Osun Defender History Corner: November 12th In Focus

Today, on the history corner, we take a trip in the realm of flashback and recall some events that marked this day.

November 12th, 1439

Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

November 12th, 1799

Andrew Ellicott Douglass observes a Leonid meteor shower, helping to establish the connection between meteors and comet tails.

November 12th, 1859

The first flying trapeze act is performed by Jules Leotard at the Circus Napoleon in Paris.

November 12th, 1892

William “Pudge” Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player.

November 12th, 1918

Austria becomes a republic after the end of World War I.

November 12th, 1927

Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, marking a turning point in Soviet politics.

November 12th, 1941

The Soviet battle cruiser Chervona Ukraina is destroyed during the Siege of Sevastopol in World War II.

November 12th, 1956

Morocco gains independence from France.

November 12th, 1970

The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with dynamite, leading to an unexpected shower of whale blubber.

November 12th, 1980

The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn.

November 12th, 1990

Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

November 12th, 1996

A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides with a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane near New Delhi, India, killing 349 people.

November 12th, 2001

In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff, killing all 260 on board.

November 12th, 2003

Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record (501 km/h or 311 mph) for commercial railway systems.

November 12th, 2017

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 strikes the border region between Iran and Iraq, killing at least 530 people.

November 12th, 2018

California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire, known as the Camp Fire, begins in Butte County.

November 12th, 2019

Cyclone Bulbul makes landfall in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, India, killing at least 24 people.

November 12th, 2020

The SpaceX Crew-1 mission, the first crewed operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, is launched to the International Space Station.

November 12th, 2020

Typhoon Vamco makes landfall in the Philippines, causing widespread flooding and leaving at least 67 people dead.

November 12th, 2021

COP26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, concludes in Glasgow, Scotland.

Please note that these are just a few historical events that happened on November 12th. History is full of numerous other significant events on this day, ranging from politics and warfare to cultural and scientific milestones.