On this day: Ayrton Senna wins fourth successive Grand Prix

Events, birthdays and anniversaries on 12 May.
On this day in 1991, in Monte Carlo, Ayrton Senna won his fourth successive Grand Prix. Picture: GettyOn this day in 1991, in Monte Carlo, Ayrton Senna won his fourth successive Grand Prix. Picture: Getty
On this day in 1991, in Monte Carlo, Ayrton Senna won his fourth successive Grand Prix. Picture: Getty

1536: Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton and other alleged paramours of Queen Anne Boleyn went on trial for treason.

1608: Protestant Union of German princes opposing Catholic bloc was formed at Anhausen.

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1679: Reverend James Kirkwood, the father of public libraries in Scotland, became minister of Minto.

1725: The Black Watch was commissioned under General Wade as the Independent Companies to police the Highlands.

1780: Charlestown fell to the British during the American Revolutionary War.

1915: Forces of South Africa’s Louis Botha occupied Windhoek, capital of German Southwest Africa.

1926: The General Strike in Britain ended after nine days.

1926: Josef Pilsudski staged coup in Poland.

1932: The kidnapped baby son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was found dead.

1935: Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by William Wilson in Ohio.

1937: The Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth took place in Westminster Abbey.

1942: Russians opened Kharkov offensive.

1949: The USSR lifted its blockade of Berlin after 11 months. It had cost the Allies £200million to fly in food and essential supplies.

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1951: The first H-bomb test on Eniwetok Atoll in the mid-Pacific proved it was possible to destroy a city more than 100 times the size of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1969: The voting age in Britain was lowered to 18.

1982: The QE2 sailed to join the Falklands Task Force.

1988: World Health Organisation said more than 34,000 Aids cases had been reported worldwide.

1990: At a Baltic summit, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania revived a 1934 political alliance, hoping a united front would crack Soviet resistance to the republics’ attempts to break away from the Soviet Union.

1990: A 1,000-tonne oil slick leaked from the Liberian tanker Rose Bay, which was in collision with a trawler in the Channel.

1991: In Monte Carlo, Ayrton Senna won his fourth successive Grand Prix.

1992: The Queen made a historic first speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg.

2003: Clare Short, the international development secretary, quit the Cabinet and accused the prime minister, Tony Blair, of endangering Labour’s achievements through his “obsessive” pursuit of a place in history.

2009: A rare blue diamond sold for a record 10.5million Swiss francs (£6.2million) at auction in Geneva. It weighed 7.03 carats, was smaller than a penny piece, and was one of only a handful of blue diamonds in existence.

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