Historical Events on November 12
- 1920: The Treaty of Rapallo is signed by Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
- 1927: Leon Trotsky is forced out of the Soviet Communist Party. This leaves Joseph Stalin in control of the entire Soviet Union.
- 1936: The San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge opens for traffic in California on this day.
- 1940: Free French Forces bring the Battle of Gabon to an end during World War II when they take French Equatorial Africa, Gabon and Libreville from Vichy French troops.
- 1940: During German-Soviet Talks, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov is brought to Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.
- 1941: At the Battle of Sevastopol during WWII, the Soviet ship Chervona Ukraina is destroyed.
- 1942: At the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II, American and Japanese forces clash for 3 days. America emerges from the battle victorious.
- 1944: Off the coast of Tromsø, Norway, the German battleship Tirpitz is sunk by 29 Avro Lancaster bombers launched by the Royal Air Force.
- 1971: United States President Richard Nixon sets the first of February 1972 as the deadline to remove an additional 45,000 American soldiers, sailors and airmen from Vietnam.
- 1979: United States President Jimmy Carter halts all petroleum imports into the U.S from Iran as a response to the Tehran hostage crisis.
- 1980: Voyage I passes close to the planet Saturn and takes pictures of its elaborate rings.
- 1981: Using the Space Shuttle Columbia, Mission STS-2 is launched into space.
- 1990: A formal proposal for the creation of the World Wide Web is advanced by Tim Berners-Lee.
Famous Birthdays on November 12
- French-Canadian nurse and founder of the first North American hospital, Jeanne Mance is born in 1606.
- American entomologist and botanist Thaddeus William Harris is born in 1795.
- French sculptor and illustrator August Rodin is born in 1840.
- American actress and Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly is born in 1929.
- German author Michael Ende is born in 1929.
- American mass murder conspirator and cult leader, Charles Manson is born in 1934.
- Canadian actor Ryan Gosling is born in 1980.