June 12th in History

816 - St. Pope Leo III dies

1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath.

1429 - Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.

1665 - England installs a municipal government in New York City (the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam).

1776 - The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.

1778 - Philip Livingston, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence dies

1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.

1860 - The State Bank of the Russian Empire is established.

1898 - Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.

1942 - Holocaust: Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

1943 - Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). 1,180 Jews are led to the city's old Jewish graveyard and shot.

1954 - Pope Pius XII canonises St. Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him the youngest non-martyr saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith.

1964 - Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.

1987 - The Central African Republic's former Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.

1990 - Russia Day – the parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.

1991 - Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of the republic.

1994 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.

1999 - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

2009 - A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide ranging protests in Iran and around the world.

Famous Birthdays

1107 - Emperor Gaozong of Song

1519 - Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

1771 - Patrick Gass, sergeant in the Lewis and Clark Expedition

1806 - John A. Roebling, engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge

1897 - Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1915 - David Rockefeller, banker and businessman

1924 - George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States

1929 - Anne Frank, author and Holocaust victim

1942 - Len Barry, singer-songwriter and producer

1951 - Brad Delp, singer-songwriter and musician

1953 - David Thornton, actor

1963 - Tim DeKay, actor

1970 - Rick Hoffman, actor

1979 - Wil Horneff, actor

1982 - Samantha Tolj, actress

1985 - Dave Franco, actor

1991 - Emmalee Thompson, actress

1992 - Ryan Malgarini, actor