March 12 in History

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a land area of 7,688,287 km2 (2,968,464 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest country in the world. Australia is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates including deserts in the interior and tropical rainforests along the coast.

The Kapp Putsch, also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch, was an abortive coup d'état against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919, overthrow the Weimar Republic, and establish an autocratic government. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr, as well as nationalist and monarchist factions.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā, first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.

The Anschluss, also known as the Anschluß Österreichs, was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.

The Turenki rail accident occurred on 12 March 1940, at 05:28 local time near Turenki, Finland, and remains the worst rail accident in Finnish history. A troop train carrying soldiers of the 71st Supply Company and horses south from Loimaa to Viipuri collided with a northbound freight train. The two trains were travelling at 40 km/h and 25–30 km/h respectively at the time of collision. The death toll was particularly high due to many troop carriages being crushed; the carriages had initially been located at the rear of the train but were moved to the front just behind the locomotive at Toijala as the train changed direction. Rescue operations were also delayed.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

Suharto was an Indonesian military officer and politician who served as the second and longest-serving president of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto led Indonesia as an authoritarian regime from 1967 until his resignation in 1998 following nationwide unrest. His 31-year dictatorship is considered one of the most brutal and corrupt of the 20th century: he was central to the perpetration of mass killings against alleged communists and subsequent persecution of ethnic Chinese, Islamists, irreligious people, and trade unionists.

The 1971 Turkish military memorandum, issued on 12 March that year, was the second military intervention to take place in the Republic of Turkey, coming 11 years after its 1960 predecessor. It is known as the "coup by memorandum", which the military delivered in lieu of sending out tanks, as it had done previously. The event came amid worsening domestic strife, but ultimately did little to halt this phenomenon.

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, located about 1,100 nautical miles off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island, as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga, and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion, are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) and has an exclusive economic zone covering approximately 580,000 square nautical miles.

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city.

Zoran Đinđić was a Serbian politician and philosopher who served as the prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until his assassination in 2003. He was the mayor of Belgrade in 1997, becoming the first non-communist and first democratically elected official to hold both key positions after World War II. Đinđić was a long-time opposition politician and held a doctorate in philosophy.

The president of the Republic of Korea, also known as the president of South Korea, is the head of state and head of government of South Korea. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.

Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier and con artist who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.

On March 12, 2014, an explosion occurred at 9:31 a.m. in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The explosion leveled two apartment buildings located just north of 116th Street at 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, killing eight people, injuring at least 70 others, and displacing 100 families. City officials initially pointed to a gas leak as the cause of the blast. In June 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed the explosion on failures by Consolidated Edison and the city. The NTSB also agreed to review Whistleblower Gas Explosion Audit Findings from the 2009 Floral Park Queens gas explosion as part of their East Harlem Gas Explosion Investigation. The NTSB were unable to resolve these hazards found with merit by the New York State Public Service Commission (NYSPSC) and they remain a Public Safety Hazard today.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to repeal the European Communities Act 1972, and for parliamentary approval to be required for any withdrawal agreement negotiated between the Government of the United Kingdom and the European Union. Initially proposed as the Great Repeal Bill, its passage through both Houses of Parliament was completed on 20 June 2018 and it became law by Royal Assent on 26 June.