Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 12

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 * 1388 – Unable to defend her possessions, Maria of Enghien sold the lordship of Argos and Nauplia to the Republic of Venice.
 * 1866 – England's worst mining disaster occurred when a series of explosions (depicted) caused by flammable gases ripped through the Oaks Colliery, killing 361 people.
 * 1905 – In support of the December Uprising in Moscow, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kyiv staged a mass uprising, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in the city.
 * 1939 – The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duchess (H64) collided with HMS Barham (04), the battleship she was escorting, sinking with heavy loss of life.
 * 1941 – The Holocaust: At a Nazi Party meeting in the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler declared the imminent destruction of the Jewish people.
 * 1942 – World War II: German troops began Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.
 * 1964 – Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of the Republic of Kenya.
 * 1969 – The Greek junta announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe after the junta was found guilty of torture and other human-rights violations by the European Commission of Human Rights.
 * 1979 – A earthquake struck just offshore of Tumaco, Colombia, causing at least 300 deaths, mostly by the resulting tsunami.
 * 1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285R crashed after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, killing 256 people, including 248 members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.
 * 2012 – North Korea made its first successful satellite launch, as Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2 reached orbit.
 * Born/died: | Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood |b|1724| Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke |d|1751| Johann Christoph Gottsched |d|1766| Gustave Flaubert |b|1821|  Henrietta Swan Leavitt |d|1921|  Doris Blackburn |d|1970| Evelyn S. Lieberman |d|2015|

December 12: Beginning of the Yule Lads` arrival in Iceland


 * 627 – A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeated Emperor Khosrow II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh, near present-day Mosul, Iraq.
 * 1936 – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China was kidnapped by Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, a former warlord of Manchuria.
 * 1988 – Three trains collided near Clapham Junction railway station in London, killing 35 people and injuring 484 others.
 * 2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore that the recount of ballots cast in Florida for the presidential election be stopped, effectively making George W. Bush (pictured) the winner.
 * 2021 – At the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton in the final lap to become the World Drivers' Champion.