Notable Events on November 12th Throughout History

Notable Events on November 12th Throughout History

Today marks the 316th day of the year, with 49 days remaining in 2025. On this day in history, Ellis Island ceased operations as an immigration station and detention center in 1954, after welcoming over 12 million immigrants to the United States between 1892 and 1954. Josef Stalin solidified his rule over the Soviet Union in 1927, while the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936. American playwright Eugene O’Neill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936. In 1948, Japanese general Hideki Tojo and other WWII leaders were sentenced to death. The Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan in 1970, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. American Airlines Flight 587 tragically crashed in 2001, and Venice experienced severe flooding in 2019. The conservatorship of Britney Spears ended in 2021, and Jack Teixeira was sentenced to prison in 2024 for leaking classified military documents. Birthdays today include Wallace Shawn, Booker T. Jones, Al Michaels, Neil Young, Tracy Kidder, Jack Reed, Megan Mullally, Nadia Comăneci, Jason Lezak, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Ryan Gosling, Anne Hathaway, Jason Day, and Russell Westbrook.