1987

President Reagan challenges Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall”

Born on This Day

57th GRAMMY Awards - Press Room

Chick Corea

1941 - 2021

Jazz pianist and composer whose distinctive style also incorporated Spanish and rock rhythms, leading to crossover success.

Anne Frank.

Anne Frank

1929 - 1945

German-born Jewish girl whose diary documenting her life in hiding during the Holocaust became a testament to the human spirit.

World Series - Los Angeles Dodgers v New York Yankees - Game 5

Hideki Matsui

1974 -

Japanese baseball player who found success in Japan and America, and became the first Asian player named a World Series MVP.

Chick Corea

Getty Images

Anne Frank

Universal Images Group via Getty

Hideki Matsui

Getty Images

2011

JUN

12

Scientists publish the discovery of what may be the oldest artwork in the Americas: an engraving of a Ice Age mammoth on a fossil bone likely at least 13,000 years old. The bone, found in Florida, likely came from a mammoth, mastodon or giant sloth.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on June 12th

1898

Philippine independence declared

During the Spanish-American War, Filipino rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo proclaim the independence of the Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. By mid-August, Filipino rebels and U.S. troops had ousted the Spanish, but Aguinaldo’s hopes for independence were dashed when the United States formally annexed the Philippines as part of its peace treaty with […]

4:40m read read

1920

Big Red sets record at Belmont Stakes

On June 12, 1920, Man O’ War wins the 52nd Belmont Stakes, and sets the record for the fastest mile ever run by a horse to that time. Man O’ War was the biggest star yet in a country obsessed with horse racing, and the most successful thoroughbred of his generation. Man O’ War was […]

1:54m read read

1924

George Herbert Walker Bush is born

The first Bush president, George Herbert Walker Bush, is born in Milton, Massachusetts. Bush served in the Navy during World War II and survived a harrowing ordeal when his torpedo bomber was shot down over the Pacific. Bush drifted in the water for several hours until a U.S. submarine picked him up. He was later […]

1:22m read read

1942

Anne Frank receives a diary

On June 12, 1942, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, receives a diary for her 13th birthday. A month later, she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis. For two years, the Franks and four other families hid, fed and cared for by Gentile friends. The families were discovered by the […]

0:52m read read

1944

D-Day landing forces converge

Six days after the D-Day landing, the five Allied landing groups, made up of some 330,000 troops, link up in Normandy to form a single solid front across northwestern France. On June 6, 1944, after a year of meticulous planning conducted in secrecy by a joint Anglo-American staff, the largest combined sea, air, and land […]

1963

Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated

In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot to death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. During World War II, Evers volunteered for the U.S. Army and participated in the Normandy invasion. In 1952, he joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored […]

1:32m read read

1974

Under pressure, Little League Baseball allows girls to play

On June 12, 1974, Little League Baseball, Inc. announces its decision to “defer to the changing social climate” and allow girls to play ball. The change comes after the organization lost a series of lawsuits in the state of New Jersey, and faced growing legal challenges in other states. Founded in 1939, the league didn’t […]

2:46m read read

1975

Indira Gandhi convicted of election fraud

Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India, is found guilty of electoral corruption in her successful 1971 campaign. Despite calls for her resignation, Gandhi refused to give up India’s top office and later declared martial law in the country when public demonstrations threatened to topple her administration. Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the […]

2:52m read read

1982

One million people demonstrate in New York City against nuclear weapons

A stunningly large and diverse crowd descends upon New York City’s Central Park on June 12, 1982, demanding nuclear disarmament and an end to the Cold War arms race. By the end of the day, estimates place the number of attendees at over a million, making it the largest disarmament rally in American history. The […]

1994

Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murdered

Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicole’s home in Brentwood, California, in what quickly becomes one of the most highly publicized trials of the century. With overwhelming evidence against him, including a prior record of domestic violence towards Brown, O.J. Simpson […]

2:10m read read

2016

Terrorist gunman attacks Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida

As Latin music blared inside Pulse, one of Orlando’s biggest nightclubs on June 12, 2016, a gunman forced his way inside and opened fire on the predominantly gay crowd. In the end, 49 people were dead and dozens more injured, in what was, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. When […]

2:18m read read

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