1912
1912 is a leap year starting on Monday.
Events
January-March
- January 1 - Establishment of Republic of China.
- January 6 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
- January 17 - British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four begin the second expedition to reach the South Pole.
- January 23 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
- February 12 - Republic of China adopts the Gregorian calendar
- February 14 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
- February 14 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
- February 19 - Prizes are included in Cracker Jack candy boxes for the first time
- March 1 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
- March 1 - Georg Ritter von Trapp, head of the famous Austrian singing family memorialized in the musical The Sound of Music marries Agathe
- March 5 - Italian forces are the first to use airships for a military purpose by using them for reconnaissance west of Tripoli behind Turkish lines.
- March 7 - Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole
- March 7 – French aviator Henri Seimet makes the first non-stop flight from Paris to London in three hours
- March 12 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts) are founded.
- March 16 – Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time"
- March 27 - Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry blossom trees to be planted in Washington, DC to symbolize the friendship between the two countries.
- March 30 - France establishes a protectorate over Morocco.
April-September
- April 15 - Sinking of the RMS Titanic.
- April 17 – Solar eclipse in Europe.
- April 19 - United States Senate inquiry into the Titanic sinking begins.
- May 2 - British Board of Trade inquiry into the sinking of Titanic begins.
- May 3 - The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- May 5 - The 1912 Summer Olympics open in Stockholm, Sweden.
- May 13 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
- June 4 - Fire in Constantinople - 1120 buildings destroyed
- June 5 - US Marines land on Cuba
- June 6-June 8 - Eruption of Novarupta in Alaska, second largest volcanic eruption in historic time.
- June 8 - Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.
- July 19 - A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg exploded over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.
- July 30 - the Meiji Emperor of Japan, dies. He is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, the Taisho Emperor. In Japanese History, the event marks the end of the Meiji period and the beginning of the Taisho Era.
- August 12 - Sultan Abd al-Hafiz of Morocco abdicates.
- August 25 - Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party is founded.
- September 25 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism founded in New York,_New York.
October-November
- October 8 - First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against Turkey.
- October 14 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper William Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
- October 16 - Bulgarian pilots Radul Minkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the first bombing with an airplane in history at the railway station of Karaagac near Edirne against Turkey.
- November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1912: Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Taft's base was undercut by Progressive Party candidate (and former Republican) Theodore Roosevelt, who finished second, ahead of Taft.
- November 7 - The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opened in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.
- November 11 - Khios declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
- November 24 - Mine explosion in Hokkaido, Japan - 245 dead
- November 27 - Spain declares a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.
- November 28 - Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
December
- December 3 - First Balkan War ends temporarily - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.
Unknown dates
- Sea Scouting begins under the aegis of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Kazimierz Funk identifies vitamins.
- The first blues song, "The Memphis Blues," is published.
- Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of continental drift.
- Mount Katmai in Alaska explodes.
- Piltdown Man presented in Britain.
- British treasure hunters try to drain the Guatavita Lake to find gold – they find nothing.
- African National Congress
Births
January-February
- January 1 - Kim Philby, British spy (d. 1988)
- January 2 - Renato Guttuso, painter (d. 1987)
- January 3 - Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (d. 2005)
- January 6 - Jacques Ellul, French philosopher (d. 1994)
- January 7 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
- January 8 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1992)
- January 14 - Rudolf Hagelstange, German writer (d. 1984)
- January 16 - Franz Tumler, Austrian narrator (d. 1998)
- January 28 - Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
- January 30 - Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian (d. 1989)
- February 4 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (d. 1993)
- February 6 - Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress (d. 1945)
- February 11 - Roy Fuller, English poet and novelist (d. 1991)
- February 11 - Rudolf Firkusny Napajedla, Czech pianist
- February 18 - Heinz Kühn, politician (d. 1992)
- February 19 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
- February 20 - Pierre Boulle, French author (d. 1994)
- February 27 - Lawrence Durrell, British writer (d. 1990)
March-April
- March 5 - David Astor, British newspaper publisher (d. 2001)
- March 8 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (d. 2003)
- March 12 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet
- March 14 - Les Brown, American band leader (d. 2001)
- March 15 - Lightnin' Hopkins, American musician (d. 1982)
- March 16 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- March 17 - Bayard Rustin, American civil rights activist (d. 1987)
- March 18 - Lucien Laurin, Canadian horse trainer (d. 2000)
- March 22 - Karl Malden, American actor
- March 23 - Wernher von Braun, German-born physicist and engineer (d. 1977)
- Betty Astell, British actress (d. 2005)
- March 27 - James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- March 31 - Hermann Höcherl, German politician (d. 1989)
- April 8 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (d. 1969)
- April 15 - Kim Il Sung, North Korean President (d. 1994)
- April 19 - Glenn T. Seaborg, American atomic scientist (d. 1999)
- April 22 - Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (d. 1953)
- April 26 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born science fiction writer (d. 2000)
- April 28 - Odette Sansom, Special Operations Executive agent (d. 1995)
May-July
- May 9 - Pedro Armendáriz, actor (d. 1963)
- May 11 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
- May 12 - Archibald Cox, Watergate special prosecutor (d. 2001)
- May 14 - Ben Hogan, American golfer (d. 1997)
- May 16 - Studs Terkel, American writer and broadcaster
- May 18 - Perry Como, American singer (d. 2001)
- Walter Sisulu, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 2003)
- May 21 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 23 - Jean Françaix, French composer (d. 1997)
- John Payne, American actor (d. 1989)
- May 25 - Princess Dukhye of Korea (d. 1989)
- May 27 - Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)
- May 28 - Patrick White, Australian author (d. 1990)
- May 30 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- Joseph Stein, playwright
- May 31 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (d. 1979)
- June 6 - Maria Montez, Dominican actress (d. 1951)
- June 23 - Alan Turing, British mathematician (d. 1954)
- June 25 - William T. Cahill, American politician (d. 1996)
- June 26 - Jay Silverheels, American actor (d. 1980)
- June 30 - Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (d. 2003)
- July 1 - David R. Brower, American environmentalist (d. 2000)
- July 14 - Woody Guthrie, American folk musician (d. 1969)
- July 17 - Art Linkletter, American television host
- July 31 - Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- Irv Kupcinet, American newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
August-November
- August 9 - Anne Brown, American soprano
- August 10 - Jorge Amado de Faria, Brazilian author
- August 11 - Norman Levinson, American mathematician (d. 1975)
- August 14 - John Jacob Astor V, member of the Astor family (d. 1992)
- August 15 - Julia Child, American chef (d. 2004)
- August 16 - Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
- August 16 - Ted Drake, English footballer (d. 1995)
- August 23 - Gene Kelly, American actor (d. 1996)
- August 25 - Erich Honecker, East German Secretary General of the German Democratic Republic (d. 1994)
- August 30 - Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
- August 30 - Nancy Wake, New Zealand World War II heroine
- September 5 - John Cage, American composer (d. 1992)
- September 11 - David Packard, American electrical engineer (d. 1996)
- September 12 - Jacques Fath, French couturier (d. 1954)
- September 19 - Kurt Sanderling, German conductor
- September 21 - Chuck Jones, American animator (d. 2002)
- September 22 - Martha Scott, American actress (d. 2003)
- September 24 - Don Porter, American actor (d. 1997)
- September 29 - Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director
- October 5 - Karl Hass, Nazi war criminal (d. 2004)
- October 5 - Kristina Söderbaum, German actress (d. 2001)
- October 17 - Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)
- October 21 - Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1997)
- October 22 - Johan Hendrik Weidner, Belgian organiser the "Dutch-Paris" underground network associated with the French Resistance in WWII (d. 1994)
- October 25 - Minnie Pearl, American commedienne (d. 1996)
- October 27 - Conlon Nancarrow, American composer (d. 1997)
- November 4 - Vadim Salmanov, Russian composer (d. 1978)
- November 10 - Birdie Tebbetts, American baseball player and manager (d. 1999)
- November 11 - Larry LaPrise American songwriter (d. 1996)
- November 14 - Barbara Hutton, American socialite (d. 1979)
- November 21 - Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (d. 1982)
- November 26 - Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-born playwright (d. 1994)
December
- December 11 - Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer
- December 12 - Henry Armstrong, American boxer (d. 1988)
- December 25 - Natalino Otto, Italian singer (d. 1969)
- December 27 - Conroy Maddox, British painter (d. 2005)
- Laurence Henry Hicks, Australian composer (d. 1997)
Deaths
- January 28 - Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (b. 1819)
- February 16 - Nikolai of Japan, Eastern Orthodox monk and saint (b. 1836)
- March 1 - George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer (b. 1847)
- March 29 - Robert Falcon Scott, British Antarctic explorer (froze to death) (b. 1868)
- March 30 - Karl May, German author (b. 1842)
- April 15 - Victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic:
- Edward J. Smith, Captain of the Titanic (b. 1850)
- John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman (b. 1864)
- Archibald Butt, American presidential aide (b. 1865)
- Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)
- William Thomas Stead, English journalist (b. 1849)
- Isidor Straus, German-American owner of Macy's (b. 1845)
- Thomas Andrews, Jr., Titanic's shipbuilder (b.1873)
- May 14 - August Strindberg, Swedish playwright and painter (b. 1849)
- May 14 - Frederick VIII, King of Denmark (b. 1843)
- May 25 - Austin Lane Crothers, American politician (b. 1860)
- May 30 - Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (b. 1867)
- July 1 - Harriet Quimby, American pilot (b. 1875)
- July 2 - Tom Richardson, English cricketer (b. 1870)
- July 30 - Meiji Emperor of Japan (b. 1852)
- August 7 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (b. 1841)
- August 8 - Ross Winn, American anarchist writer and publisher (b. 1871)
- October 24 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (b. 1842)
- October 30 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (b. 1855)
- November 10 - Louis Cyr, Canadian strongman (b. 1863)
- December 23 - Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (b. 1850)
- Physics - Nils Gustaf Dalén
- Chemistry - Victor Grignard, Paul Sabatier
- Medicine - Alexis Carrel
- Literature - Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann
- Peace - Elihu Root
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