Events for September 12
1906 – The Newport Transporter Bridge is opened in Newport, South Wales by Viscount Tredegar.
2012 – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, killing 10 and injuring four.
2021 – Siberian Light Aviation Flight 51 crashes short of the runway at Kazachinskoye Airport, killing four.
2008 – The 2008 Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train kills 25 people.
1984 – Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.
1977 – South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody.
1966 – Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions).
1962 – US President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University.
1885 – Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, a world record scoreline in professional association football.
1988 – Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.
2005 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is completed, leaving some 2,530 homes demolished.
1848 – A new constitution marks the establishment of Switzerland as a federal state.
1990 – The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification.
1994 – Frank Eugene Corder fatally crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing. There were no other casualties.
1983 – A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.
1814 – Battle of North Point: an American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore in the War of 1812.
2003 – The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
1992 – Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, is captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well.
1991 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-48 to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.
1309 – The First siege of Gibraltar takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada resulting in a Castilian victory.
372 – Sixteen Kingdoms: Sima Yao, age 10, succeeds his father Emperor Jianwen as Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin dynasty.
1969 – Philippine Air Lines Flight 158 crashes in Antipolo, near Manila International Airport in the Philippines, killing 45 people.
1961 – Air France Flight 2005 crashes near Rabat–Salé Airport, in Rabat, Morocco, killing 77 people.
2007 – Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder.
Notable Births & Deaths for September 12
2017 – Allan MacEachen, Canadian economist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (born 1921)
1996 – Colin Ford, American actor
1999 – Jerome Ford, American football player
2014 – Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (born 1939)
1989 – Freddie Freeman, American-Canadian baseball player
2014 – Ian Paisley, Northern Irish evangelical pastor (Free Presbyterian Church) and politician, 2nd First Minister of Northern Ireland (born 1926)
2010 – Claude Chabrol, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1930)
1994 – Mohammed Asif, Indian sailor and researcher
1997 – Almida de Val, Swedish curler
2014 – John Gustafson, English singer-songwriter and bass player (born 1942)
2017 – Edith Windsor, American LGBT rights activist and technology manager at IBM (born 1929)
1986 – Emmy Rossum, American singer and actress
2013 – Candace Pert, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (born 1946)
1991 – Scott Wootton, English footballer
1994 – RM, South Korean rapper, songwriter and record producer
1986 – Dimitrios Regas, Greek sprinter
1994 – Elina Svitolina, Ukrainian tennis player
1997 – Sydney Sweeney, American actress
2015 – Claudia Card, American philosopher and academic (born 1940)
2013 – Erich Loest, German author and screenwriter (born 1926)
1992 – Sviatlana Pirazhenka, Belarusian tennis player
2009 – Jack Kramer, American tennis player and sportscaster (born 1921)
2010 – Giulio Zignoli, Italian footballer (born 1946)
2014 – Atef Ebeid, Egyptian academic and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Egypt (born 1932)
2011 – Alexander Galimov, Russian ice hockey player (born 1985)
1986 – Joanne Jackson, English swimmer
1986 – Alfie Allen, English actor
1991 – Mike Towell, Scottish professional boxer (died 2016)
1988 – Guðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson, Icelandic politician
2001 – Ziaire Williams, American basketball player
2019 – ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, Tongan politician and activist, Prime Minister of Tonga (born 1941)
2012 – Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Russian poet and author (born 1946)
2012 – Tom Sims, American skateboarder and snowboarder, founded Sims Snowboards (born 1950)
2012 – Jon Finlayson, Australian actor and screenwriter (born 1938)
2013 – Ray Dolby, American engineer and businessman, founded Dolby Laboratories (born 1933)
1988 – Amanda Jenssen, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
2008 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1962)
2013 – Warren Giese, American football player, coach, and politician (born 1924)
2009 – Norman Borlaug, American agronomist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)
1992 – Alexia Fast, Canadian actress
2024 – Sitaram Yechury, Indian politician and leader of CPI(M) (born 1952)
2009 – Willy Ronis, French photographer and author (born 1910)
2018 – Shen Chun-shan, Taiwanese academic (born 1932)
1993 – Kelsea Ballerini, American country pop singer
1995 – Steven Gardiner, Bahamian sprinter
1989 – Andrew Luck, American football player
1986 – Yuto Nagatomo, Japanese footballer
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[
{
"text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>."
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Births":[
{
"text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)"
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Deaths":[
{
"text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
}
]
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.
Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>