History Events on August 12

The first testing of a real thermonuclear weapon (not test devices): The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb.

#Nuclear_weapons_testing

The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.

#Rhône_(department)

The IBM Personal Computer is released.

#IBM_Personal_Computer

The 7.2 Ms? Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 445 and 800 people are killed.

#1953_Ionian_earthquake

Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.

#Santiago_de_Liniers,_1st_Count_of_Buenos_Aires

Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.

#Battle_of_Mohács_(1687)

Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War.

#Palestinians

Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.

#Alençon

Thirty-nine civilians, including a dozen children, are killed in an explosion at a weapons depot in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria.

#Syria

Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

#North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.

#First_Crusade

Babrra massacre: About 600 unarmed members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement are shot dead on the orders of the Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province, Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, on Babrra ground in the Hashtnagar region of Charsadda District, North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Pakistan.

#Babrra_massacre

Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre: 75 American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

#Korean_War

Treaty of Allahabad is signed. The Treaty marks the political and constitutional involvement and the beginning of Company rule in India.

#Treaty_of_Allahabad

First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.

#Battle_of_Zonchio

At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China.

#2015_Tianjin_explosions

The last quagga dies at the Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

#Quagga

Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

#Waffen-SS

World War I: The Battle of Halen a.k.a. Battle of the Silver Helmets a clash between large Belgian and German cavalry formations at Halen, Belgium.

#Battle_of_Halen

The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ?Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.

#Flag_of_Hawaii

Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.

#Isaac_Singer

Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people are killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.

#Nazi_Germany

The Russian Navy submarine Kursk explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew.

#Russian_Navy

Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performs 1st antiseptic surgery.

#Joseph_Lister

Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod Republic, which regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.

#Treaty_of_Nöteborg

The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

#Approach_and_Landing_Tests

Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.

#Battle_of_Didgori

Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.

#Christopher_Columbus

South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.

#South_Africa

Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.

#Sue_(dinosaur)

World War I: The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.

#World_War_I

French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.

#William_I_of_the_Netherlands

Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.

#Japan_Airlines_Flight_123

Major League Baseball players go on strike, forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

The Sri Lanka Riots:, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.

Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.

Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.

The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.

The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.

Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.