March 12
1496 - Jews were expelled from Syria.
1609 - The Bermuda Islands became an English colony.
1664 - New Jersey became a British colony. King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James (The Duke of York).
1755 - In North Arlington, NJ, the steam engine was used for the first time.
1789 - The U.S. Post Office was established.
1809 - Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country.
1857 - "Simon Boccanegra" by Verdi debuted in Venice.
1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.
1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
1889 - Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system.
1894 - Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.
1903 - The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.
1905 - In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife.
1906 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits.
1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.
1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.
1911 - Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.
1912 - The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.
1923 - Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.
1930 - Ghandi began his 200-mile march to the sea that symbolized his defiance of British rule over India.
1933 - President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside Chats."
1935 - Parimutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska.
1938 - The "Anschluss" took place as German troops entered Austria.
1940 - Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War.
1944 - Britain barred all travel to Ireland.
1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1959 - The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.
1966 - Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season.
1974 - "Wonder Woman" debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV.
1984 - Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.
1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.
1985 - Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks.
1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.
1987 - "Les Miserables" opened on Broadway.
1989 - Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end civil war.
1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.
1992 - Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth.
1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.
1993 - Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.
1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached.
1994 - The Church of England ordained its first women priests.
1998 - Astronomers cancelled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles.
1999 - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All three countries were members of the former Warsaw Pact.
2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.
2002 - Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion.
2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.
2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.
2009 - It was announced that the Sears Tower in Chicago, IL, would be renamed Willis Tower.
2010 - In the U.S., Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad.
