The year in history
1912
Someone born in 1912 turns 114 in 2026
1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1912th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 912th year of the 2nd millennium, the 12th year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1912, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. This year is notable for the sinking of the Titanic, which occurred on April 15 and the outbreak of the First Balkan War in October.
What happened in 1912
The Republic of China is established.
In the 1912 German federal election the Social Democrats for the first time becomes the party with the most seats.
The Manchu Qing dynasty of China comes to an end after 268 years with the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor Puyi and the establishhment of the Republic of China.
Roald Amundsen, in Hobart, Tasmania, announces his success in reaching the South Pole the previous December.
White Star liner RMS Titanic departs from Southampton, England, with more than 2,200 passengers and crew on her maiden voyage, bound for New York.
A hybrid solar eclipse is the 30th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 137.
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
Harriet Quimby, who set the record as the first woman to fly the English Channel two months previously, dies in Squantum, Massachusetts, after her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane crashes, killing both Quimby and her passenger.
A typhoon strikes China, killing at least 50,000 people.
Krupp engineers Benno Strauss and Eduard Maurer patent austenitic stainless steel.
Sax Rohmer's character Fu Manchu first appears in the first story of The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu in English pulp magazine The Story-Teller.
Merck files patent applications in Germany for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA (Ecstasy), developed by Anton Köllisch.
Famous people born in 1912
Kim Philby
British spy (d. 1988)
January 1 →
José Ferrer
Puerto Rican actor (d. 1992)
January 8 →
Werner Hartmann
German physicist (d. 1988)
January 30 →
Eva Braun
Adolf Hitler's wife (d. 1945)
February 6 →
Wally Cassell
Italian-born American actor (d. 2015)
March 3 →
Lightnin' Hopkins
American musician (d. 1982)
March 15 →
Dorothy Height
American civil rights activist (d. 2010)
March 24 →
Hamengkubuwono IX
9th Sultan of Yogyakarta and 2nd Vice President of Indonesia (d. 1988)
April 12 →
A. E. van Vogt
Canadian-born American writer (d. 2000)
April 26 →
John Bryan Ward-Perkins
British archaeologist (d. 1981)
May 3 →
Wilfrid Sellars
American philosopher (d. 1989)
May 20 →
Sam Snead
American golfer (d. 2002)
May 27 →
Phạm Hùng
Vietnamese prime minister (d. 1988)
June 11 →
Glenn Morris
American Olympic athlete (d. 1974)
June 28 →
Art Linkletter
American radio and television host, best known as the host of House Party (d. 2010)
July 17 →
Ben Hogan
American golfer (d. 1997)
August 13 →
Otto Ernst Remer
German Wehrmacht officer (d. 1997)
August 18 →
Edward Mills Purcell
American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
August 30 →
Ismail Yassine
Egyptian comedian, actor (d. 1972)
September 15 →
Grigory Kravchenko
Soviet test pilot and air force general (d. 1943)
October 12 →
Minnie Pearl
American humorist (d. 1996)
October 25 →
Birdie Tebbetts
American baseball player, manager (d. 1999)
November 10 →
Virginia Prince
American transgender activist (d. 2009)
November 23 →
Sonny Boy Williamson II
American blues singer, musician and songwriter (d. 1965)
December 5 →