This is a list of selected September 12 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
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Flag of Cape Verde
John III Sobieski
King Jan III Sobieski of Poland near Vienna
Gustav Mahler
Süleyman Demirel
Mae Jemison
Haile Selassie
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| {{<!--If next year is a leap year-->#ifexpr:{{IsLeapYear| {{CURRENTYEAR}} +1}}|New Year's Day in the Coptic and the Ethiopian calendars (2026);}} | Coptic: refimprove; Ethiopian: no footnotes |
| 1609 – While sailing aboard the Halve Maen, Englishman Henry Hudson began his exploration of the Hudson River, laying the foundation for Dutch colonization of present-day New York. | refimprove section |
| 1814 – War of 1812: Although the Maryland Militia lost the Battle of North Point, they delayed the British advance against Baltimore, buying time for the defense of the city. | refimprove |
| 1940 – Four teenagers discovered the Lascaux caves near Montignac, in the Dordogne département of France, containing cave paintings that are estimated to be 17,300 years old. | unreferenced section |
| 1990 – The Two Plus Four Agreement was signed in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification. | unreferenced section |
| 1992 – Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Peruvian Maoist guerrilla organization Shining Path, was captured in Lima. | unreferenced section |
| 2007 – Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada was convicted of plunder and sentenced to reclusión perpetua. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 490 BC – Greco-Persian Wars: Athenians and their Plataean allies turned back the first Persian invasion of Greece in the Battle of Marathon.
- 1683 – Great Turkish War: Polish troops led by John III Sobieski joined forces with a Habsburg army to defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vienna.
- 1910 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire, was first performed in Munich.
- 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army began the Battle of Edson's Ridge in an effort to retake Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.
- 1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was deposed by the Derg, a military junta.
- 1983 – The clandestine group Boricua Popular Army staged a bank robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, US, making off with $7 million in the largest cash theft in US history at the time.
- 1992 – Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, American Mae Jemison became the first black woman in space.
Notes
- Battle of Baltimore appears on September 13, so Battle of North Point should not appear in the same year
September 12: National Day in Cape Verde
Leó Szilárd
- 1309 – Reconquista: Forces of the Kingdom of Castile captured Gibraltar from the Emirate of Granada, although they would lose control of it 24 years later.
- 1848 – Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new constitution.
- 1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard (pictured) conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.
- 1942 – A U-boat sank RMS Laconia with a torpedo off the coast of West Africa and attempted to rescue the passengers, which included some 80 civilians, 160 Polish and 268 British soldiers and about 1800 Italian POWs.
- 1980 – The Turkish Armed Forces ousted Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel and would rule the country for three years before democracy was restored.
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