March 12

• March 12, 1054
  Pope Leo IX escapes captivity at Benevento and returns to Rome
• March 12, 1088
  Odo of Lagery elected as Pope Urban II, replacing Victor III
• March 12, 1365
  The University of Vienna is founded by Duke Rudolph IV
• March 12, 1609
  The Virginia Company establishes a settlement in the Islands of Bermuda making Bermuda an English colony
• March 12, 1664
  England's King Charles II grants land in the New World, later known as New Jersey, to his brother James, the Duke of York
• March 12, 1689
  Former English King James II lands in Ireland starting the Williamite War between Jacobites (supporters of Catholic King James II) and Williamites (supporters of Protestant Prince William of Orange)
• March 12, 1755
  First steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine
• March 12, 1845
  Francis Rynd, an Irish physician, describes in the Dublin Medical Press the hollow needle, his invention used in hypodermic syringes
• March 12, 1867
  Last French troops leave Mexico after Mexican Republican victory in French intervention
• March 12, 1917
  Russian State Duma deputies sets up Provisional Committee, a special government body competing for power with the Petrograd Soviet, set up by workers
• March 12, 1918
  Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia
• March 12, 1925
  Sun Yat-sen, the Premier of the Kuomintang of China, dies, creating a power vacuum in the party and triggering contest between Chiang Kai-shek, a member of the right wing of the KMT, and Sun Yat-sen's close comrade-in-arms Wang Jingwei
• March 12, 1930
  Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism, with large numbers of Indians begins the Salt March to the sea coast, the campaign against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, which becomes an important episode of the Indian independence movement
• March 12, 1938
  German troops, greeted by cheering German-Austrians with Nazi salutes, march into Austria and annex the country, which is called by Nazi propaganda the Anschluss
• March 12, 1939
  Pope Pius XII is crowned in Vatican ceremonies
• March 12, 1947
  Truman Doctrine, a United States policy to stop Soviet expansion during the Cold War, is proclaimed by United States President Harry S. Truman during his speech addressed to the U.S. Congress
• March 12, 1957
  German Democratic Republic accepts 22 Russian divisions
• March 12, 1968
  Mauritius gains independence from Britain
• March 12, 1968
  After poor performance in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, Lyndon Johnson announces he will not seek reelection
• March 12, 1993
  North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites
• March 12, 1999
  Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic join NATO