November 12

1330 – Near Posada, in modern Romania, the much smaller 7000 man army of Wallachian Warlord Basarab, ambushes and defeats the 30,000 man Hungarian army  of King Charles I, maintaining the independence of the principality from Hungarian domination.

1892 – Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.

1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1928 – The Lamport and Holt Line’s SS Vestris sinks in heavy weather approximately 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.

1933 – Nazi Germany withdraws its membership from the League of Nations.

1936 – The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1938 – Within days after Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.

1942 – The 3rd and 4th Battles of Savo Island between Japanese and American naval forces, begin off Guadalcanal.

1948 – In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences 7 Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in commiting War Crimes during World War II.

1954 – Ellis Island ceases immigrant inprocessing operations.

1958 – A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of ‘The Nose’ on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

1979 – In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, President Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.

1981 – Space Shuttle Columbia, launched on Shuttle Mission STS-2 marks the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

1997 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and sentenced to 2 life terms plus 240 years in federal prison.

2001 – American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, enroute to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 passengers and crew aboard and another 5 people on the ground.

2008 – A treacherous Iraqi soldier is killed after assassinating U.S. Army Sergeant Jose Regalado and Specialist Corey Shea in Mosul, Iraq

2011 – A explosion of mysterious origin at Bidganeh arsenal in Iran’s Shahid Modarres missile base kills 17 Revolutionary Guards and the chief of its missile program.

2021 – The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14 year long conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears.