November 12 in History

Historical Events on November 12

1940 World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.

1941 World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 °C as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.

1956 Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.

1969 Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre.

1980 The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.

1982 USSR: Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev.

2001 War in Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.

2003 Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.

2011 Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the European sovereign debt crisis.

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Famous Birthdays on November 12

1945 Neil Young

1980 Ryan Gosling

1982 Anne Hathaway

1992 Trey Burke

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Famous Deaths on November 12

1035 Cnut the Great

1562 Pietro Martire Vermigli

1965 Taher Saifuddin

1994 Wilma Rudolph

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