Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 12
On June 12: Independence Day for Russian Federation (1990)
- 1864 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant pulled his troops out of the Battle of Cold Harbor.
- 1889 - 88 were killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in Northern Ireland.
- 1964 - Anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison by the South African government.
- 1979 - A human-powered aircraft named Gossamer Albatross flew across the English Channel.
- 1987 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.