12 July History
- 1096 - Crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Sofia in Hungary.
- 1691 - William III defeats the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.
- 1794 - British Admiral Lord Nelson loses his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.
- 1806 - The Confederation of the Rhine is established in Germany.
- 1941 - Moscow is bombed by the German Luftwaffe for the first time.
- 1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes a highway modernization program, with costs to be shared by federal and state governments.
- 1957 - The U.S. surgeon general, Leroy E. Burney, reports that there is a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
- 1974 - G. Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman and two others are convicted of conspiracy and perjury in connection with the Watergate scandal.
- 1984 - Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale chooses Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate.
12 July Birthdays
- 100 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman.
- 1817 - Henry David Thoreau, essayist, naturalist and poet (Walden).
- 1854 - George Eastman, photography pioneer.
- 1884 - Amadeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor.
- 1895 - Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian opera singer.
- 1895 - R. Buckminster Fuller, architect and engineer.
- 1904 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and political activist (Residence on Earth).
- 1908 - Milton Berle, comedian, actor.
- 1917 - Andrew Wyeth, American painter.
- 1934 - Van Cliburn, American concert pianist.
- 1937 - Bill Cosby, comedian, actor.