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

The 13-year-old Lothair III is crowned at the Abbey of Saint-Remi as king of the West Frankish Kingdom.

Future Byzantine empress Zoe takes the throne as empress consort to Romanos III Argyros.

Battle of Posada ends: Wallachian Voievode Basarab I defeats the Hungarian army by ambush.

Plymouth becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

Construction is completed on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.

Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

Abdur Rahman Khan accepts the Durand Line as the border between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the British Raj.

Norway holds a referendum resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly independent country.

The Corozal, the most powerful dredger built to that time, was launched in London for service in construction of the Panama Canal.

First Balkan War: King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.

The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

Dissolution of Austria-Hungary: Austria becomes a republic. After the proclamation, a coup attempt by the communist Red Guard is defeated by the social-democratic Volkswehr.

Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo.

The 1920 Cork hunger strike by Irish republicans ends after three deaths.

Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

SS Vestris sinks approximately 200 miles (320 km) off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.

At the request of the Government of Western Australia, the Australian military officially resumed fighting the Emu War after their prior withdrawal.

Nazi Germany uses a referendum to ratify its withdrawal from the League of Nations.

In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.

World War II: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.

World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.

World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C (10 °F) as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.

World War II: The Soviet cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.

World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days and ends with an American victory.

World War II: The Royal Air Force sink the German battleship Tirpitz, moored off Tromsø, Norway.

Aftermath of World War II: In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.

Ellis Island ceases operations.

In the midst of the Suez Crisis, Palestinian refugees are shot dead in Rafah by Israel Defense Force soldiers following the invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.

A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

Terry Jo Duperrault is the sole survivor of a series of brutal murders aboard the ketch Bluebelle.

Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre.

The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall on the coast of East Pakistan, becoming the deadliest tropical cyclone in history.

The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.

Aeroflot Flight N-63 crashes on approach to Vinnytsia Airport, killing 48.

Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.

The first episode of Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running television sitcom in history, premiered on the BBC.

The Comoros joins the United Nations.

France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests series.

Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.

The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.

Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a crewed spacecraft is launched into space twice.

USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.

Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.

Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

Santa Cruz massacre: The Indonesian Army open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.

Erdut Agreement regarding the peaceful resolution to the Croatian War of Independence is reached.

Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.

A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date.

Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The 7.2 Mw Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured.

In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.

War in Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.

Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.

Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record of 501 kilometres per hour (311 mph) for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.

Although the Georgian government declared it illegal, South Ossetia held a referendum on independence, with more than 99 percent of voters in favour of preserving the region's status as a de facto independent state.

A blast in Iran's Shahid Modarres missile base leads to the death of 17 of the Revolutionary Guards members, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program.

Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the Euro area crisis.

An Armenian Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter is shot down by Azerbaijani forces, killing all three people on board.

The Philae lander, deployed from the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, reaches the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.

The 7.3 Mw Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern Iran–Iraq border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). At least 410 people are killed and over 7,000 are injured.

The PlayStation 5 is released.

The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14-year conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears.

A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collide in mid-air over Dallas Executive Airport during an airshow, killing six.

Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (died 1925)

Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator, created The Thinker (died 1917)

Hassan Rouhani, Iranian lawyer and politician; 7th President of Iran

Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco (died 1982)

Anne Hathaway, American actress

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)

Charles Manson, American cult leader (died 2017)

Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (died 1887)

Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast and coach

Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor, producer and singer

Roland Barthes, French philosopher, theorist, and critic (died 1980)

Neil Young, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American activist (died 1902)

Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican nun, poet, and scholar (died 1695)

Michael Ende, German author and fiction writer (died 1995)

Jules Koundé, French footballer

Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French admiral and explorer (died 1811)

Russell Westbrook, American basketball player

Wallace Shawn, American actor, comedian and playwright

Thomas Lemar, French footballer

Kim Hunter, American actress (died 2002)

Vavá, Brazilian footballer and manager (died 2002)

Enzo Francescoli, Uruguayan footballer

Benjamin Mkapa, Tanzanian journalist and politician, 3rd President of Tanzania (died 2020)

Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player and theoretician (died 1908)

Benni McCarthy, South African footballer

Patrice Leconte, French director and screenwriter

Naomi Wolf, American author and journalist

Tonya Harding, American figure skater

Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (died 1954)

Radha Mitchell, Australian actress

Charles Bell, Scottish surgeon and artist (died 1842)

Cote de Pablo, Chilean actress

Sandara Park, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress

Nima Yooshij, Iranian poet and academic (died 1960)

Megan Mullally, American actress and singer

David Ellefson, American bass player and songwriter

Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist and author (died 1987)

Chen Guangcheng, Chinese-American lawyer and activist

Nur Fettahoğlu, German-Turkish journalist and actress

Florent Manaudou, French swimmer

Jack Reed, American soldier and politician

Kathleen Hanna, American singer-songwriter

Omarion, American singer, songwriter, actor and dancer

Adlène Guedioura, French-Algerian footballer

Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (died 1813)

Amjad Khan, Indian actor & director (died 1992)

Richard Baxter, English minister, poet, and theologian (died 1691)

Tadeusz Borowski, Polish poet, author, and journalist (died 1951)

Loriot, German humorist, actor, and director (died 2011)

Tamala Jones, American actress

Tino Livramento, English footballer

Richard H. Truly, NASA astronaut (died 2024)

Claude of Valois, French princess (died 1575)

Leon Štukelj, Slovenian gymnast (died 1999)

Dāvis Bertāns, Latvian basketball player

Luguelín Santos, Dominican sprinter

Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (died 1588)

Jack Oakie, American actor (died 1978)

Jason Lezak, American swimmer