On this day in history

December 12

27 births · 18 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Paris Agreement

10 years ago

Born this day

1821

Gustave Flaubert

Died aged 58

Photo (modified): Nadar · Public domain

Oldest record

1398th

Battle of Nineveh

event anniversary

Famous births27

1709 · 316 yrs

Julien Offray de La Mettrie

Julien Offray de La Mettrie (French:; 23 November 1709 – 11 November 1751) was a French physician and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment. He is best known for his 1747 work L'homme machine (Man a Machine).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 41

View profile Photo (modified): Georg Friedrich Schmidt · Public domain

1731 · 294 yrs

Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 1731 – 18 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor, freemason, and poet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 70

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph Wright of Derby · Public domain

1745 · 280 yrs

John Jay

John Jay (December 23, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the second governor of New York.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Gilbert Stuart · Public domain

1791 · 234 yrs

Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma

Marie Louise (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Theresia Josepha Lucia; 12 December 1791 – 17 December 1847) was Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death in 1847.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): François Gérard · Public domain

1799 · 226 yrs

Karl Bryullov

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (né Brüllo; Russian: Карл Па́влович Брюлло́в; 23 December 1799 – 23 June 1852) was a Russian painter and draughtsman during the Romantic period, remembered among the greatest visual artists in the history of Russian art.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 52

View profile Photo (modified): Karl Bryullov · Public domain

1821 · 204 yrs

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (UK: FLOH-bair, US: floh-BAIR; French:; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 58

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar · Public domain

1843 · 182 yrs

Lydia Koidula

Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen (24 December 1843 – 11 August 1886), known by her pen name and sobriquet Lydia Koidula (Lydia of the Dawn), was an Estonian poet. She is also frequently referred to as Koidulaulik ('Singer of the Dawn').

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 42

View profile Photo (modified): Reinhold Sachker · Public domain

1863 · 162 yrs

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch ( MUUNK; Norwegian:; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work The Scream has become one of the iconic and acclaimed images in all of Western art.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): Anders Beer Wilse · Public domain

1866 · 159 yrs

Alfred Werner

Alfred Werner (12 December 1866 – 15 November 1919) was a Swiss chemist who was a student at ETH Zurich and a professor at the University of Zurich. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913 for proposing the octahedral configuration of transition metal complexes.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 52

View profile Photo (modified): Franz Schmelhaus, Zürich · Public domain

1875 · 150 yrs

Gerd von Rundstedt

Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt (12 December 1875 – 24 February 1953) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) in the Heer (Army) of Nazi Germany and Oberbefehlshaber West (Commander-in-Chief in the West) during World War II.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 150

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1893 · 132 yrs

Edward G. Robinson

Edward Goldenberg Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893 – January 26, 1973) was an American actor who was popular during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 132

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1903 · 122 yrs

Yasujirō Ozu

Yasujirō Ozu (小津安二郎, Ozu Yasujirō; 12 December 1903 – 12 December 1963) was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Shigeru Tamura · Public domain

Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths18

1586 · 439 yrs

Stephen Báthory

Stephen Báthory (Hungarian: Báthory István; Polish: Stefan Batory; Lithuanian:; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania as well as Prince of Transylvania (1576–1586), after previously being Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 53

View profile Photo (modified): Creator:Wojciech Stefanowski · Public domain

1792 · 233 yrs

Denis Fonvizin

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (Russian: Денис Иванович Фонвизин, IPA:; 14 April 1745 – 12 December 1792) was a Russian playwright during the Age of Enlightenment. He was one of the founders of literary comedy in Russia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 47

View profile Photo (modified): Armand-Charles Caraffe · Public domain

1843 · 182 yrs

William I of the Netherlands

William I (Willem Frederik; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1815 until his abdication in 1840.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 71

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph Paelinck · Public domain

1889 · 136 yrs

Robert Browning

Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterisation, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): Herbert Rose Barraud / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1913 · 112 yrs

Menilek II

Menelik II (Ge'ez: ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ dagmawi mənilək; horse name Aba Dagnew (Amharic: አባ ዳኘው abba daññäw); 17 August 1844 – 12 December 1913), baptised as Sahle Maryam (ሣህለ ማርያም sahlä maryam), was king of Shewa from 1866 to 1889 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to his death in 1913.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 69

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1921 · 104 yrs

Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Henrietta Swan Leavitt (July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer. Her discovery of how to effectively measure vast astronomical distances led to a shift in the understanding of the scale and nature of the universe.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 53

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1939 · 86 yrs

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckling roles in silent films.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Harris & Ewing · Public domain

1947 · 78 yrs

Huda Sha'rawi

Huda Sha'arawi or Hoda Sha'rawi (Arabic: هدى شعراوي, ALA-LC: Hudá Sha‘rāwī; 23 June 1879 – 12 December 1947) was a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader, suffragette, nationalist, and founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Anonymous Unknown author · Public domain

1958 · 67 yrs

Milutin Milanković

Milutin Milanković (sometimes anglicised as Milutin Milankovitch; Serbian Cyrillic: Милутин Миланковић, pronounced; 28 May 1879 – 12 December 1958) was a Serbian mathematician, astronomer, climatologist, geophysicist, civil engineer, university professor, popularizer of science and academic.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1963 · 62 yrs

Theodor Heuss

Theodor Heuss (German:; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MediaWould be 142

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1963 · 62 yrs

Yasujirō Ozu

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Shigeru Tamura · Public domain

1985 · 40 yrs

Anne Baxter

Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and seven Photoplay Awards, and was nominated for an Emmy and two Laurel Awards.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 103

View profile Photo (modified): Modern Screen · Public domain

Showing 12 of 18

Events5

AD 627 · 1398 yrs

Battle of Nineveh

The Battle of Nineveh was the climactic battle of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. In mid-September 627, Heraclius invaded Sasanian Mesopotamia in a surprising, risky winter campaign.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1936 · 89 yrs

Xi'an Incident

The Xi'an Incident was a Chinese political crisis that lasted from 12 to 26 December 1936.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

1942 · 83 yrs

Operation Winter Storm

Operation Winter Storm (German: Unternehmen Wintergewitter) was a German offensive in December 1942 during World War II, in which the German 4th Panzer Army failed to break the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2015 · 10 yrs

Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2019 · 6 yrs

2019 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2019, with 47,074,800 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

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