#TodayInHistory – November 12

November 12 – Some important events on this day.

764 👉🏼 Tibetan troops occupy Chang’an for 15 days, capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty
1823 👉🏼 Great North Holland Canal (Amsterdam) opens

1880 👉🏼 Best selling American novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ” by soldier Lew Wallace is published

1910 👉🏼 1st possible movie stunt: man jumps into the Hudson river from a burning balloon
1912 👉🏼 British explorer Robert Scott’s diary & body found in Antarctica
1923 👉🏼 In Germany, Adolf Hitler is arrested for attempt to seize power during “Beer Hall Putsch” coup
1927 👉🏼 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, paving the way for Joseph Stalin to consolidate complete power
1942 👉🏼 WWII Naval Battle of Guadalcanal begins between Allied and Japanese forces in Solomon Islands

1966 👉🏼 Buzz Aldrin takes the first ‘space selfie’, a photo of himself performing extravehicular activity in space during the Gemini program.
Decades after the end of the Space Race, selfies have become a popular thing for astronauts and rovers alike to do in space – but the first can be credited to Buzz Aldrin, later the second man to walk on the Moon.
This photo was taken during the Gemini program in 1966. The program proved that astronauts could undertake Extravehicular Activity in space – paving the way for the Apollo program and the eventual landing on the Moon.

1968 👉🏼 US Supreme Court: Epperson v. Arkansas, court declares unconstitutional Arkansas law banning teaching evolution in public schools
1970 👉🏼 Cyclone Bhola makes landfall in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) killing up to 500,000, making it the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded
1974 👉🏼 A salmon is discovered in the River Thames, England, for the first time since 1833
2015 👉🏼 Out Magazine names Barack Obama ‘Ally of the Year’, Obama becomes 1st sitting US President to pose for cover of a gay magazine