August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 141 days remaining until the end of the year.
It is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. It is also known as the "Glorious Twelfth" in the UK, as it marks the traditional start of the grouse shooting season.
- 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
- 1121 - Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
- 1164 - Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
- 1281 - The fleet of Qubilai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
- 1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time.
- 1332 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar are routed by Edward Balliol.
- 1480 - Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
- 1499 - First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
- 1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
- 1687 - Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottomans at the Battle of Mohács.
- 1793 - The Rhône départment is created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre).
- 1806 - Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion.
- 1833 - Chicago is founded.
- 1851 - Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
- 1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos.
- 1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
- 1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War.
- 1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.
- 1908 - Ford builds the first Model T.
- 1914 - World War I - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; countries of the British Empire are also included.
- 1943 - Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
- 1944 - Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
- 1944 - Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
- 1952 - The Night of the Murdered Poets - thirteen most prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow.
- 1953 - Nuclear testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
- 1953 - The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the richter.
- 1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched.
- 1964 - South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
- 1964 - Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England.
- 1969 - Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
- 1977 - The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
- 1978 - Japan and the People's Republic of China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China.
- 1980 - Signature of the Montevideo Treaty establishing the Latin American Integration Association.
- 1981 - The IBM Personal Computer is released.
- 1982 - Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
- 1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
- 1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, is discovered near Faith, South Dakota.
- 1992 - Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
- 1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage forces the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
- 2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
- 2004 - New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey comes out publicly as a gay man.
- 2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
- 2005 - An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.
- 2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives
- 2005 - An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island
- 2007 - Bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
- 1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (d. 1559)
- 1566 - Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)
- 1604 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
- 1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia (d. 1676)
- 1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
- 1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)
- 1647 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
- 1686 - John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
- 1696 - Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)
- 1720 - Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)
- 1762 - King George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)
- 1774 - Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)
- 1856 - "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
- 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)
- 1866 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1954)
- 1867 - Edith Hamilton, German classicist (d. 1963)
- 1872 - Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1956)
- 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author (d. 1958)
- 1880 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (d. 1943)
- 1880 - Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d. 1925)
- 1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American film director (d. 1959)
- 1883 - Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938)
- 1885 - Jean Cabannes, French physicist (d. 1959)
- 1885 - Marion Lorne, American actress (d. 1968)
- 1886 - Sir Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist and newspaper owner (d. 1952)
- 1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1961)
- 1889 - Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (Dick and Jane) (d. 1981)
- 1892 - Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1897 - Maurice Fernandes, Guyanese West Indies cricketer (d. 1981)
- 1899 - Ben Sealey, Trinidadian West Indies cricketer (d. 1963)
- 1902 - Mohammad Hatta, Vice President of Indonesia 1945-1956 (d. 1980)
- 1904 - Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia, only son of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1906 - Harry Hopman, Australian-born tennis player and coach (d. 1985)
- 1906 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)
- 1907 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)
- 1909 - Richard Bare, American director
- 1910 - Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)
- 1910 - Yusof bin Ishak, first President of Singapore (d. 1970)
- 1911 - Cantinflas, Mexican actor (d. 1993)
- 1912 - Samuel Fuller, American film director (d. 1997)
- 1914 - Gerd Buchdahl, German philosopher (d. 2001)
- 1914 - Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (d. 1981)
- 1915 - Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007)
- 1918 - Guy Gibson, British aviator, awarded Victoria Cross (d. 1944)
- 1919 - Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)
- 1923 - John Holt, Jamaican West Indies cricketer (d. 1997)
- 1924 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer (d. 2007)
- 1924 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
- 1925 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
- 1925 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
- 1925 - George Wetherill, American scientist (d. 2006)
- 1926 - John Derek, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1926 - Joe Jones, American R&B singer (d. 2005)
- 1926 - Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)
- 1927 - Porter Wagoner, American singer (d. 2007)
- 1928 - Charles Blackman, Australian artist
- 1928 - Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1928 - Dan Curtis, film and television producer and director
- 1929 - Buck Owens, American singer (d. 2006)
- 1930 - George Soros Hungarian-American financier and political activist
- 1930 - Jacques Tits, Belgian mathematician
- 1931 - William Goldman, American screenwriter
- 1932 - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS apostle and former Utah Supreme Court Justice
- 1932 - Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer
- 1932 - Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat, Queen of Thailand
- 1933 - Parnelli Jones, American race car driver and team owner
- 1935 - John Cazale, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1937 - Walter Dean Myers, American author
- 1938 - Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian Mayor of Quebec
- 1939 - Skip Caray, American TV/radio baseball announcer (Atlanta Braves) (d. 2008)
- 1939 - George Hamilton, American actor
- 1939 - Roy Romanow, Canadian politician
- 1939 - Michael D. Antonovich, American politician
- 1940 - Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
- 1941 - Réjean Ducharme, Canadian novelist and playwright
- 1943 - Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1944 - Peter Hofmann, German tenor
- 1946 - Terry Nutkins, British TV Presenter
- 1947 - Ron Mael, American musician (Sparks)
- 1947 - Sam Rosen, American sportscaster
- 1949 - Panagiotis Chinofotis, Greek politician
- 1949 - Mark Knopfler OBE, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Dire Straits)
- 1950 - Jim Beaver, American actor and writer
- 1951 - Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist
- 1952 - Chen Kaige, Chinese film director
- 1954 - Sam J. Jones, American actor
- 1954 - Pat Metheny, American guitarist
- 1955 - Ann M. Martin, American author
- 1955 - Terry Taylor, American professional wrestler
- 1956 - Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
- 1956 - Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1959 - Amanda Redman, English actress
- 1960 - Laurent Fignon, French cyclist
- 1960 - Greg Thomas, England cricketer
- 1961 - Roy Hay, British guitarist and keyboardist (Culture Club)
- 1961 - Lawrence Hayward, English musician (Felt, Denim, Go Kart Mozart)
- 1961 - Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer
- 1962 - Miss Cleo, American psychic
- 1963 - Sir Mix-a-Lot, American rapper
- 1965 - Peter Krause, American actor
- 1966 - Les Ferdinand, English footballer
- 1967 - Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer
- 1967 - Andrey Plotnikov, Russian race walker
- 1967 - Andy Hui, Hong Kong actor and singer
- 1968 - Andras Jones, American actor
- 1969 - Aga Muhlach, Filipino actor
- 1969 - Stuart Williams, Nevisian West Indies cricketer
- 1970 - Anthony Swofford, American novelist
- 1970 - Jim Schlossnagle, baseball coach
- 1970 - Charles Mesure, British actor
- 1971 - Michael Ian Black, American comedian
- 1971 - Rebecca Gayheart, American actress
- 1971 - Pete Sampras, American tennis player
- 1972 - Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer
- 1972 - Takanohana, Sumo yokozuna
- 1972 - Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer
- 1973 - Joseba Beloki, Spanish cyclist
- 1973 - Jonathan Coachman, American professional wrestler and executive
- 1973 - Todd Marchant, American ice hockey player
- 1973 - Richard Reid, British terrorist (the "Shoe Bomber")
- 1973 - Yvette Nicole Brown, American actress
- 1973 - Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr - son of Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr
- 1973 - Grey DeLisle, American voice actress
- 1974 - Matt Clement, American baseball player
- 1975 - Casey Affleck, American actor
- 1975 - David Filmore, American actor
- 1976 - Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindström, Finnish guitarist
- 1976 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player
- 1976 - Wednesday 13, American musician (Wednesday 13, Murderdolls)
- 1976 - Brad Lukowich, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 - Richard McCourt, English children's television presenter
- 1976 - Henry Tuilagi, Samoan rugby union footballer
- 1976 - Pedro Collins, Barbadian West Indies cricketer
- 1977 - Plaxico Burress, American football player
- 1977 - Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer
- 1977 - Park Yong-ha, South Korean actor and singer
- 1978 - Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 - Chris Chambers, American football player
- 1979 - D.J. Houlton, American baseball player
- 1979 - Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater
- 1980 - Maggie Lawson, American actress
- 1980 - Dominique Swain, American actress
- 1980 - Matt Thiessen, Canadian/American musician (Relient K)
- 1980 - Jade Villalon, American singer/songwriter
- 1981 - Tony Capaldi, Northern Irish footballer
- 1981 - Djibril Cissé, French footballer
- 1982 - Alexandros Tzorvas, Greek footballer
- 1983 - Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer
- 1984 - Marian Rivera, Philippine actress
- 1990 - Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer
- 30 BC - Cleopatra (b. 69 BC)
- 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)
- 1424 - Yongle, Emperor of China (b. 1360)
- 1484 - George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)
- 1484 - Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)
- 1512 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
- 1577 - Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)
- 1588 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (b. 1543)
- 1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
- 1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)
- 1638 - Johannes Althusius, German writer (b. 1557)
- 1648 - Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)
- 1674 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)
- 1689 - Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)
- 1778 - Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
- 1809 - Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)
- 1810 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)
- 1822 - Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, English politician and statesman (b. 1769)
- 1827 - William Blake, English poet and artist (b. 1757)
- 1848 - George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)
- 1861 - Eliphalet Remington, American inventor, designer of the Remington rifle (b. 1793)
- 1864 - Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)
- 1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)
- 1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
- 1896 - Thomas Chamberlain, officer of the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg
- 1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)
- 1901 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
- 1914 - John Philip Holland, Irish submarine designer (b. 1840)
- 1918 - Anna Held, Polish-born actress and singer (b. 1872)
- 1922 - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (b. 1871)
- 1928 - Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- 1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)
- 1935 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)
- 1941 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
- 1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., brother of President John F. Kennedy (b. 1915)
- 1948 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)
- 1952 - David Bergelson, Yiddish language writer (b. 1884)
- 1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1875)
- 1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)
- 1959 - Mike O'Neill, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1877)
- 1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (James Bond) (b. 1908)
- 1968 - Esther Forbes, American novelist (b. 1891)
- 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)
- 1973 - Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1898)
- 1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)
- 1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
- 1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)
- 1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (plane crash) (b. 1941)
- 1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)
- 1988 - Jean-Michel Basquiat, Haitian-American artist (b. 1960)
- 1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1910)
- 1989 - Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (b. 1964)
- 1990 - B. Kliban, American cartoonist (b. 1935)
- 1990 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)
- 1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)
- 1996 - Robert Gravel, French Canadian actor and theatrical director (b. 1945)
- 1996 - Mark Gruenwald, American comic book writer and editor (b. 1953)
- 1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)
- 1999 - Jean Drapeau, Quebec politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1916)
- 2000 - Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
- 2002 - Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1919)
- 2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)
- 2005 - John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)
- 2007 - Merv Griffin, American television host and game show creator (b. 1925)
- 2007 - Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (b. 1963)
- 2008 - Christie Allen, British-Australian pop singer (b. 1954)
-
