WHAT HAPPENED ON 12. AUGUST
Want to find out what all happened on 12. August

World War I: the Battle of Haelen a.k.a. (Battle of the Silver Helmets) last cavalry style attack from the German army on the city of Halen, Belgium. (12. August 1914)

Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema. (12. August 1944)

Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions. (12. August 1944)

Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces. (12. August 1944)

USS Nevada (BB-36) is struck from the naval record. (12. August 1948)

Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army. (12. August 1950)

The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. (12. August 1952)

Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon. (12. August 1953)

The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale. (12. August 1953)

Art Kane photographs 57 notable jazz musicians in the black and white group portrait "A Great Day in Harlem" in front of a Brownstone in New York City. (12. August 1958)

Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched. (12. August 1960)

South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies. (12. August 1964)

Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. (12. August 1964)

Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside. (12. August 1969)

Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War (12. August 1976)

The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. (12. August 1977)

The 1977 riots in Sri Lanka, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed. (12. August 1977)

The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed. (12. August 1978)

The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin American Integration Association, is signed. (12. August 1980)

The IBM Personal Computer is released. (12. August 1981)