12th December

EVENTS:

• 1787 – Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, five days after Delaware became the first.
• 1911 – Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
• 1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.
• 1958 – Guinea joins the United Nations.
• 1963 – Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1991 – The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
• 2012 – North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using an Unha-3 carrier rocket.
• 2017 – Doug Jones wins the 2017 US Senate special election in Alabama, becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama since 1992.

BIRTHS:

• 1866 – Alfred Werner, Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)
• 1919 – B. B. Nimbalkar, Indian cricketer (d. 2012)
• 1927 – Robert Noyce, American inventor and businessman, co-invented the microchip and co-founded the Intel Corporation (d. 1990)
• 1940 – Sharad Pawar, Indian politician, Indian Minister of Agriculture
• 1949 – Gopinath Munde, Indian politician, 3rd Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 2014)
• 1950 – Rajinikanth, Indian actor, producer, and screenwriter
• 1951 – Rehman Malik, Pakistani politician, Pakistani Minister of Interior
• 1952 – Herb Dhaliwal, Indian-Canadian politician, 3rd Canadian Minister of Natural Resources
• 1954 – Hemant Karkare, Indian police officer (d. 2008)
• 1967 – John Randle, American football player
• 1975 – Craig Moore, Australian footballer and manager
• 1981 – Yuvraj Singh, Indian cricketer
• 1981 – Stephen Warnock, English footballer
• 1984 – Sohail Tanvir, Pakistani cricketer

HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:

• Constitution Day (Russia, 1993-2005)
• Jamhuri Day, celebrates the independence of Kenya from Britain in 1963.
• Day of Neutrality (Turkmenistan)