U.S. Immigration Employee Waves Goodbye

Ellis Island closes

Born on This Day

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1815 - 1902

Activist who organized 1848's Seneca Falls Convention that demanded women's equality, including the right to vote.

Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly

1929 - 1982

Actress who projected a cool elegance in films like "Rear Window," then became real-life princess of Monaco.

Portraits - 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards - Berlin

Nadia Comăneci

1961 -

Romanian gymnast who at the 1976 Olympics became the first woman to earn a perfect 10.

Elizabeth Cady StantonBettmann Archive

Grace KellyGetty Images

Nadia ComăneciGetty Images for Laureus

1955

NOV12

Movie teen Marty McFly harnesses the power of a 10:04 p.m. lightning strike on the fictional Hill Valley clock tower to travel back to 1985 in the blockbuster film "Back to the Future."

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 November 12th

Abigail Adams leads rhetorical charge against Britain

Upon hearing of England’s rejection of the so-called Olive Branch Petition on November 12, 1775, Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications as formerly for their prosperity and happiness, Let us beseech the almighty to blast their […]

2:34m read

First recorded meteor shower in North America

On November 12, 1799, Andrew Ellicott, an early American astronomer, witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys. Ellicott wrote in his journal that the “whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, flying in an infinity of directions, and I was in constant expectation of some of them falling […]

0:58m read

Seymour Hersh breaks My Lai Massacre story

In a cable filed through Dispatch News Service and picked up by more than 30 newspapers, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals the extent of the U.S. Army’s charges against 1st Lt. William L. Calley at My Lai. Hersh wrote: “The Army says he [Calley] deliberately murdered at least 109 Vietnamese civilians during a search-and-destroy mission in […]

2:08m read

Jimmy Carter shuts down oil imports from Iran

On November 12, 1979, President Jimmy Carter responds to a potential threat to national security by stopping the importation of petroleum from Iran. Earlier that month, on November 4, 66 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been taken hostage by a radical Islamic group. The alarming event led Carter and his advisors to […]

1:58m read

Yuri Andropov assumes power in the Soviet Union

Following the death of long-time Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev two days earlier, Yuri Andropov is selected as the new general secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. It was the culmination of a long, but steady march up the Communist Party hierarchy for Andropov. Born in Russia in 1914, by the 1930s Andropov […]

Akihito enthroned as emperor of Japan

Crown Prince Akihito, the 125th Japanese monarch along an imperial line dating back to 660 B.C., is enthroned as emperor of Japan two years after the death of his father. Akihito, the only son of the late Emperor Hirohito, was the first Japanese monarch to reign solely as an official figurehead. His father, Hirohito, began […]

1:16m read

High school sweethearts murder their newborn child

On November 12, 1996, young lovers Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson check into a Delaware motel, where Grossberg gives birth to a 6 pound, 2 ounce baby. When the infant was later found dead in a trash container behind the motel, the strange and unsettling story drew national attention. Grossberg and Peterson were high school […]

1:34m read

Plane crashes in Rockaway, New York

An American Airlines flight out of John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York City crashes into a Queens neighborhood after takeoff on November 12, 2001, killing 265 people. Although some initially speculated that the crash was the result of terrorism, as it came exactly two months after the September 11 attacks, the cause was […]

1:34m read

Scott Peterson convicted of murder

On November 12, 2004, Scott Peterson is convicted of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son. A jury of six men and six women delivered the verdict 23 months after Laci Peterson, who was pregnant, disappeared on Christmas Eve from Modesto, California. The case captivated millions across America and saturated national media coverage for […]

2:46m read

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