Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 12
This is a list of selected May 12 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
May 12: Whit Monday (Western Christianity, 2008); Buddha's Birthday in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea (2008); International Nurses Day
- 1551 – The National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.
- 1885 – North-West Rebellion: Louis Riel (pictured) and the Métis rebels were decisively defeated by Canadian forces under Major-General Frederick Middleton in Batoche, Saskatchewan.
- 1926 – A general strike by British trade unions "in defence of [coal] miners' wages and hours" ended after nine days.
- 1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
- 1958 – Canada and the United States signed a formal agreement establishing the North American Air Defense Command to provide aerospace warning and defense for North America.