What happened in 1912

World5

• Apr 14Sinking of the RMS Titanic: strikes an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean and sinks with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
• Apr 17A hybrid solar eclipse is the 30th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 137.
• Apr 30Carl Laemmle founds Universal Studios as the Universal Film and Manufacturing Company in the United States.
• Aug 4United States occupation of Nicaragua: U.S. Marines land from the USS Annapolis in Nicaragua, to support the conservative government at its request.
• Wilfrid Voynich discovers the eponymous manuscript in the Villa Mondragone.

Japan2

• Jul 30Emperor Meiji of Japan dies; he is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who becomes Emperor Taishō. In the history of Japan, the event marks the end of the Meiji period and the beginning of the Taishō period.
• JulJapan competes in the Olympics for the first timeTwo athletes went to Stockholm: sprinter Mishima Yahiko and marathon runner Kanakuri Shizo. Kanakuri collapsed during the race and was listed as missing; in 1967 he was invited back to finish. His time was 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.

North America5

• Mar 12The Girl Scouts of the USA is founded by Juliette Gordon Low, in Savannah, Georgia.
• Apr 16Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
• Jul 1Harriet Quimby, who set the record as the first woman to fly the English Channel two months previously, dies in Squantum, Massachusetts, after her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane crashes, killing both Quimby and her passenger.
• OctEdgar Rice Burroughs' character Tarzan first appears in Tarzan of the Apes, in American pulp magazine The All-Story.
• Nov 51912 United States presidential election: New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson beats former president Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent president William Howard Taft.

Europe16

• Jan 5The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.
• Jan 12In the 1912 German federal election the Social Democrats for the first time becomes the party with the most seats.
• Jan 17British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four become the second expeditionary group to reach the South Pole.
• Jan 23The First International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague to restrict exports.
• Mar 16Lawrence Oates, dying member of Scott's South Pole expedition, leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."
• Mar 30The French Third Republic establishes the French protectorate in Morocco by the Treaty of Fes with Sultan Abd al-Hafid of Morocco.
• MarMarch 29 (probable date) – Robert Falcon Scott and the remaining members of his South Pole expedition die.
• May 13In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
• Jun 26Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9 is premiered posthumously by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter.
• Jul 12The United States release of Sarah Bernhardt's film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth is influential in the development of the movie feature. Adolph Zukor, who incorporates Paramount Pictures on May 8, 1914, launches his company as the distributor.
• Oct 8The First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
• Oct 18First Balkan War: The Greek navy captures the island of Lemnos for use as a forward base against the Dardanelles.
• Oct 18Italy and the Ottoman Empire sign a treaty in Ouchy near Lausanne, ending the Italo-Turkish War.
• Oct 24First Balkan War: Battle of Kumanovo – Serbian forces defeat the Ottoman army in Vardar Macedonia.
• Dec 3Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League, but not Greece) sign an armistice with the Ottoman Empire at Çatalca, temporarily halting the First Balkan War after 2 months. (The armistice will expire on February 3, 1913, and hostilities will resume.)

1 more in the app

USSR / Russia1

• Apr 17Lena massacre: Russian troops kill or wound 500 striking gold miners in Siberia.

Asia1

• Jan 1The Republic of China is established.

Middle East3

• Feb 24Battle of Beirut: Italy makes a surprise attack on the Ottoman port of Beirut, when the cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi and the gunboat Volturno bombard the harbour, killing 97 sailors and civilians.
• Sep 4The government of the Ottoman Empire agrees to the demands put forward in the Albanian Revolt of 1912.
• Nov 28Albania declares independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Africa1

• Jan 8The African National Congress is founded as the South African Native National Congress in Bloemfontein, to promote improved rights for black South Africans, with John Langalibalele Dube as its first president.