12 January History
- 1872 - Russian Grand Duke Alexis goes on a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
- 1879 - The British-Zulu War begins. British troops — under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus — invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
- 1908 - A wireless message is sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
- 1913 - Kiel and Wilhelmshaven become submarine bases in Germany.
- 1915 - The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.
- 1926 - U.S. coal talks break down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike drags on into its fifth month.
- 1927 - U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua.
- 1932 - Oliver Wendell Holmes retires from the Supreme Court at age 90.
- 1938 - Austria recognizes the Franco government in Spain.
- 1940 - Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland.
- 1943 - Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.
- 1952 - The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
- 1962 - The United States resumes aid to the Laotian regime.
- 1973 - Yassar Arafat is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
- 1982 - Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.
- 1991 - The U.S. Congress gives the green light to military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf Crisis.
12 January Birthdays
- 1588 - John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- 1737 - John Hancock, first signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- 1876 - Jack London, American writer (The Call of the Wild).
- 1893 - Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, commander of the Luftwaffe.