This day in history: 12 Nov

1912: The bodies of Capt Robert Falcon Scott, Dr Edward Wilson and Lt Henry Bowers were found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

1944: The German battleship Tirpitz was sunk in Tromsö fjord by British bombers.

1948: General Hideki Tojo, former prime minister of Japan, and six other Japanese officials were sentenced to death for war crimes.

1970: The Oregon Highway Division blew up a whale.

1980: Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Saturn.

1996: 349 people were killed when a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100 collided in midair with an Ilyushin 76, near New Delhi, India.

The Hill Valley lightning storm in the movie Back to the Future took place on 12 November 1955.

King Canute the Great (ca 995-1035), Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) and Penny Singleton (1908-2003) died on this date.






And happy birthday to Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (1729-1811), Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755-1813), Maximilian Reichsfreiherr von Weichs zu Glon (1881-1954), Jo Stafford (1917-TBD), Grace Kelly (1929-1982), Brian Hyland (1943-TBD) and Nadia Comaneci (1961-TBD).