November 12
1920
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of baseball.
1927
Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and Joseph Stalin became the ruler of the Soviet Union.
1942
The World War II battle of Guadalcanal begins.
1954
Ellis Island stopped serving as the chief immigration station for the United States. Twenty million immigrants went through Ellis Island in its 62 years of operation.
1970
A cyclone and tidal wave hit East Pakistan, killing over 200,000 people.
1981
The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the second time. It was the first time a space vehicle was used more than once.
1990
Akihito becomes emperor of Japan.
1997
Ramzi Yousef, the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was convicted in New York.
Birthdays
Elizabeth Stanton
1815–1902, American reformer
Auguste Rodin
sculptor (1840)
Sun Yat-Sen
founder of modern China (1866)
Harry Blackmun
Associate Justice (1908)
Grace Kelly
actress, Princess of Monaco (1929)
Neil Young
singer; songwriter; guitarist (1945)
Nadia Comaneci
gymnast (1961)
Sammy Sosa
baseball outfielder (1968)
Ryan Gosling
actor (1980)
Anne Hathaway
actor (1982)
Omarion
singer (1984)