WHAT HAPPENED ON 12. DECEMBER
Want to find out what all happened on 12. December

HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men. (12. December 1939)

World War II: Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, as a result of a German air raid. (12. December 1940)

World War II: Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. Jesús Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; César Basa is killed. (12. December 1941)

World War II: USMC F4F "Wildcats" sink the first 4 major Japanese ships off Wake Island. (12. December 1941)

World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan. (12. December 1941)

Adolf Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery (12. December 1941)

World War II: German troops begin Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad. (12. December 1942)

A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland, kills 100 people. (12. December 1942)

A fire at a New York City ice plant spreads to a nearby tenement, killing 37 people. (12. December 1946)

Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre – 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaya allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village. (12. December 1948)

Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services. (12. December 1950)

Beginning of the Irish Republican Army's "Border Campaign". (12. December 1956)

Guinea joins the United Nations. (12. December 1958)

Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom. (12. December 1963)

Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya. (12. December 1964)

Years of Lead: Piazza Fontana bombing – The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed. (12. December 1969)

Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee. (12. December 1979)

President of Pakistan Zia-ul-Haq confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam. (12. December 1979)

The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia. (12. December 1979)

The Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating floats the Australian dollar. (12. December 1983)