On this day in history

September 12

33 births · 16 deaths · 5 events

Prev Virgo Next

Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

343

Battle of Vienna

343 years ago

Born this day

1897

Irène Joliot-Curie

Would be 129

Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation · Public domain

Oldest record

532nd

Francis I of France

birth anniversary

View profile

Famous births33

1494 · 532 yrs

Francis I of France

Francis I (French: François Ier; Middle French: Françoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 52

View profile Photo (modified): Jean Clouet · Public domain

1852 · 174 yrs

H. H. Asquith

Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), was a British statesman, Liberal politician and barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 until his resignation in 1916.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Bain News Service · Public domain

1880 · 146 yrs

H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MediaWould be 146

View profile Photo (modified): Ben Pinchot · Public domain

1888 · 138 yrs

Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (French:; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor, and entertainer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): William Morris Agency (management). · Public domain

1897 · 129 yrs

Irène Joliot-Curie

Irène Joliot-Curie (French:; née Curie; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. The couple also discovered positron emission during their research.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 129

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation · Public domain

1902 · 124 yrs

Juscelino Kubitschek

Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation:; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 124

View profile Photo (modified): Governo do Brasil · Public domain

1913 · 113 yrs

Jesse Owens

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete. He made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting individual Olympic records in each event, plus another as a member of the 400-meter relay.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 113

View profile Photo (modified): Acme News Photos · Public domain

1921 · 105 yrs

Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Herman Lem (Polish:; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): Courtesy of Lem's secretary, Wojciech Zemek. Resize and digital processing by Masur. · CC BY-SA 3.0

1924 · 102 yrs

Amílcar Cabral

Amílcar Lopes Cabral (Portuguese:; (1924-09-12)12 September 1924 – (1973-01-20)20 January 1973) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, political organizer, diplomat, and half-brother of Luís Cabral. He was widely remembered as one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 102

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

1930 · 96 yrs

Akira Suzuki

Akira Suzuki (鈴木章, Suzuki Akira; born September 12, 1930) is a Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate (2010), who first published the Suzuki reaction, the organic reaction of an aryl- or vinyl-boronic acid with an aryl- or vinyl-halide catalyzed by a palladium(0) complex, in 1979.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceAge 96

View profile Photo (modified): 日本学士院 · CC BY 4.0

1931 · 95 yrs

Ian Holm

Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor. After graduating from RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 95

View profile Photo (modified): CossieMoJo at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

1935 · 91 yrs

Harvey J. Alter

Harvey James Alter (born September 12, 1935) is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceAge 91

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

Showing 12 of 33

Famous deaths16

1544 · 482 yrs

Clément Marot

Clément Marot (English: mah-ROH, French:; 23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet. He was influenced by the writers of the late 15th century and paved the way for the Pléiade, and is undoubtedly the most important poet at the court of Francis I.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 48

View profile Photo (modified): User:Rufinus~commonswiki · Public domain

1764 · 262 yrs

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau (French:; (1683-09-25)25 September 1683 – (1764-09-12)12 September 1764) was a French composer and music theorist of the late Baroque era.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Joseph Aved / Formerly attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin · Public domain

1812 · 214 yrs

Pyotr Bagration

Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration (10 July 1765 – 24 September 1812) was a Russian general and prince of Georgian origin, prominent during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Bagration, a member of the Bagrationi dynasty, was born in Kizlyar.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 47

View profile Photo (modified): Workshop of George Dawe · Public domain

1819 · 207 yrs

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (German pronunciation:; 16 December 1742 – 12 September 1819), Graf (count), later elevated to Fürst (prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 76

View profile Photo (modified): Peter Edward Stroehling · Public domain

1874 · 152 yrs

François Guizot

François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (English: gih-ZOH, French:; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics between the July Revolution and the Revolution of 1848.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 86

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

1919 · 107 yrs

Leonid Andreyev

Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev (Russian: Леони́д Никола́евич Андре́ев, 21 August 1871 – 12 September 1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of expressionism in Russian literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 48

View profile Photo (modified): Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (1871 - 1919) · Public domain

1931 · 95 yrs

Lili Elbe

Lili Ilse Elvenes (28 December 1882 – 13 September 1931), better known as Lili Elbe, was a Danish painter, transgender woman, and one of the earliest recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Elbe was a painter under her male birth name.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY 4.0

1977 · 49 yrs

Steve Biko

Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 79

View profile Photo (modified): Cape Argus · Public domain

1981 · 45 yrs

Eugenio Montale

Eugenio Montale (Italian:; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): Kaj Hagman. · Public domain

1992 · 34 yrs

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 94

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown (Paramount Pictures) · Public domain

2003 · 23 yrs

Johnny Cash

John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 94

View profile Photo (modified): CBS Television · Public domain

2009 · 17 yrs

Norman Borlaug

Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 112

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

Showing 12 of 16

Events5

1683 · 343 yrs

Battle of Vienna

The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 12 September 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1934 · 92 yrs

Baltic Entente

The Baltic Entente was based on Treaty of Good-Understanding and Co-operation signed between Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia on 12 September 1934 in Geneva. The main objective of the agreement was joint action in foreign policy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1974 · 52 yrs

Ethiopian Civil War

The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1980 · 46 yrs

1980 Turkish coup d'état

The 1980 Turkish coup d'état (Turkish: 12 Eylül darbesi, lit. '12 September coup d'état'), headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 coup by memorandum.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1990 · 36 yrs

Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany

The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (German: Vertrag über die abschließende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland), more commonly referred to as the Two Plus Four Agreement (Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag), is an international agreement that allowed the reunification of Germany in October 1990.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

Nearby dates

Born on September 12? Find your birthday matches →

Share September 12

Living room with framed Who Shares My Birthday poster

Close-up

FrameShown to scale · framed 34 × 46 cmThis is the frame we'll deliver, with a white mount

Printable keepsake

Your birthday matches poster

A personalised A3 framed print of everyone famous born on September 12, what happened on your birthday in history and your zodiac sign. We print and frame it for you and deliver it to your door (UK only).

Name on poster

Your photo

Kept private and only used to make your poster.