
1984 – Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine years of war.
1985 – The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.
1985 – Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks.
1985 – Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.
1987 – “Les Miserables” opened on Broadway.
1989 – Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end the civil war.
1989 – About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.
1992 – Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth.
1993 – In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.
1993 – Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.
1994 – A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached.
1994 – The Church of England ordained its first women priests.
1998 – Astronomers canceled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles.
1999 – Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All three countries were members of the former Warsaw Pact.
2002 – U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.
2002 – Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion.
2003 – In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.
2003 – The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.
2009 – It was announced that the Sears Tower in Chicago, IL, would be renamed Willis Tower.
2010 – In the U.S., Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad.
2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan’s earthquake.
2014 – A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others.
2019 – In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Kenta Kobayashi, Japanese wrestler, and kickboxer
- 1981 – Chiwa Saito, Japanese voice actress
- 1981 – Katarina Srebotnik, a Slovenian tennis player
- 1981 – Holly Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1982 – Lili Bordan, Hungarian-American actress
- 1982 – Samm Levine, American actor, and comedian
- 1982 – Ilya Nikulin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Hisato Sato, Japanese footballer
- 1982 – Yuto Sato, Japanese footballer
- 1982 – Tobias Schweinsteiger, German footballer
- 1983 – Atif Aslam, Pakistani singer, and actor
- 1984 – Shreya Ghoshal, Indian singer
- 1984 – Jaimie Alexander, American actress
- 1985 – Macarena Aguilar, Spanish handballer
- 1985 – Marco Bonanomi, Italian racing driver
- 1985 – Aleksandr Bukharov, Russian footballer
- 1985 – Choi Cheol-Han, South Korean Go player
- 1985 – Ed Clancy, English track and road cyclist
- 1985 – Andriy Tovt, Ukrainian footballer
- 1986 – Martynas Andriuskevicius, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1986 – Campbell Best, Cook Islands footballer
- 1986 – Oleh Dopilka, Ukrainian footballer
- 1986 – Danny Jones, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1986 – Ben Offereins, Australian runner
- 1986 – Frantisek Rajtoral, Czech footballer (d. 2017)
- 1987 – Manuele Boaro, Italian cyclist
- 1987 – Jessica Hardy, American swimmer
- 1987 – Maxwell Holt, American volleyball player
- 1987 – Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijani chess player
- 1987 – Chris Seitz, American soccer player
- 1987 – Vadim Shipachyov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Pablo Velazquez, Paraguayan footballer
- 1988 – Sebastian Brendel, German canoe racer
- 1988 – Kostas Mitroglou, Greek footballer
- 1988 – Cristian Chagas Tarouco, Brazilian footballer
- 1989 – Jordan Adeoti, French footballer
- 1989 – Vytautas Cerniauskas, Lithuanian footballer
- 1989 – Tyler Clary, former American swimmer
- 1989 – Richard Eckersley, English footballer
- 1989 – Nathan Haas, Australian cyclist
- 1989 – Chen Jianghua, Chinese basketball player
- 1989 – Siim Luts, Estonian footballer
- 1990 – Lawrence Clarke, English hurdler
- 1990 – Alexander Krockel, German skeleton racer
- 1990 – Irakli Kvekveskiri, Georgian footballer
- 1990 – Dawid Kubacki, Polish ski jumper
- 1990 – Matias Myttynen, Finnish ice hockey player
- 1990 – Ilija Nestorovski, Macedonian footballer
- 1990 – Milena Raicevic, Montenegrin handballer
- 1990 – Mikko Sumusalo, Finnish footballer
- 1991 – Felix Kroos, German footballer
- 1991 – Niclas Heimann, German footballer
- 1991 – Hanna Pysmenska, Ukrainian diver
- 1991 – Leandro Fernandez, Argentine footballer
- 1992 – Daniele Baselli, Italian footballer
- 1992 – Jordan Ferri, French footballer
- 1992 – Ciara Mageean, Irish middle-distance runner
- 1992 – Jiri Skalak, Czech footballer
- 1993 – Shehu Abdullahi, Nigerian footballer
- 1993 – Amjad Attwan, Iraqi footballer
- 1993 – Alex Bellemare, Canadian skier
- 1993 – Anton Shramchenko, Belarusian footballer
- 1994 – Jerami Grant, American basketball player
- 1994 – Katie Archibald, Scottish track cyclist
- 1994 – Christina Grimmie, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
- 1996 – Sehrou Guirassy, French footballer
- 1996 – Karim Hafez, Egyptian footballer
- 1996 – Robert Murić, Croatian footballer
- 1997 – Dean Henderson, English footballer
- 1997 – Allan Saint-Maximin, French footballer
- 1997 – Felipe Vizeu, Brazilian footballer
- 1998 – Alina Muller, Swiss ice hockey player
- 1998 – Daniel Samohin, Israeli figure skater
- 1998 – Elizaveta Ukolova, Czech figure skater
- 1999 – Sakura Oda, Japanese pop singer
- 2003 – Malina Weissman, American child actress, and model
