On This Day in History - May 12 Americans Suffer Worst Defeat of Revolution

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history


May 12, 1780: Americans suffer worst defeat of revolution at Charleston

After a siege that began on April 2, 1780, Americans suffer their worst defeat of the revolution on this day in 1780, with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and his army of 10,000 at Charleston, South Carolina.  

With the victory, the British captured more than 3,000 Patriots and a great quantity of munitions and equipment, losing only 250 killed and wounded in the process. Confident of British control in the South, Lieutenant General Clinton sailed north to New York after the victory, having learned of an impending French expedition to the British-occupied northern state. He left General Charles Cornwallis in command of 8,300 British forces in the South.  

South Carolina was a deeply divided state, and the British presence let loose the full violence of a civil war upon the population. First, the British used Loyalists to pacify the Patriot population; the Patriots returned the violence in kind. The guerrilla warfare strategies employed by Patriots Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter and Nathanael Greene throughout the Carolina campaign of 1780-81 eventually chased the far more numerous British force into Virginia, where they eventually surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.  

Having suffered the humiliation of surrendering to the British at Charleston, Major General Lincoln was able to turn the tables and accept Cornwallis' ceremonial surrender to General George Washington at Yorktown on October 20.















May 12, 1949: Berlin blockade lifted

On May 12, 1949, an early crisis of the Cold War comes to an end when the Soviet Union lifts its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin's two million citizens.  

At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four sectors administered by the four major Allied powers: the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France. Berlin, the German capital, was likewise divided into four sectors, even though it was located deep within the Soviet sector of eastern Germany. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar treaty talks, especially after the United States, Britain, and France sought to unite their occupation zones into a single economic zone. In March 1948, the Soviet Union quit the Allied Control Council governing occupied Germany over this issue. In May, the three Western powers agreed to the imminent formation of West Germany, a nation that would exist entirely independent of Soviet-occupied eastern Germany. The three western sectors of Berlin were united as West Berlin, which was to be under the administration of West Germany.  

On June 20, as a major step toward the establishment of a West German government, the Western powers introduced a new Deutsche mark currency in West Germany and West Berlin. The Soviets condemned this move as an attack on the East German currency and on June 24 began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West. The four-power administration of Berlin had ceased with the unification of West Berlin, the Soviets said, and the Western powers no longer had a right to be there. With West Berlin's food, fuel, and other necessities cut off, the Soviets reasoned, it would soon have to submit to Communist control.  

Britain and the United States responded by initiating the largest airlift in history, flying 278,288 relief missions to the city during the next 14 months, resulting in the delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies. As the Soviets had cut off power to West Berlin, coal accounted for over two-thirds of the material delivered. In the opposite direction, return flights transported West Berlin's industrial exports to the West. Flights were made around the clock, and at the height of the Berlin airlift, in April 1949, planes were landing in the city every minute. Tensions were high during the airlift, and three groups of U.S. strategic bombers were sent as reinforcements to Britain while the Soviet army presence in eastern Germany increased dramatically. The Soviets made no major effort to disrupt the airlift. As a countermeasure against the Soviet blockade, the Western powers also launched a trade embargo against eastern Germany and other Soviet bloc countries.  

On May 12, 1949, the Soviets abandoned the blockade, and the first British and American convoys drove though 110 miles of Soviet Germany to reach West Berlin. On May 23, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formally established. On October 7, the German Democratic Republic, a Communist state, was proclaimed in East Germany. The Berlin airlift continued until September 30, in an effort to build up a year's supply of essential goods for West Berlin in the event of another Soviet blockade. Another blockade did not occur, but Cold War tensions over Berlin remained high, culminating in the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.  

With the gradual waning of Soviet power in the late 1980s, the Communist Party in East Germany began to lose its grip on power. Tens of thousands of East Germans began to flee the nation, and by late 1989 the Berlin Wall started to come down. Shortly thereafter, talks between East and West German officials, joined by officials from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR, began to explore the possibility of reunification, which was achieved on October 3, 1990. Two months following reunification, all-German elections took place and Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of the reunified Germany. Although this action came more than a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for many observers the reunification of Germany effectively marked the end of the Cold War.















May 12, 1918: Germany and Austria-Hungary sign pact to exploit Ukraine

On this day in 1918, the rulers of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Emperor Karl I, meet to sign an agreement pledging their mutual allegiance and determining to share the economic benefits from their relationship with the newly independent state of Ukraine, one of the most fertile and prosperous regions of the former Russian Empire.  

One of pre-war Russia's most prosperous areas, the vast, flat Ukraine (the name can be translated as at the border or borderland) was one of the major wheat-producing regions of Europe and was also rich with mineral resources, including vast deposits of iron and coal. The majority of Ukraine was incorporated into the Russian empire after the second partition of Poland in 1793, while the remaining section—the principality of Galicia—remained part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was a key battleground during World War I. With Bolshevik Russia having sued for peace with the Central Powers by the end of 1917, the Ukraine took the opportunity to declare its independence in January 1918.  

On February 9, 1918, the leaders of Ukraine's newly formed Rada government signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers, in which Germany and Austria-Hungary pledged to recognize the Ukrainian National Republic and to provide protection and military assistance against the Bolshevik forces of Russia that were occupying Ukrainian territory. In exchange, the Ukrainian National Republic would provide 100 million tons of food rations to Germany. In practice, the treaty amounted to a virtual annexation of the region by the Central Powers, who forced the Russian troops occupying the country to leave under the terms of the treaty at Brest-Litovsk, signed in March 1918, bringing in their own troops to preserve order and preside over the export of the promised wheat and other food resources to their home countries.  

The meeting of the two emperors, Wilhelm and Karl, on May 12 was intended not only to divide the much-needed spoils of the Ukraine treaty but also to strengthen the steadily unraveling alliance between the Central Powers as World War I stretched into its fourth exhausting year. On the Austro-Hungarian side, complete failure on the battlefield against the Russians in Galicia had only been averted by Germany's help and Russia's own revolution; indeed, Germany seemed the only hope to preserve the dying empire. For its part, Germany was in his last desperate gasp on the battlefields of the west, throwing everything it had into a major spring offensive that had met with early success but was now confronting a hardening Allied defense, including an influx of fresh troops from the United States. Less than a month later, the Allies would launch their own offensive on the Western Front.  

Time was running out for the Central Powers. On the home front, rampant hunger led to strikes and a general atmosphere of discontent and frustration with the war, both at home and on the battlefield. Barely a week after the May 12 meeting, the first in a series of mutinies occurred in the Austro-Hungarian army, led by a group of Slovenian nationalists. Similar rebellions were subsequently launched by Serbs, Rusyns (Ruthenians) and Czechs within the empire's troops. By the autumn, Germany was confronting mutinies within its own troops and an Allied breakthrough on the previously invincible Hindenburg Line; on November 11, 1918, the war was over. 
















May 12, 1941: Hitler backs Rashid Ali in his fight against Britain

On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler sends two bombers to Iraq to support Rashid Ali al-Gailani in his revolt against Britain, which is trying to enforce a previously agreed upon Anglo-Iraqi alliance.  

At the start of the war, Iraqi Prime Minister General Nuri as-Said severed ties with Germany and signed a cooperation pact with Great Britain. In April 1941, the Said government was overthrown by Ali, an anti-British general, who proceeded to cut off the British oil pipeline to the Mediterranean. Britain fought back by landing a brigade on the Persian Gulf, successfully fending off 9,000 Iraqi troops. Ali retaliated by sealing off the British airbase at Habbaniya. Hitler, elated at the grief the British enemy was enduring in the Middle East, began sending arms, via Syria, as well as military experts to aid Ali in his revolt.  

On May 12, Hitler sent Major Axel von Blomberg, an air force officer who was to act as a liaison between Iraq and Germany to Iraq, along with the two bombers. Blomberg arrived in the middle of an air battle between Iraqi and British fighters and was shot dead by a stray British bullet. By the end of the month, Iraq had surrendered, and Britain re-established the terms of the original 1930 cooperation pact. A pro-British government formed, with a cabinet led by former Prime Minister Said. Iraq went on to become a valuable resource for British and American forces in the region and in January 1942 became the first independent Muslim state to declare war on the Axis powers. 



















May 12, 1961: Lyndon B. Johnson visits South Vietnam 

Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon during his tour of Asian countries. Calling Diem the "Churchill of Asia," he encouraged the South Vietnamese president to view himself as indispensable to the United States and promised additional military aid to assist his government in fighting the communists. On his return home, Johnson echoed domino theorists, saying that the loss of Vietnam would compel the United States to fight "on the beaches of Waikiki" and eventually on "our own shores." With the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Johnson became president and inherited a deteriorating situation in South Vietnam. Over time, he escalated the war, ultimately committing more than 500,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam.


















May 12, 1963: Bob Dylan walks out on The Ed Sullivan Show

By the end of the summer of 1963, Bob Dylan would be known to millions who watched or witnessed his performances at the March on Washington, and millions more who did not know Dylan himself would know and love his music thanks to Peter, Paul and Mary's smash-hit cover version of "Blowin' In The Wind." But back in May, Dylan was still just another aspiring musician with a passionate niche following but no national profile whatsoever. His second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, had not yet been released, but he had secured what would surely be his big break with an invitation to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. That appearance never happened. On May 12, 1963, the young and unknown Bob Dylan walked off the set of the country's highest-rated variety show after network censors rejected the song he planned on performing.  

The song that caused the flap was "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues," a satirical talking-blues number skewering the ultra-conservative John Birch Society and its tendency to see covert members of an international Communist conspiracy behind every tree. Dylan had auditioned "John Birch" days earlier and had run through it for Ed Sullivan himself without any concern being raised. But during dress rehearsal on the day of the show, an executive from the CBS Standards and Practices department informed the show's producers that they could not allow Dylan to go forward singing "John Birch." While many of the song's lyrics about hunting down "reds" were merely humorous—"Looked up my chimney hole/Looked down deep inside my toilet bowl/They got away!"—others that equated the John Birch Society's views with those of Adolf Hitler raised the fear of a defamation lawsuit in the minds of CBS's lawyers. Rather than choose a new number to perform or change his song's lyrics—as the Rolling Stones and the Doors would famously do in the years to come—Dylan stormed off the set in angry protest.  

Or so goes the legend that helped establish Dylan's public reputation as an artist of uncompromising integrity. In reality, Bob Dylan was polite and respectful in declining to accede to the network's wishes. "I explained the situation to Bob and asked him if he wanted to do something else," recalls Ed Sullivan Show producer Bob Precht, "and Bob, quite appropriately, said 'No, this is what I want to do. If I can't play my song, I'd rather not appear on the show.'" It hardly mattered whether Dylan's alleged tantrum was fact or reality. The story got widespread media attention in the days that followed, causing Ed Sullivan himself to denounce the network's decision in published interviews. In the end, however, the free publicity Bob Dylan received may have done more for his career than his abortive national-television appearance scheduled for this day in 1963 ever could have.
























May 12, 1957: Race car driver A.J. Foyt gets first pro victory

On this day in 1957, race car driver A.J. Foyt (1935- ) scores his first professional victory, in a U.S. Automobile Club (USAC) midget car race in Kansas City, Missouri.

A tough-as-nails Texan, Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr. raced midget cars--smaller vehicles designed to be driven in races of shorter distances--and stock cars before moving up to bigger things in 1958, when he entered his first Indianapolis 500 race. Foyt won his first Indy 500 crown in 1961, when rival Eddie Sachs was forced to make a tire change in the final laps, giving Foyt the chance to overtake him and win with a then-record average speed of 139.13 mph.

The 1964 season saw Foyt earn a record-setting winning percentage of .769 with 10 wins in 13 races. His most important win that year came in the Indy 500, which he finished with an average speed of 147.45 mph. After a near-fatal crash in a stock car race in 1965--in which he broke his back, fractured his ankle and suffered severe chest injuries--Foyt came back to continue his string of impressive achievements. In 1967, he won his third Indy 500 in a car he had designed himself, with his father Tony as chief mechanic. Two weeks later, he traveled to France and won the 24 Hours of LeMans international competition with teammate Don Gurney. With a win at the Daytona 500 in 1972, Foyt became the first driver to win all three major races in motor sports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans.

In addition to the records for most total victories (67), most national championships (7) and most victories in one season (10), Foyt also has the most consecutive Indy 500 starts: He competed in the race for 35 straight years. His fourth win came in 1977, when the 42-year-old Foyt screamed around the track at an average speed of 161.331 mph. Only two other men have equaled his record of four Indy 500 wins.

In 1989, Foyt became the first driver inducted into the brand-new Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Novi, Michigan. He practiced at the Indy 500 track in 1993, but retired on the first day of qualifying races. Apart from auto racing teams, Foyt's later business interests have included car dealerships, funeral homes, oil investments and thoroughbred racehorses.


Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:


254 - Stephan I replaces Lucius I as Catholic Pope

919 - Duke Henry of Saxon becomes king Henry I of Oostfrankische rich

1082 - Battle at Mailberg: Vratislav II of Bohemia beats Leopold II of Austr

1215 - English barons serve ultimatum on king John without Country

1328 - Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV and assembly of priests select P Rainalducci as anti-Pope Nicolaas V

1328 - Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.

1459 - Sun City India founded by Rao Jodhpur

1525 - Battle at Biblingen: Zwabische Union beats rebel Wurttembergse farmers

1534 - Wurttemberg becomes Lutherian

1551 - San Marcos University in Lima Peru, opens

1588 - Catholic League under duke Henri de Guise occupies Paris. King Henry III fled Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly entered the city.

1604 - Spanish garrison of Aardenburg surrenders to Mauritius

1640 - Uprising against Spanish king Philip IV

1689 - England & Netherlands form League of Augsburg

1695 - English king Willem III departs to Netherlands

1701 - Drenthe adopts Gregorian calendar (yesterday is 4/29/1701)

1733 - Maria Theresa crowned queen of Bohemia in Prague

1776 - Turgot, French minister of Finance, resigns

1777 - First ice cream advertisement (Philip Lenzi-NY Gazette)

1780 - Charleston, South Carolina fell to the British forces that would occupy it. (Revolutionary War)

1789 - Society of St Tammany is formed by Revolutionary War soldiers. It later becomes an infamous group of NYC political bosses

1792 - Toilet that flushes itself at regular intervals is patented

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.

1831 - Edward Smith became the first indicted bank robber in the U.S.

1832 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera "L'elisir d'amore," premieres in Milan

1835 - Charles Darwin visits copper mines in North Chile

1847 - William Clayton invented the odometer.

1849 - Willem Alexander PFL crowned king Willem III in Amsterdam

1862 - Federal troops occupies Baton Rouge Louisiana

1863 - Battle of Raymond, Miss

1864 - Battle of Drewry's Bluff, VA (Ft Darling)

1864 - Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia

1864 - Battle of Todd's Tavern, VA (Sheridan's Raid)

1864 - Butler attacks Drewry's Bluff on James River

1864 - US Union colonel Emory Upton (24) promoted to brigade-general

1865 - Last land action of Civil war at Palmito Ranch, Texas

1870 - Manitoba entered the Confederation as a Canadian province.

1871 - Segregated street cars integrated in Louisville, Kentucky

1873 - Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Sweden.

1874 - US Assay Office in Helena, Montana authorized

1875 - First recorded shutout in pro baseball, Chicago 1, St Louis 0

1877 - Ottawa Rough Riders first outside competition vs Britannia

1881 - Treaty of Bardo, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate

1885 - In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebelled against the Canadian government.

1888 - Charles Sherrill of the Yale track team became the first runner to use the crouching start for a fast break in a foot race.

1890 - Louisiana legalized prize fighting

1890 - The first-ever official County Championship match begins. Yorkshire beats Gloucestershire by eight wickets at Bristol. George Ulyett scores the first century in the competition.

1891 - Riot against tax increase in Paramaribo Suriname

1894 - Ludwig Englander's musical "Passing Show," premieres in NYC

1897 - 1800-1900 year old fossil of "girl of Yde" found in Drente Neth

1897 - Battle at Thessalie: Turkish army defeated the Greeks

1898 - Louisiana adopts new constitution with "grandfather clause" designed to eliminate black voters

1900 - Boer attack under Sarel Eloff, about 70 killed

1900 - Lord Roberts' troops occupies Crown city

1901 - Pres McKinley visits San Francisco

1908 - George Bernard Shaws' "Getting Married," premieres in London

1908 - Wireless Radio Broadcasting is patented by Nathan B Stubblefield

1909 - 34th Preakness: Willie Doyle aboard Effendi wins in 1:39.8

1910 - Second NAACP conference (NYC)

1910 - Phil A's Chief Bender no-hits Cleveland Indians, 4-0

1913 - Harry Green runs world record marathon (2:38:16.2)

1915 - Croatians plunder Armenia, killing 250

1915 - Franklin K Mathiews, presents idea of "Book Week"

1917 - 42nd Preakness: E Haynes aboard Kalitan wins in 1:54.4

1917 - 43rd Kentucky Derby: Charles Borel on Omar Khayyam wins in 2:04.6

1919 - Yanks & Senators play 2nd straight extra inning tie, 4-4 in 15

1921 - National Hospital Day 1st observed

1923 - 49th Preakness: Benny Marinelli aboard Vigil wins in 1:53.6

1924 - 50th Preakness: John Merimee aboard Nellie Morse wins in 1:57.2

1925 - Uzbekistan & Kirgizistan become autonomous Soviet republics

1926 - The airship Norge is the first vessel to fly over North Pole

1926 - In Britain, a general strike by trade unions ended. The strike began on May 3, 1926.

1926 - Dmitri Sjostakovitch's 1st Symphony, premieres in Leningrad

1926 - Gen Pilsudski sets coup on premier Witos compared

1926 - Umberto Nobile flies airship over North Pole

1928 - Benito Mussolini ends woman's rights in Italy

1928 - Opium laws enforced

1929 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Julia Peterkin (Scarlet Sister Mary)

1930 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Marc Connelly (Green Pastures)

1932 - Body of kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh is found in Hopewell NJ

1933 - Federal Emergency Relief Administration & Agricultural Adjustment Administration form to help the needy & farmers

1934 - "Cocktails For Two," by Duke Ellington hits #1

1934 - 60th Preakness: Robert Jones aboard High Quest wins in 1:58.2

1936 - Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Poisoned Kiss," premieres in London

1937 - Coronation of King George VI of Britain at Westminster Abbey in London

1938 - Sandoz Labs manufactures LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)

1940 - French mariners occupy St Maarten

1940 - German tanks conquer Moerdijkbrug

1940 - Nazi blitzkrieg conquest of France began by the crossing of the Muese River by the German Army.

1941 - Great British convoy marches into Alexandria

1941 - Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.

1942 - 1,500 Jews gassed in Auschwitz

1942 - David Ben-Gurion leaves Jewish state in Palestine

1942 - Nazi U-boat sinks American cargo ship at mouth of Mississippi River

1942 - The Soviet Army launched its first major offensive of World War II and took Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine from the German army. They occupy it until Aug 23, 1943

1943 - Axis forces in North Africa surrender

1943 - British premier Winston Churchill arrives in US

1943 - German troops in Tunisia North Africa surrender

1944 - 900+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Zwikau, Bohlen & Brux

1944 - Krim purged of nazi troops

1944 - Secret Police arrest Gerrit Van de Peat

1948 - Queen Wilhelmina resigns

1949 - The Soviet announced an end to the blockade that prompted the Berlin airlift.

1949 - First foreign woman ambassador received in US (S V L Pandit India)

1950 - Darius Milhauds opera "Bolivar," premieres in Paris

1950 - The American Bowling Congress abolished its white males-only membership restriction after 34 years.

1951 - First H Bomb test, on Enewetak Atoll

1952 - Charlton Playground named in Bronx

1952 - Gaj Singh is crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur.

1953 - KUHT TV channel 8 in Houston, TX (PBS) begins broadcasting

1955 - Chicago Cub Sam Jones is first black to pitch no-hitter (Pirates, 4-0)

1956 - Bkln Dodger Carl Erskine's second no-hitter, beats NY Giants, 3-0

1956 - East Pakistan struck by cyclone & tidal waves

1957 - A.J. Foyt won his first auto racing victory in Kansas City, MO.

1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak

1959 - "Nervous Set" opens at Henry Miller's Theater NYC for 23 performances

1960 - Elvis Presley appears on a Frank Sinatra special

1961 - Botvinnik wins world chess championship for 3rd time

1962 - Grevelingendam closes

1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island

1963 - Bob Dylan walks out of the "Ed Sullivan Show"

1963 - Race riot in Birmingham Alabama

1964 - Manlio Brosio chosen as sec-gen of NATO

1965 - Israel and West Germany exchange letters beginning diplomatic relations

1966 - St Louis' Busch Stadium opens, Braves lose to Cards 4-3 in 12 inns

1967 - H Rap Brown replaces Stokely Carmichael as chairman of Student

1967 - Provo disbands in Neth Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

1968 - "March of Poor" under rev Abernathy reach Washington, DC

1968 - WSKG TV channel 46 in Binghamton, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting

1969 - Kenneth H Wallis achieved record speed for an autogiro-179 KPH

1970 - Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs hits his 500th home run

1970 - Harry A Blackmun is confirmed as a justice on Supreme Court

1970 - KTVM TV channel 6 in Butte, MT (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting

1970 - Race riots in Augusta Georgia; 6 blacks killed (5 by cops)

1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1972 - Milwaukee Brewers beat Minnesota Twins, 4-3, in 22 innings (completed 5/13)

1972 - Paul McCartney & Wings release "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

1973 - 6th ABA championship: Indiana Pacers beat Ky Colonels, 4 games to 3

1973 - Dueling Tubas by Martin Mull hits #92

1974 - 28th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat Milwaukee, 4 games to 3

1975 - US merchant ship Mayaguez seized by Cambodian forces

1976 - Bayern Munich wins 21st Europe Cup 1

1977 - First quadrophonic concert (Pink Floyd in London)

1977 - Emmy 4th Daytime Award presentation

1978 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.

1979 - Chris Evert's 125-match winning streak on clay comes to an end

1980 - First nonstop crossing of US via balloon (Maxie Anderson & son Chris)

1980 - West Ham United wins the FA Cup, beating Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. Midfield playmaker Trevor Brooking scores the winner with a rare header.

1982 - FC Barcelona wins 22nd Europe Cup II

1982 - Pulitzer prize awarded to John Updike (Rabbit is Rich)

1982 - United States Football League (USFL) forms

1982 - In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who was trying to reach Pope John Paul II.

1982 - South Africa unveiled a plan that would give voting rights to citizens of Asian and mixed-race descent, but not to blacks.

1984 - Discovery moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 41-D

1984 - France performs nuclear test 1984 - Joe Lucius scored his 13th hole-in-one on same hole

1984 - South African prisoner Nelson Mandela saw his wife for first time in 22 years

1984 - World of Rivers world exposition opens in New Orleans

1985 - Amy Eilberg is ordained in NY as 1st woman Conservative rabbi

1986 - Bicycle is pedaled 65 mph

1986 - President Reagan appoints Dr James C Fletcher NASA Administrator

1986 - Fred Markham (US), unpaced & unaided by wind, is 1st to pedal 65 mph on a level course, Big Sand Flat, Calif

1988 - "Carrie" opens at Virginia Theater NYC for 5 performances

1989 - "Entertainment Tonight" performs their 2,000th TV performance

1989 - Last graffiti covered NYC subway car retired

1989 - Retired Brit pilot Jack Mann is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists

1990 - Third time Saturday Night Live uses time delay (Andrew Dice Clay hosts)

1990 - Comic Relief '90 (4th one) raises $4.7 million

1990 - Nora Dunn & Sinead O'Connor boycott Saturday Night Live to protest Andrew "Dice" Clay's hosting

1991 - A new cancer drug is announced, which can only be found in bark of a rare tree in the Pacific Northwest

1992 - First Belgian woman (Ingrid Baeyens) to ascend Mount Everest

1992 - Four suspects were arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the Los Angeles riots.

1993 - Final episode of 6 year run of ABC's "Wonder Years" in Netherlands

1993 - Last broadcast of "Knots landing" on CBS

1993 - Last broadcast of "Cheers" on NBC-TV

1993 - Parma wins 33rd Europe Cup II

1995 - Dow Jones for fifth straight day of the week sets a new record (4430.59)

1995 - Jose Mesa gets 1st of his M.L. record 37 consecutive saves

1995 - Martin Brodeur ties NHL record getting his 3rd playoff shutout in 4

1996 - "Inherit the Wind" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 45 performances

1996 - "Night of the Iguana" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 68 perfs

1997 - 14 North Koreans defect to South Korea

1997 - Angels scores 13 in 7th vs White Sox

1997 - Russia & Chechnya sign peace deal after 400 years of conflict

1997 - Susie Maroney, 22, of Australia, is 1st to swim from Cuba to Florida

1997 - Tornado narrowly misses downtown Miami

1999 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and named Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin as his successor.

2002 - Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming 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.

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.

2007 - 2007 Karachi riots , which killed over 50 people in Karachi and above 100 injured, on the arrival of Chief Justice of Pakistan; Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in Karachi city.

2008 - 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan Provinces in western China  killing over 69,000 people

2008 - In the U.S., the price for a one-ounce First-Class stamp increased from 41 to 42 cents.

2010 - An Afriqiyah Airways Flight crashes and kills everyone but one person on board.

2012 - The 2012 World Expo began in Yeosu, South Korea.

2012 - The discovery of a missing Mayan calender piece disproves 2012 Armageddon

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may12.htm