Notable Anniversaries of 2012: Year In Review 2012


In addition to Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the year 2012 was marked by numerous noteworthy landmark anniversaries. The 600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Joan of Arc was probably the one anniversary commemorated that was the occasion in the most distant past. The editors have selected highlights, beginning with anniversaries that occurred 200 years ago and ending with those that celebrated a 50-year milestone.


Two hundred years ago, the U.S. began a war against Great Britain, a series of major earthquakes (the New Madrid earthquakes) reshaped the landscape of much of what is now the American Midwest, and the United States admitted Louisiana as its 18th state. Among the notable people born in 1812 were British writer of nonsense poetry Edward Lear (perhaps best known for “The Owl and the Pussycat”), French landscape painter Théodore Rousseau, and Charles Dickens.

  • The USS Constitution, originally launched in 1797, sails under its own power for the first time since 1997 on Aug. 19, 2012, in Boston Harbor to commemorate the bicentennial of its victory over HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812.
    The USS Constitution, originally launched in 1797, sails under its own power for …
    Steven Senne/AP

War of 1812

The bicentennial of the War of 1812 (1812–15) was observed on June 18. Commemorative events included the Star-Spangled Sailabration, which featured tall ships and replica ships from the war, in Baltimore, Md. (June 13–19), the exhibit “1812: A Nation Emerges” at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. (June 15, 2012–Jan. 27, 2013), and the exhibit “1812” at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ont. (June 13, 2012–Jan. 6, 2013).

The origins of the War of 1812 lay in tensions that arose from the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1792–1815). During this nearly constant conflict between France and Britain, each of the two countries attempted to block the U.S. from trading with the other. The British Royal Navy’s use of impressment, in which it accosted American merchant ships to seize alleged Royal Navy deserters and carried off thousands of U.S. citizens into the British navy, also provoked Americans. Events on the U.S. northwestern frontier fostered additional friction. Most Indians in the Northwest Territory became convinced that their only hope of stemming further encroachment by American settlers lay with the British, whereas American settlers, in turn, believed that the removal of Britain from Canada would end their Indian problems. U.S. Pres. James Madison signed the declaration of war on June 18, 1812.

U.S. attempts to invade Canada were disastrously unsuccessful. At sea, U.S. ships engaged in skirmishes with British vessels, but this led to a British blockade of the country’s major ports. By 1814, however, more capable American officers had replaced ineffective veterans from the American Revolution, and Napoleon’s defeat that year also freed up more British forces for the war in North America. American forces captured Ft. Erie in Ontario, and British soldiers sacked Washington and burned government buildings, including the United States Capitol and the Executive Mansion (now known as the White House). The British assault on Baltimore (September 12–14) failed when Americans fended off an attack at Northpoint and withstood the naval bombardment of Ft. McHenry, an action that inspired Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Peace talks began at Ghent (in modern Belgium) in August 1814, and a treaty was signed on Dec. 24, 1814. Based on the status quo antebellum (the situation before the war), the Treaty of Ghent did not resolve the issues that had caused the war, but at that point Britain was too weary to win it, and the U.S. government deemed not losing it a tolerable substitute for victory.

Charles Dickens

Celebrations marking the birth of enduringly popular British literary great Charles Dickens (Feb. 7, 1812) included a 24-hour staged reading from the works of Dickens that took place in 24 countries. It began in Australia with a reading of his first novel, Dombey and Son, and concluded with a reading from his final work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in the United Arab Emirates. Charles, prince of Wales, made the first royal visit since 1957 to the Charles Dickens Museum, where a special program was staged ahead of a wreath-laying ceremony at Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Five short plays, together called Dickens in London, were broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Special exhibits devoted to Dickens opened in the Museum of London and at the National Portrait Gallery.

Dickens’s works were marked by brilliantly drawn characters, vivid evocation of scene, inventive narrative, and humour that endeared him to generations of readers. His criticism of the inequities of his society was widely resonant in such novels asA Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations.


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One hundred fifty years ago, the U.S. was embroiled in the American Civil War. In 1862, 14 major battles occurred—including the Battles of Shiloh, New Orleans, and Antietam, the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the naval battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack—and the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” was published. The Department of Agriculture was created in the U.S., and the first Pacific Railway Act and the Homestead Act were passed. France’s first attempt to conquer Mexico was turned back in the Battle of Puebla. Notable people born in 1862 include African American journalist and activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, French composer Claude Debussy, Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, and American short-story writer O. Henry.

Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack

In 2012 historians and Civil War buffs at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va., marked the sesquicentennial of the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack, the first naval battle between ironclad warships. The battle, also called the Battle of Hampton Roads, introduced a new era of naval warfare. Observances included the Civil War Navy Conference, a two-day symposium, as well as historical vignettes and reenactments and the introduction of the interactive Ironclad BattleQuest adventure game. In addition, facial reconstructions of two members of the crew of the U.S.S. Monitor were unveiled at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The U.S.S. Merrimack, a conventional steam frigate, was commissioned in 1856 and served as flagship of the navy’s Pacific squadron. The ship was at the Norfolk navy yard in Virginia for repairs when Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861; to keep the Merrimack from falling into Confederate hands, the Union navy burned and sank it. Confederate forces salvaged the steamship and refitted it as an iron casement ironclad. It was commissioned as the C.S.S. Virginia in February 1862. The U.S.S. Monitor, an armoured turret gunboat, was built to the revolutionary design of John Ericsson and was also commissioned in February 1862.

On March 8, 1862, the Virginia sailed into the Hampton Roads harbour at Newport News. It rammed and sank the U.S.S. Cumberland, set the U.S.S. Congress on fire, and ran the U.S.S. Minnesota aground in the worst defeat with the highest death toll ever suffered by the U.S. Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The Virginia ceased its efforts after darkness fell. The Monitor arrived overnight with a mission to protect the wooden ships from the Virginia. When the Virginia attempted to renew its assault on the Minnesota the following morning, the Monitor interposed itself. In the epic battle that followed, neither ironclad was able to penetrate the armour of the other; eventually, the Virginia withdrew, having made the point that the era of the wooden warship was over.

Battle of Puebla

Cinco de Mayo, a national holiday in Mexico, commemorates the victory of a Mexican garrison over a much larger invading French force in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Sesquicentennial celebrations in Puebla in 2012 included a parade marshaled by Mexican Pres. Felipe Calderón, a three-part spectacular culminating in a fireworks display, and a free concert; the International Mole Festival, a two-day celebration of local cuisine, took place in early May.

France, under Emperor Napoleon III, with plans to conquer Mexico and make the Austrian archduke Maximilian emperor of a client state, invaded in 1862, taking Campeche in February of that year. Within a few months the French army was prepared to march on Mexico City. In the meantime, a group of Mexican soldiers commanded by Ignacio Zaragoza occupied Puebla, which lay between the French army and Mexico City. Expecting an easy victory, the French chose a frontal assault on the fortified Mexican position atop the Cerro de Guadalupe. The outnumbered Mexican troops repulsed three waves of attacks by the French, who were forced to retreat. Mexican cavalry pursued the retreating French, with one charge led by Porfirio Díaz (the future president of Mexico). Though the battle only postponed France’s conquest (1863) of Mexico, it became a symbol of Mexico’s refusal to bow down to foreign domination.

Homestead Act

The 150th anniversary of the signing into law of the Homestead Act (May 20, 1862) by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln was celebrated at the Homestead National Monument of America in Nebraska, where the original act was on display, on loan from the National Archives. A symposium, a procession of state flags of the 30 homesteading states, poetry readings, remarks by the last woman homesteader, and a concert marked the occasion.

At the beginning of the 19th century, laws governing the sale of U.S. government lands put land ownership financially out of reach for most individuals. As the population of the country grew, pressure arose for a system of “preemption,” which would allow settlement of a tract prior to payment. Among those who opposed such a policy were Southern states that feared it would result in an expansion of territory held by small farmers opposed to slavery. Homestead legislation was passed by the House of Representatives but defeated in the Senate in 1852, 1854, and 1859. A bill was passed in 1860, but it was vetoed by Pres. James Buchanan. With the secession of the Southern states, the U.S. Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862. It allowed any citizen or intended citizen to file an application and claim “a quarter section” (that is, a quarter of a square mile, or 160 ac), upon which he then had to build a dwelling and grow crops. After five years, during which he was required to reside on and work the land, he could, for a registration fee, apply for his deed of title. Land could also be purchased for $1.25 an acre, and soldiers could deduct their service time from the residency requirement. Hundreds of millions of acres of land were distributed to individual owners over the life of the law, which was repealed in 1976 (1986 in Alaska).

Claude Debussy

Concert stages and classical music stations in much of the world celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of French composer Claude Debussy (Aug. 22, 1862) with performances and featured recordings of Debussy’s seminal works, focusing on his importance in music of the 20th century. In one observation of the occasion, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard recorded an album of Debussy’s preludes that was released in August, and he performed the album in concert at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in November.

Debussy developed a new and complex harmonic and musical structure that was evocative of the Impressionism and Symbolist art of his contemporary painters and writers. Among his best-known works are Clair de lune (part of Suite bergamasque, 1890–1905), Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894), the 1902 opera Pelléas et Mélisande, and La Mer (1905).


One hundred years ago the U.S. gained its 47th and 48th states (New Mexico and Arizona, respectively). The movie studio Universal Studios was launched, the Oreo cookie made its debut, and the first American Girl Scout troop was organized. India’s Bollywood released its first film, the silent Shree Pudalik. Cowboys and Indians gathered in Calgary, Alta., for the first Calgary Stampede. The British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrived at the South Pole only to discover that Roald Amundsen of Norway had reached it before him. Austria enacted the Law on Islam, giving Muslims equal rights with Christians, Albania became independent of the Ottoman Empire, and the last emperor of China’s Qing dynasty abdicated. Well-known people born in 1912 include British computer science pioneer Alan M. Turing, German-born rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, Brazilian writers Jorge Amado, Nelson Rodrigues, and Luiz Gonzaga, American Abstract Expressionist artist Jackson Pollock, American composer John Cage, American celebrity chef Julia Child, and American folk musician Woody Guthrie.

  • Juliette Gordon Low (far right), who started the first Girl Scout troop in the U.S. in 1912, stands with members of one of the earliest Girl Scout troops.
    Harris & Ewing Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-hec-09024)

The end of the Qing dynasty

The centenary of the official abdication of Puyi (reign name Xuantong), the last emperor of China, was observed in China with the release of a 10-part documentary, Secret of the Final Decree, about the events of that end. The centennial of the revolution that ended both the 267-year-old Qing dynasty and the 2,000-year-old imperial system was observed in a ceremony in Beijing on Oct. 9, 2011.

The Qing dynasty was established in the semi-independent region of Manchuria in 1636 and succeeded the Ming dynasty ruling China in 1644. By the mid-19th century, the dynasty was in disarray. True power came to be exercised by Cixi, the empress dowager, as the mother of the only son of the Xianfeng emperor (reigned 1850–61). Her son, the Tongzhi emperor, acceded to the throne as a small child, and Cixi through political machinations had herself named regent. On the 1875 death of the Tongzhi emperor, Cixi had her three-year-old nephew enthroned as the Guangxu emperor and continued her own power, again as regent. In 1908 she named the Guangxu emperor’s three-year-old nephew Puyi crown prince; she died the day after he ascended the throne, and his father became regent. The Chinese Revolution led to the resignation of the regent as Sun Yat-sen became provisional president of the new republic, but the official reign of Puyi continued with Longyu, the empress of the late Guangxu emperor, as regent. On Feb. 12, 1912, she issued the abdication of the six-year-old emperor. Under the agreement for the abdication, Puyi nonetheless continued to reside in the Forbidden City and continued to be treated until 1924 as though he remained an all-powerful emperor.

Girl Scouts

The centennial of the founding of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (originally Girl Guides) was observed on March 12, 2012. At 8:12 pm EST current and former Girl Scouts in hundreds of locations joined hands in Promise Circles in commemoration of the original meeting of 18 girls in Savannah, Ga. Councils throughout the country had celebratory gatherings, including a June event attended by thousands of present and former Girl Scouts on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A special Girl Scout cookie, the Savannah Smile, was also introduced as part of the observations.

Juliette Gordon Low became interested in Boy Scouts (1908) and Girl Guides (1910) organizations founded in England by Robert and Agnes Baden-Powell through her friendship with them. She formed a Girl Guide troop in Scotland and two troops in London before returning to her hometown of Savannah, where in March 1912 she established the first American troop of Girl Guides, dedicated to training girls in citizenship, good conduct, and outdoor activities. In 1913 Low established a headquarters in Washington, D.C. (later moved to New York City). In 1915 the movement was formally organized on a national basis as Girl Scouts, Inc. (Girl Scouts of the United States of America from 1947). The earning of proficiency badges was part of the movement from the beginning. The selling of commercially baked Girl Scout cookies began in the mid-1930s. A new handbook, The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, was introduced in 2011 for all levels to replace handbooks that had been in use since 1977 for the younger scouts and since 1996 for the older ones; it complemented the 2008 introduction of “leadership journeys” to tie activities into a single consistent theme. By the time of the organization’s centennial, it had grown to include more than 3.7 million members.

Calgary Stampede

The Calgary Stampede, which calls itself the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, celebrated its centennial in July 2012 in grand style. The 10-day rodeo and festival, which broke attendance records, featured a parade, country music stars, equestrian performances, and fireworks, among other highlights.

Calgary was a boomtown in 1912 when Guy Weadick, who worked as a trick roper in frontier exhibitions in North America and Europe, proposed adding a large rodeo, a major gathering of cowboys and American Indians in a celebration of the Old West, to the city’s industrial exhibition, which had been held regularly since 1886. Weadick won the financial backing of four wealthy cattle ranchers, who became known as the Big Four, and in September 1912 he produced the first Calgary Stampede, called then the Frontier Days and Cowboy Championship Contest. The event was not repeated until 1919, when, to mark the end of World War I, Weadick produced the Victory Stampede. It became an annual event in 1923.


Seventy-five years ago much of the world, especially the U.S. and Europe, was feeling the effects of the Great Depression, and the storm clouds that would lead to World War II were gathering. Civil war raged in Spain, and war broke out in Asia when Japan occupied much of eastern China. In Britain the official coronation of King George VI took place, and the previous king, now Prince Edward, duke of Windsor, married American socialite Wallis Warfield. In addition, the German dirigible Hindenburg burned up and crashed in New Jersey, American aviator Amelia Earhart and her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, and the Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco.

The Hindenburg

In May 2012 nearly 200 historians and airship enthusiasts as well as witnesses of the original event gathered in Lakehurst, N.J., to observe the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburg airship disaster, in which during what was expected to be a routine landing, the giant airship burst into flames and crashed on May 6.

The building and operating of airships began in the late 19th century and began becoming commercially viable early in the 20th century. The first Zeppelin airship, the LZ-1, designed by Ferdinand, Count von Zeppelin, made its maiden flight near Friedrichshafen, Ger., in 1900, and a British dirigible made a round-trip transatlantic crossing in 1919. The most successful of the zeppelins, the LZ-127, or Graf Zeppelin, made the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight, from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst, in 1928, and it made a popular round-the-world trip the following year. A fleet of passenger ships was envisioned, and construction on the LZ-129, or Hindenburg, began in 1931; it was completed in 1936 and began transatlantic passenger service the same year. Passage on the Hindenburg cost more than twice as much as first-class passage on an ocean liner. Passengers enjoyed a large dining room and a lounge, decorated in a modern style, as well as promenades with large windows that could be opened. Small cabins occupied the interior of the passenger flight deck. Germany’s Nazi government used the Hindenburg for propaganda flights, including appearances at the Olympic Games of 1936 and at the 1936 Nürnberg Rally. It made 10 trips to and from the U.S. that year carrying passengers, cargo, and mail and made a number of trips to and from Brazil as well. The Hindenburg departed Germany for its first scheduled North American trip of the year on May 3, 1937. It was carrying 36 passengers, of whom 13 died; 22 crew members and a member of the ground handling crew also perished.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The 75th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was celebrated on May 27, 2012, with a festival featuring music and dancing. There were also a parade of historic watercraft, a procession of antique (dating from 1937) and modern cars and motorcycles, and a fireworks show.

The Golden Gate Bridge was designed by engineer Joseph P. Strauss, with architectural treatment by Irving Morrow. Though Strauss began making plans for a structure to bridge the Golden Gate Strait, which connects the Pacific Ocean with San Francisco Bay, in 1921, construction on the bridge did not get under way until 1933. Among those opposed to the strait’s being bridged were ferry operators, the Sierra Club, and photographer Ansel Adams, who thought that the bridge would ruin the view. Morrow chose the Art Deco design and the orange colour, which he selected to harmonize with the natural colours of its setting. The bridge was completed ahead of schedule and under budget and until 1964 boasted the longest main span (1,280 m [4,200 ft]) ever built. It opened to pedestrian traffic on May 27, 1937, and to vehicles the following day. The occasion was marked with the ringing of church bells and the sounding of sirens, fog horns, and ship whistles.


Fifty years ago Jamaica, Western Samoa (now Samoa), Algeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda all gained their independence, as did the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen). John H. Glenn, Jr., aboard Friendship 7, became the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, and James Meredith persevered against race riots and race-based objections to become the first African American student to attend the University of Mississippi. The dangers of pollution came to public awareness with the publication of Silent Spring by biologist Rachel Carson. The three-year Second Vatican Council (or Vatican II), convened by Pope John XXIII, met for its first session. It was a watershed year in popular culture: the Australian Ballet was founded in Melbourne; in Britain, Ringo Starr became the drummer for the pop band the Beatles, which released its first single, “Love Me Do”; the Rolling Stones played their first concert together; and the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, hit the theatres; and in the U.S. both Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys delivered their first albums (Bob Dylan and Surfin’ Safari, respectively). Much of the world was caught up in the Cold War, which nearly became hot during the Cuban missile crisis, and the clandestine special-operations force the SEALs was formed by the U.S. Navy.

Cuban missile crisis

Commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, in which the U.S. and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war, included the creation of a Web site,, by Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, to educate students and others interested in the event and its implications and a project by historian Michael Dobbs with Foreign Policy magazine to post on the microblogging site Twitter a series of updates that might have been written had the same technology existed in 1962.

In October 1962, just 18 months after a U.S. effort to overthrow the regime led by Fidel Castro in Cuba, the U.S. government learned that the Soviet Union was clandestinely placing in Cuba medium-range ballistic missiles that were capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Pres. John F. Kennedy convened a group of foreign-policy and military experts to consider how to respond. Though some preferred a course of air strikes against the missile sites and/or an invasion of Cuba, Kennedy chose a naval blockade of the island to prevent any further military buildup, and he announced this action in a televised speech in which he also warned that any military strike against the Western Hemisphere from Cuba would result in retaliation against the Soviet Union. Soviet ships en route to Cuba turned back, and Kennedy received two letters from Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev, the first saying that the missiles would be removed from Cuba in return for a U.S. pledge never to invade the island country, and the second saying that the U.S. also had to dismantle intermediate-range missiles based in Turkey and aimed toward the Soviet Union. The U.S. responded with an agreement not to invade Cuba if within 24 hours an intention to remove the missiles was communicated and with a secret pledge to withdraw its missiles from Turkey. On October 28 Khrushchev agreed. The blockade was lifted on November 20; the missiles were completely removed from Cuba by the end of the year; and U.S. missiles in Turkey were withdrawn in April of the following year.

Navy SEALs

The 50th anniversary of the founding of the special operations force the U.S. Navy SEALs was observed during Fleet Week San Diego (September 8–October 14). A ceremony also took place on January 27 at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story in Norfolk, Va.

In 1961 U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy expressed the need for the armed forces to develop the ability to engage in unconventional warfare. In response, in January 1962 the navy created two SEAL teams made up of members of the underwater demolition teams, one of many special-operations units created during World War II. The SEAL (for Sea, Air, and Land) mission was to conduct clandestine and counterguerrilla operations in maritime and riverine environments. SEAL Team 1 was based in Coronado, Calif., to support the Pacific fleet, and SEAL Team 2 was based in Little Creek, Va., to support the Atlantic fleet. SEAL units shortly were deployed to conduct training and counterguerrilla operations during the Vietnam War. It was not until the late 1960s that popular news media were authorized to write stories about SEAL activities. The number of SEAL units increased; in 2012 there were nine active-duty SEAL teams and two reserve teams. SEAL units supported most U.S. military engagements, including the protection of merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf (1987–88) during the Iran-Iraq War and the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait during the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War. They were active in the Iraq War from 2003 and in the Afghanistan War from 2001. In the latter war, members of SEAL Team 6 in May 2011 killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in northern Pakistan.

Notable Anniversaries of 2012: Year In Review 2012
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