12 September History
- 490 BC - Athenian and Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drive back a Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon.
- 1213 - Simon de Montfort defeats Raymond of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon at Muret, France.
- 1609 - Henry Hudson sails into what is now New York Harbor aboard his sloop Half Moon.
- 1662 - Governor Berkley of Virginia is denied his attempts to repeal the Navigation Acts.
- 1683 - A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria.
- 1722 - The Treaty of St. Petersburg puts an end to the Russo-Persian War.
- 1786 - Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis is appointed governor general of India.
- 1836 - Mexican authorities crush the revolt which broke out on August 25.
- 1918 - British troops retake Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.
- 1919 - Adolf Hitler joins German Worker's Party.
- 1939 - In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles.
- 1940 - Italian forces begin an offensive into Egypt from Libya.
- 1940 - The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, are discovered.
- 1944 - American troops fight their way into Germany.
- 1945 - French troops land in Indochina.
- 1969 - President Richard Nixon orders a resumption in bombing North Vietnam.
12 September Birthdays
- 1812 - Richard March Hoe, who built the first successful rotary printing press.
- 1829 - Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist who, with Mark Twain, wrote The Guilded Age.
- 1880 - H.L. Mencken, jornalist and iconoclast known as the "Sage of Baltimore."
- 1888 - Maurice Chevalier, singer, dancer and actor.
- 1892 - Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher.
- 1910 - Alexander D. Langmuir, epidemiologist, created and led the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service.
- 1913 - Jesse Owens, track and field athlete who won four medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
- 1931 - Kristin Hunter, author (God Bless the Child, The Survivors).
- 1931 - George Jones, country singer.
- 1943 - Michael Ondaatje, Canadian novelist and poet (The English Patient).