Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 12:
1925 – Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen died. Known as the father of modern China, he became its first provisional president from 1911-1912.
1938 – German troops invaded Austria.
1999 – Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first former members of the Soviet bloc to join NATO.
1999 – Yehudi Menuhin, the American-born violinist and music teacher, died in Berlin.
2003 – Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in front of the main government building in Belgrade.
2005 – Russian sportsman attempts record of staying in cold water for 60 minutes.
2005 – China accepted the resignation of Hong Kong’s unpopular chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, after he was made a vice-chairman of an advisory body to parliament.
2009 – Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to largest fraud in Wall St. history.
2011 – Officials check radiation levels near Fukushima after an explosion and radiation leak at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s nuclear power plant.
2012 – Researchers say they have found hidden Da Vinci masterpiece.
2014 – Fatal gas explosion in New York’s Harlem neighbourhood.
