Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 12

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 * 1240 – The Disputation of Paris, in which four rabbis defended the Talmud against Nicholas Donin's accusations of blasphemy, began in the court of King Louis IX.
 * 1775 – Thomas Gage, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, offered a general pardon to colonists who remained loyal to Britain.
 * 1776 – The Fifth Virginia Convention adopted a declaration of rights, an influential document that proclaimed the inherent rights of men.
 * 1921 – Soviet politician Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko authorised the use of chemical weapons against a peasant rebellion in the Tambov Governorate.
 * 1942 – On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank (pictured) began keeping a diary during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.
 * 1963 – The premiere was held in New York of the historical drama film Cleopatra, the most expensive film made to that point.
 * 1967 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws restricting interracial marriage in the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia.
 * 1978 – American serial killer David Berkowitz, popularly known as the "Son of Sam", was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison for each of six killings.
 * 1987 – Cold War: During a speech at the Brandenburg Gate by the Berlin Wall, US president Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!" (speech featured).
 * 1991 – More than 150 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were massacred by members of the military in the village of Kokkadichcholai.
 * 1999 – In the aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo War, the NATO-led Kosovo Force entered Kosovo with a mandate of establishing a secure environment in the territory.
 * 2010 – Sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland was rescued after her boat was dismasted in the Indian Ocean while trying to become the youngest sailor around the world.
 * 2016 – An Islamic terrorist killed 49 people in a mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida.
 * Born/died this day: | John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel |d|1435| Adriaen van Stalbemt |b|1580| Thomas Farnaby |d|1647| Samuel Cooper |b|1798| Egwale Seyon |d|1818| Thomas C. Hart |b|1877| Egon Schiele |b|1890| Eugénie Brazier |b|1895| Daisy Yen Wu |b|1902| Javed Miandad |b|1957 Billy Butlin |d|1980| Milorad Petrović |d|1981| Christine Sinclair|b|1983| Philippe Coutinho |b|1992| Gregory Peck |d|2003