1894 – Coca-Cola was bottled and sold for the first time outside of Atlant on the 12th March 1894, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph Biedenharn.
1912 – The Girl Guides (now known as the Girl Scouts of the USA) were founded in the United States on the 12th March 1912.
1913 – Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia was officially named Canberra on the 12th March 1913. (Melbourne remained temporary capital until 1927 while Canberra was under construction.)
1918 – Moscow became the capital of Russia again on the 12th March 1918, after Saint Petersburg was the capital for 215 years.
1928 – The St. Francis Dam In California failed on the 12th March 1928, with the resulting floods killing over 600 people.
1930 – Mahatma Gandhi led a 200-mile march known as the Salt March on the 12th March 1930, to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt.
1994 – The Church of England ordained its 1st female priests on the 12th March 1994..
2009 – Financier Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty in New York on the 12th March 2009, for scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street history.
2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melted, exploded and released radioactivity into the atmosphere on the 12th March 2011, a day after Japan’s earthquake.
2013 ~ Melbourne broke it’s record for the longest stretch of hot weather on Tuesday 12th March 2013, when the mercury hit 36.2°C, on the 9th day of heatwave temperatures over 30°C. See news stories: Herald Sun: Melbourne sets another weather record before cool change brings relief to the city, News.com.au: Melbourne breaks heatwave record & Weather Zone: Another record broken in Melbourne’s heatwave.
