12 May on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

Roman emperor Trajan dedicates a column celebrating and depicting his victory over the Dacians.

Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I, becoming the 23rd pope of the Catholic Church, and immediately takes a stand against Novatianism.

Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule.

A church council presided over by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos in the Palace of Blachernae investigates the orthodoxy of the patriarch of Antioch, Soterichos Panteugenos.

Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus; she is crowned Queen consort of England the same day.

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

Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, is founded in Kraków.

Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.

The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan kills all the officials invited to a banquet and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.

National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.

French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry I, Duke of Guise, enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs.

London playwright Thomas Kyd is arrested and tortured by the Privy Council for libel.

Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.

Heinrich XI, count of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, is elevated to Prince by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.

War of the First Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Venice.

Finnish War: Swedish-Finnish troops, led by Captain Karl Wilhelm Malmi, conquer the city of Kuopio from Russians after the Battle of Kuopio.

British contingents under Arthur Wellesley force a French army under general Soult to retreat in the battle of Oporto.

The first major battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks is fought in Valtetsi.

The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.

American Civil War: Union Army troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: Two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps 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.

American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Union troops assault a Confederate salient known as the "Mule Shoe", with some of the fiercest fighting of the war, much of it hand-to-hand combat, occurring at "the Bloody Angle" on the northwest.

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.

The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.

In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.

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.

North Borneo was established as a British protectorate.

The 1926 United Kingdom general strike ends.

The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.

Nazi deputies assaulted journalist Helmuth Klotz in the German parliament building after he publicized the homosexuality of a senior Nazi politician.

Ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, is found dead near Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.

President Roosevelt signs legislation creating the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Agricultural Adjustment Act, which restricts agricultural production through government purchase of livestock for slaughter and paying subsidies to farmers when they remove land from planting, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom are crowned in Westminster Abbey.

During an exercise to demonstrate air power, United States Army Air Corps bomber aircraft intercepted the Italian ocean liner SS Rex 620 nautical miles (1,100 km) off the US Atlantic coast.

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

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.

World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.

The United Kingdom publicly announced that it was independently developing nuclear weapons, after the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended cooperation on the matter.

Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the critically acclaimed and widely influential debut album Are You Experienced.

Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral.

Indochina Wars: Democratic Kampuchea naval forces capture the SS Mayaguez.

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 US, France and Belgium to restore order.

During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.

The Coppergate Helmet, the best preserved of the six known Anglo-Saxon helmets, was discovered.

The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people, only to be followed a week later by an underground gasoline pipeline explosion, which kills two more people.

Four students were shot and killed by Indonesian soldiers at Trisakti University in Jakarta, which led to widespread riots and the resignation of President Suharto nine days later.

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 the Cuban Revolution.

The Riyadh compound bombings in Saudi Arabia, carried out by al-Qaeda, kill 39 people.

Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.

Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead.

An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes on final approach to Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 out of the 104 people on board.

A train derailment in Philadelphia, United States, kills eight people and injures more than 200.

Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3,500.

The WannaCry ransomware attack impacts over 400,000 computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom's National Health Services and Telefónica computers.

Paris knife attack: A man is fatally shot by police in Paris after killing one and injuring several others.

The Event Horizon Telescope released the first image of Sagittarius A*.

Middle/end of the May 2024 solar storms, the most powerful set of geomagnetic storms since the 2003 Halloween solar storms.

Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse, social reformer, and statistician (died 1910)

Rishi Sunak, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Katharine Hepburn, American actress (died 2003)

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian-American philosopher and author (died 1986)

Dorothy Hodgkin, English biochemist, crystallographer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)

George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author (died 2008)

Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician (died 2017)

Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (died 1873)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter (died 1882)

Rami Malek, American actor

Marcelo, Brazilian footballer

Emilio Estevez, American actor

Gustav I of Sweden (died 1560)

Gabriel Fauré, French pianist, composer, and educator (died 1924)

Augustus II the Strong, Polish king (died 1733)

Jules Massenet, French composer (died 1912)

Frenkie de Jong, Dutch footballer

William Giauque, Canadian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1982)

Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (died 1888)

Joseph Beuys, German sculptor and illustrator (died 1986)

Sam Nujoma, Namibian politician, 1st President of Namibia (died 2025)

Malin Åkerman, Swedish-Canadian model, actress, and singer

Burt Bacharach, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (died 2023)

Ving Rhames, American actor

Domhnall Gleeson, Irish actor

Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor, director, and producer

Stephen Baldwin, American actor

Tony Hawk, American skateboarder and actor

Emily VanCamp, Canadian actress

Erik Durm, German footballer

Yogi Berra, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2015)

Daniel Libeskind, American architect, designed the Imperial War Museum North and Jewish Museum

Jason Biggs, American actor and comedian

Hiroki Itō, Japanese footballer

Manuel Godoy, Spanish field marshal and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (died 1851)

Alan Ball, Jr., English footballer and manager (died 2007)

Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby player (died 2015)

Kostas Tsimikas, Greek footballer

Carl Schuhmann, German gymnast, wrestler, and weightlifter (died 1946)

Jesús Franco, Spanish director and screenwriter (died 2013)

Chris Patten, English academic and politician, 28th Governor of Hong Kong

Johan Ferrier, Surinamese educator and politician, first President of Suriname (died 2010)

Frank Stella, American painter and sculptor (died 2024)

Steve Winwood, English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

Eleftheria Eleftheriou, Greek Cypriot singer, musician, and actress

Giovanni Battista Viotti, Italian violinist and composer (died 1824)

Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish philosopher and politician (died 1881)

Otto Frank, German-Swiss businessman and Holocaust survivor; father of diarist Anne Frank (died 1980)

Michael Ignatieff, Canadian journalist and politician

Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1621)

Helene Weigel, Austrian-German actress (died 1971)

Bruce Boxleitner, American actor and author

Rhea Seehorn, American actress

Lincoln Ellsworth, American explorer (died 1951)

Samantha Mathis, American actress

Darren Randolph, Irish footballer

Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (died 1967)

Nicholas Kaldor, Hungarian-English economist (died 1986)

Emperor Shōkō of Japan (died 1428)

Henry Cabot Lodge, American historian and politician (died 1924)