1912

Events in 1912 63

• 1644 – 1912 Qing Dynasty — China's last imperial dynasty Manchu rule, the Opium Wars and the collapse of empire The Qing dynasty was founded by the Manchu people of northeastern Asia who conquered a weakened Ming China. At its height under Kangxi and Qianlong emperors (1661–1799), the Qing ruled the largest empire in Chinese history. But the 19th century brought catastrophe — the Opium Wars forced humiliating concessions to Britain, the Taiping Rebellion killed 20–30 million people, and the empire failed to modernise in the face of Western imperialism. The last emperor Puyi abdicated in 1912.
• 1821 – 1912 Clara Barton (1821-1912) Died 12 April 1912, aged 90 Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881 after serving as a battlefield nurse during the American Civil War. She led the organization for 23 years, establishing disaster relief as a permanent national institution.
• 1842 – 1912 Jules Massenet (1842-1912) Died 13 August 1912, aged 70 Jules Massenet was a French composer best known for the operas "Manon" and "Werther". He died in Paris after a prolific career that produced more than thirty operas.
• 1847 – 1912 Bram Stoker Irish novelist Stoker wrote Dracula, defining modern vampire fiction and Gothic horror literature.
• 1849 – 1912 August Strindberg (1849-1912) Died 14 May 1912, aged 63 August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright and novelist whose works, including "Miss Julie" and "The Father", helped shape modern drama. He died of stomach cancer in Stockholm.
• 1867 – 1912 Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) Reign 1867–1912 — Japan becomes a modern power Emperor Meiji reigned as Japan transformed from a feudal state under the shogunate into a major imperial power. The Meiji era saw the 1889 constitution, rapid industrialisation, and military victories over China (1895) and Russia (1905) that announced Japan's arrival on the world stage.
• 1867 – 1912 Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) Died 30 May 1912, aged 45 Wilbur Wright, with his brother Orville, designed and flew the first successful powered airplane in 1903. He died of typhoid fever in Dayton, Ohio, having lived to see aviation transform from an experiment into an industry.
• 1868 – 1912 Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) Died 29 March 1912, aged 43 Robert Falcon Scott led the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, arriving five weeks after Roald Amundsen. He and his four companions died of cold and starvation on the return journey; their bodies and diaries were found by a search party eight months later.
• 1875 – 1912 Harriet Quimby (1875-1912) Died 1 July 1912, aged 37 Harriet Quimby was the first woman to earn a pilot's certificate in the United States and the first to fly across the English Channel. She died when she was thrown from her airplane during an air meet near Boston.
• 1908 – 1912 Puyi becomes Emperor of China Two years old Puyi is placed on the throne days after the deaths of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi within twenty-four hours of each other. He screams through his own enthronement. He abdicates at six in 1912, ending two thousand years of imperial rule, and spends the rest of his life as a restored emperor for eleven days, a Japanese puppet in Manchukuo, a Soviet prisoner, a Chinese war criminal, a re-educated gardener and finally a citizen of the People's Republic.
• 1912 – 1926 Emperor Taisho (Yoshihito) Reign 1912–1926 — the era of "Taisho democracy" Emperor Taisho's short reign saw a shift toward liberal, party-based politics known as "Taisho democracy", Japan's participation in World War I on the Allied side, and the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. His poor health led Crown Prince Hirohito to serve as regent from 1921.
• 1912 – 1945 Eva Braun (1912-1945) Died 30 April 1945, aged 32 Eva Braun was Adolf Hitler's longtime companion and, for less than 40 hours, his wife. She died alongside him by suicide in the Führerbunker as Soviet forces closed in on Berlin. Her relationship with Hitler was kept largely secret from the German public during the war.
• 1912 Finnish Cable Works founded The Finnish Cable Works is established in Helsinki in 1912 — initially producing telephone and telegraph cables for Finland's rapidly expanding telecommunications network. The cable business gives Nokia engineers hands-on experience with electrical signal transmission. It is this division that will eventually evolve into Nokia's electronics and later telecommunications capabilities. Without the cable works, there is no path from paper mill to mobile phone company.
• 1912 – 1939 Ghazi of Iraq (1912-1939) Died 4 April 1939, aged 27 Ghazi was King of Iraq from 1933 and was known for Arab nationalist broadcasts from his private radio station. He was killed when his car crashed in Baghdad. His infant son succeeded him as Faisal II.
• 1912 – 1915 Wegener — plate tectonics The continents move — the Earth's surface is alive In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were once joined in a supercontinent (Pangaea) and have since drifted apart — continental drift. Initially dismissed, the theory was vindicated in the 1950s-60s by ocean floor spreading and the full theory of plate tectonics. It explained earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, and the distribution of fossils and species across continents.
• 1912 – 1967 Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) Died 3 October 1967, aged 55 The folk singer-songwriter, best known for "This Land Is Your Land," died from complications of Huntington's disease. His music and activism influenced generations of American folk and protest singers.
• 1912 – 1988 Kim Philby (1912-1988) Died 11 May 1988, aged 76 Kim Philby was a British intelligence officer who spied for the Soviet Union for decades as part of the Cambridge Five spy ring. He defected to the Soviet Union in 1963 after his cover was compromised. He died in Moscow, where he had lived in exile.
• 1912 Republic of China proclaimed Sun Yat-sen ends 2,000 years of imperial rule On 1 January 1912, Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of China, ending 2,133 years of imperial rule. The last Qing emperor, six-year-old Puyi, abdicated on 12 February 1912. The republic was almost immediately undermined by warlordism and the struggle between the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), eventually leading to civil war.
• 1912 New Mexico admitted as a U.S. state Becomes the 47th state of the Union New Mexico is admitted to the United States as the 47th state on 6 January 1912, after more than 60 years as a U.S. territory. Its admission, along with Arizona's weeks later, completes the contiguous 48 states outside of Alaska and Hawaii.
• 1912 – 1992 Jose Ferrer (1912-1992) Died 26 January 1992, aged 80 Jose Ferrer was a Puerto Rican-American actor and director who won an Academy Award for his role in "Cyrano de Bergerac," becoming the first Hispanic actor to win an Oscar. He had a long career on Broadway and in Hollywood spanning five decades. He also directed several stage and film productions.
• 1912 Lawrence textile strike Bread and Roses strike over wage cuts Immigrant mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, strike after employers cut wages in response to a new law shortening the work week. The strike, later known as the Bread and Roses strike, draws national attention to labor conditions and ends in March with wage increases for textile workers across New England.
• 1912 Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole Arrives five weeks after Amundsen Robert Falcon Scott and four companions of the Terra Nova Expedition reach the South Pole on 17 January, only to find that Roald Amundsen's Norwegian party had beaten them by five weeks. Demoralized, the group begins the 800-mile return march to their base camp. All five men die before reaching safety.
• 1912 International Opium Convention signed First global drug-control treaty Representatives of thirteen nations sign the International Opium Convention at The Hague on 23 January 1912, agreeing to suppress the manufacture, sale, and use of opium, morphine, and cocaine. It becomes the basis for subsequent international drug-control treaties.
• 1912 – 1956 Jackson Pollock Abstract Expressionism · USA Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an American painter and pioneer of Abstract Expressionism whose drip technique revolutionised painting. He died in a car crash at 44, defining the archetype of the tortured American artist.
• 1912 2nd Elfstedentocht Winner: Coen de Koning — 11h 40m The second official Elfstedentocht was held on 7 February 1912 with over 150 participants. Coen de Koning won in 11 hours and 40 minutes. Temperature was -3.8°C. De Koning was already a world-class speed skater and former world champion.
• 1912 Xuantong Emperor abdicates the Qing throne Formal end of imperial rule in China Empress Dowager Longyu issues an edict on behalf of the six-year-old Xuantong Emperor, Puyi, formally ending more than two thousand years of imperial rule in China. The abdication follows the Xinhai Revolution and clears the way for Yuan Shikai to lead the new Republic.
• 1912 Arizona admitted as a U.S. state Becomes the 48th and final contiguous state Arizona is admitted to the United States as the 48th state on 14 February 1912, completing the contiguous United States. Its admission follows a long territorial period shaped by disputes over its proposed constitution.
• 1912 – 1997 Prince Bertil The Engine Prince A beloved royal who waited decades to marry his commoner love to ensure the succession.
• 1912 First parachute jump from an airplane Albert Berry jumps over Missouri Aviator Albert Berry makes the first successful parachute jump from a moving airplane, leaping from a Benoist biplane above Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. His parachute is packed into a canister attached to the aircraft's underside and deploys as he falls.
• 1912 Yuan Shikai becomes President of the Republic of China Succeeds Sun Yat-sen as head of state Yuan Shikai is inaugurated as provisional president of the Republic of China after Sun Yat-sen resigns the post in his favor. Yuan had negotiated the abdication of the Qing emperor and commands the loyalty of China's strongest military forces.
• 1912 Girl Scouts of the USA founded Juliette Gordon Low starts American scouting for girls Juliette Gordon Low organizes the first troop of the Girl Guides, soon renamed the Girl Scouts, in Savannah, Georgia, on 12 March 1912. The organization grows into one of the largest voluntary groups for girls in the United States.
• 1912 – 1993 Pat Nixon (1912-1993) Died 22 June 1993, aged 81 Pat Nixon served as First Lady of the United States during Richard Nixon's presidency from 1969 to 1974. She was known for her extensive travel and volunteer work promoting civic engagement. She died of lung cancer at her home in Park Ridge, New Jersey.
• 1912 – 2009 Karl Malden (1912-2009) Died 1 July 2009, aged 97 Malden was an American actor who won an Academy Award for A Streetcar Named Desire and later starred in the television series The Streets of San Francisco. He also served for decades as a spokesman for American Express. His film career spanned more than five decades.
• 1912 Treaty of Fez establishes French Morocco France imposes a protectorate over Morocco Sultan Abd al-Hafid signs the Treaty of Fez on 30 March 1912, ceding most administrative control of Morocco to France and establishing the French protectorate. Spain separately administers northern and southern zones of the country under the same settlement.
• 1912 – 1969 Sonja Henie (1912-1969) Norwegian figure skater, three-time Olympic champion and ten-time world champion, who became a Hollywood star.
• 1912 – 1994 Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) Died 8 July 1994, aged 81 Kim Il Sung, founder and long-ruling leader of North Korea, died of a heart attack, prompting a formal ten-day mourning period. His son Kim Jong Il succeeded him, beginning a dynastic leadership that continues today.
• 1912 Titanic sinks 1,500 lives lost RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and sank, killing over 1,500 passengers in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters.
• 1912 Fenway Park opens in Boston Home of the Boston Red Sox Fenway Park hosts its first game on 20 April 1912, as the Boston Red Sox defeat the New York Highlanders. It becomes the oldest ballpark still in use in Major League Baseball.
• 1912 1912 Summer Olympics V Olympiad - Stockholm First Games to feature electric timing. Winner: USA.
• 1912 – 2008 Studs Terkel (1912-2008) Died 31 October 2008, aged 96 American oral historian, author and broadcaster who chronicled the lives of ordinary Americans in books such as Working and The Good War. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the latter in 1985.
• 1912 – 2001 Perry Como (1912-2001) Died 12 May 2001, aged 88 Como was a singer and television host whose relaxed baritone sold millions of records from the 1940s onward, including Catch a Falling Star and Magic Moments. A former barber, he presented long-running variety and Christmas specials. His easy manner made him a fixture of American living rooms.
• 1912 – 2002 Sam Snead (1912-2002) Died 23 May 2002, aged 89 Sam Snead won a record 82 official PGA Tour titles and seven major championships between the 1930s and 1950s, celebrated for a smooth, powerful swing. The US Open was the one major that always eluded him. He kept playing competitively into his late sixties and remained a fixture at the Masters for decades.
• 1912 – 1951 Maria Montez (1912-1951) Dominican actress known as the Queen of Technicolor, star of Universal's Arabian Nights adventures.
• 1912 – 1998 Enoch Powell (1912-1998) Died 8 February 1998, aged 85 Enoch Powell, the British politician remembered chiefly for his 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech opposing mass immigration, died on 8 February 1998. He remained a divisive figure in British politics for the rest of his life.
• 1912 – 1954 Alan Turing The man who defined the machine Alan Turing answered a question in mathematical logic in 1936 and, in the course of answering it, invented the idea of a general-purpose computer. He spent the war at Bletchley Park breaking German naval Enigma, work that is credited with shortening it by years. He then built early computers, asked whether machines could think, and turned to the mathematics of how a tiger gets its stripes. In 1952 he was prosecuted for a consensual relationship with a man, chemically castrated as an alternative to prison, and stripped of his security clearance. He died two years later at forty-one.
• 1912 – 2006 Milton Friedman (1912-2006) Died 16 November 2006, aged 94 Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and leading advocate of free-market monetarism, died of heart failure in San Francisco. His ideas shaped economic policy under Reagan, Thatcher and beyond. He remains one of the most influential economists of the 20th century.
• 1912 – 2001 Jorge Amado (1912-2001) Died 6 August 2001, aged 88 Amado was Brazil's most widely translated novelist, chronicling life in his native Bahia in books such as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. His early work was politically committed; his later novels were sensual and comic. His books were adapted into films and television series.
• 1912 – 2004 Julia Child (1912-2004) Died 13 August 2004, aged 91 Child was an American chef and author who introduced French cuisine to a mass US television audience through her show "The French Chef." Her book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" remains a landmark culinary text.
• 1912 – 2001 John Lee Hooker Blues singer and guitarist Mississippi-born bluesman whose hypnotic, one-chord boogie from Detroit made him a hero to British rock bands and a star again in his seventies.
• 1912 – 1996 Gene Kelly (1912-1996) Died 2 February 1996, aged 83 Gene Kelly was an American dancer, actor, and director renowned for athletic, innovative choreography in Hollywood musicals. He starred in and co-directed classics including "Singin' in the Rain" and "An American in Paris." His work redefined the possibilities of dance on film.
• 1912 – 1994 Erich Honecker (1912-1994) Died 29 May 1994, aged 81 Erich Honecker, the former East German leader who oversaw the construction of the Berlin Wall and its Cold War-era regime, died in exile in Chile after facing prosecution in reunified Germany. He had been released from custody in 1993 on health grounds.
• 1912 – 1992 John Cage (1912-1992) Died 12 August 1992, aged 79 John Cage was an American composer and music theorist known for pioneering chance-based composition and unconventional instrumentation, notably the silent piece 4 minutes 33 seconds. His work challenged fundamental assumptions about music and influenced generations of avant-garde artists. He also wrote extensively on aesthetics and Zen Buddhism.
• 1912 – 1996 David Packard (1912-1996) Died 26 March 1996, aged 83 David Packard co-founded Hewlett-Packard with Bill Hewlett in a Palo Alto garage in 1939, building it into one of the world's largest technology companies. He also served as US Deputy Secretary of Defense in the late 1960s. Packard was a major philanthropist through the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
• 1912 – 2002 Chuck Jones (1912-2002) Died 22 February 2002, aged 89 Chuck Jones was an animation director at Warner Bros. who shaped the personalities of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd and created Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew and Marvin the Martian. His shorts included What's Opera, Doc and the much-praised Duck Amuck. He later directed the television version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• 1912 Ulster Covenant signed Unionists pledge to resist Irish Home Rule Nearly half a million people sign the Ulster Covenant and an accompanying women's declaration in Belfast on 28 September 1912, pledging to oppose the establishment of a Home Rule parliament in Ireland by any means necessary. The campaign hardens the partition that later separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the island.
• 1912 First Balkan War begins Balkan League attacks the Ottoman Empire Montenegro declares war on the Ottoman Empire on 8 October 1912, quickly joined by Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece as the Balkan League. The war strips the Ottomans of nearly all their remaining European territory within months.
• 1912 – 1989 Cornel Wilde (1912-1989) American actor and director, Chopin in A Song to Remember.
• 1912 Assassination attempt on Theodore Roosevelt Shot before a campaign speech in Milwaukee Saloonkeeper John Schrank shoots former president Theodore Roosevelt in the chest as he leaves a Milwaukee hotel to give a campaign speech on 14 October 1912. Roosevelt, slowed by his eyeglass case and a folded speech in his pocket, insists on delivering the 90-minute speech before seeking treatment.
• 1912 – 1978 Pope John Paul I (1912-1978) Died 28 September 1978, aged 65 Born Albino Luciani, he was elected pope on 26 August 1978 and died suddenly 33 days later, giving him one of the shortest papal reigns in Church history. His sudden death prompted a second conclave within the same year.
• 1912 Treaty of Ouchy ends the Italo-Turkish War Italy gains control of Libya Italy and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Ouchy near Lausanne on 18 October 1912, ending their war over Libya. The Ottomans recognize Italian authority over Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, while Italy returns the occupied Dodecanese islands.
• 1912 Woodrow Wilson elected U.S. President Democrat wins a three-way race Woodrow Wilson wins the U.S. presidential election on 5 November 1912, defeating incumbent William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt, who split the Republican vote by running as a Progressive. Wilson's victory ushers in a period of progressive domestic reform ahead of the First World War.
• 1912 – 1982 Eleanor Powell (1912-1982) American dancer and actress, considered the greatest female tap dancer of film.
• 1912 – 2008 John Templeton (1912-2008) Died 8 July 2008, aged 95 American-born investor and philanthropist who pioneered global mutual fund investing through the Templeton Growth Fund. He later devoted his fortune to the Templeton Foundation, which funds research at the intersection of science and religion.