UN
Day
International
Day of Plant Health [FAO]
Events
of the day
International
Nurses Day
In
January 1974, the decision was made to celebrate
the day on 12 May as it is the anniversary
of the birth of Florence Nightingale, who
is widely considered the founder of modern
nursing. Each year, ICN prepares and distributes
the International Nurses' Day Kit. The kit
contains educational and public information
materials, for use by nurses everywhere.
254
– Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I
as the 23rd pope.
304 – Roman Emperor Diocletian orders the
beheading of the 14-year-old Pancras of
Rome.
922 – After much hardship, Abbasid envoy
Ahmad ibn Fadlan arrived in the lands of
Volga Bulgars.
1191 – Richard I of England marries Berengaria
of Navarre who is crowned Queen consort
of England the same day.
1264 – The Battle of Lewes, between King
Henry III of England and the rebel Simon
de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, begins.
1328 – Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to
the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the
Bishop of Venice.
1364 – Jagiellonian University, the oldest
university in Poland, is founded in Kraków,
Poland.
1551 – National University of San Marcos,
the oldest university in the Americas, is
founded in Lima, Peru.
1588 – French Wars of Religion: Henry III
of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise
enters the city and a spontaneous uprising
occurs.
1689 – King William's War: William III of
England joins the League of Augsburg starting
a war with France.
1743 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned
Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival,
Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the
largest defeat of the Continental Army,
Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British
forces.
1797 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France
conquers Venice.
1821 – The first big battle of the Greek
War of Independence against the Turks occurs
in Valtetsi.
1862 – U.S. federal troops occupy Baton
Rouge, Louisiana.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Raymond:
two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII
Corps (ACW) turn the left wing of Confederate
General John C. Pemberton's defensive line
on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior
of Mississippi to the Union Army during
the Vicksburg Campaign.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of
Spotsylvania Court House: thousands of Union
and Confederate soldiers die in "the
Bloody Angle".
1865 – American Civil War: the Battle of
Palmito Ranch: the first day of the last
major land action to take place during the
Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1870 – The Manitoba Act is given the Royal
Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become
a province of Canada on July 15.
1873 – Oscar II is crowned King of Sweden.
1881 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes
a French protectorate.
1885 – North-West Rebellion: the four-day
Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against
the Canadian government, comes to an end
with a decisive rebel defeat.
1905 – Swedish King Oscar II excommunicates
Norway, thus granting Norway its independence.
Celebrated as Tolfte Maj throughout Sweden.
1908 – Nathan Stubblefield receives patent
for wireless telephone.
1916 – James Connolly was sat on a chair
and shot dead in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin,
after his role in the Easter Uprising
1926 – UK General Strike 1926: In the United
Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade
unions ends.
1926 – The Italian-built airship Norge becomes
the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.
1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction Charles
Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh
is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just
a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
1933 – The Agricultural Adjustment Act is
enacted to restrict agricultural production
by paying farmers subsidies.
1935 – Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (founders
of Alcoholics Anonymous) meet for the first
time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta
Siberling.
1937 – George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
are crowned King and Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1941 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the
world's first working programmable, fully
automatic computer, in Berlin.
1942 – World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov:
in eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under
Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major
offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only
to be encircled and destroyed by the troops
of Army Group South two weeks later.
1942 – World War II: The U.S. tanker Virginia
was torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi
River by the German U-Boat U-507.
1942 – Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to
gas chambers in Auschwitz.
1945 – Argentinian labour leader José Peter
declares the Federación Obrera de la Industria
de la Carne dissolved.
1948 – Wilhelmina, Queen regnant of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands cedes throne.
1949 – The Soviet Union lifts its blockade
of Berlin.
1949 – The western occupying powers approve
the Basic Law for the new German state:
the Federal Republic of Germany.
1952 – Gaj Singh is crowned Maharaja of
Jodhpur.
1955 – Nineteen days after bus workers went
on strike in Singapore, rioting breaks out
and seriously impacts Singapore's bid for
independence.
1955 – Austria regains its independence
as the Allied occupation following World
War II ends.
1958 – A formal North American Aerospace
Defense Command agreement is signed between
the United States and Canada.
1962 – Douglas MacArthur delivers his Duty,
Honor, Country valedictory speech at the
United States Military Academy.
1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes
on the Moon.
1968 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops
defending Fire Support Base Coral, east
of Lai Khe in South Vietnam on the night
of 12/13 May, resulting in heavy casualties
on both sides and beginning the Battle of
Coral-Balmoral.
1975 – Mayagüez incident: the Cambodian
navy seizes the American merchant ship SS
Mayaguez in international waters.
1978 – In Zaire, rebels occupy the city
of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province
of Shaba (now known as Katanga). The local
government asks the U.S.A., France and Belgium
to restore order.
1981 – Francis Hughes starves to death in
the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign
for political prisoner status to be granted
to Provisional IRA prisoners.
1982 – During a procession outside the shrine
of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal,
security guards overpower Juan Fernandez
Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul
II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative
Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II
reforms, believed that the Pope had to be
killed for being an "agent of Moscow".
1998 – Four students are shot at Trisakti
University, leading to widespread riots
and the fall of Suharto
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter
arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with
Fidel Castro becoming the first President
of the United States, in or out of office,
to visit the island since Castro's 1959
revolution.
2003 – The Riyadh compound bombings, carried
out by Al Qaeda, kill 26 people.
2003 – Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers bring
the Texas Legislature to a standstill by
going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican
congressional redistricting plan.
2006 – Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando
da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil),
leaving at least 150 dead.
2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon
published in an Iranian magazine as insulting,
resulting in massive riots throughout the
country.
2007 – Riots in which over 50 people are
killed and over 100 are injured take place
in Karachi upon the arrival in town of the
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry.
2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0
magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing
over 69,000 people.
2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
conducts the largest-ever raid of workplace
and arrests nearly 400 immigrants for identity
theft and document fraud.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Blessed Imelda
Blessed Joan of Portugal
Crispoldus
Dominic de la Calzada
Epiphanius of Salamis
Florence Nightingale, Nurse, CE 1910 (Anglican
Communion)
Modoald
Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla, and Pancras
Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople (Eastern
Church)
Philip of Agira
May 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
J.V. Snellman’s Day, also Day of Finnishness.
(Finland)
International Nurses Day (International)
For details, contact Datacentre
