12 March in history
8 events that happened on 12 March, from 538 to 1989.
✦ Anniversary of the day
538 CE 1,488 years ago
Vitiges ends his year-long siege of Rome
The Ostrogothic king Vitiges ended the siege of Rome, which Byzantine forces under General Belisarius had held against his numerically superior army since March 537. The siege, the first major clash of the Gothic War, played a decisive role in its course.
1088 CE 938 years ago
Odo of Châtillon elected Pope Urban II
Elected at Terracina while a rival pope held Rome, Urban II continued Gregory VII's reforms. In 1095 he preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.
1391 CE 635 years ago
Konrad von Wallenrode is elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
Konrad von Wallenrode was elected the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, the supreme head of the order, and served until 1393.
1664 CE 362 years ago
Charles II grants New Netherland to the Duke of York
The King granted his brother James lands between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers, then held by the Dutch. English ships seized New Amsterdam that August and renamed it New York.
1938 CE 88 years ago
German troops march into Austria
The Wehrmacht crossed the border unopposed and was greeted by cheering crowds. The next day Austria was declared part of the German Reich, the Anschluss that Versailles had forbidden.
Born on 12 March 5
Died on 12 March 4
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.