TODAY IN HISTORY: MAY 12

May 12 1780: Americans Suffered Worst Defeat Of Revolution At Charleston

After a siege that began on April 2, 1780, Americans suffered their worst defeat of the revolution on this day in 1780, with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and his army of 10,000 at Charleston, South Carolina.

With the victory, the British captured more than 3,000 Patriots and a great quantity of munitions and equipment, losing only 250 killed and wounded in the process. Confident of British control in the South, Lieutenant General Clinton sailed north to New York after the victory, having learned of an impending French expedition to the British-occupied northern state. He left General Charles Cornwallis in command of 8,300 British forces in the South.

South Carolina was a deeply divided state, and the British presence let loose the full violence of a civil war upon the population. First, the British used Loyalists to pacify the Patriot population; the Patriots returned the violence in kind. The guerrilla warfare strategies employed by Patriots Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter and Nathanael Greene throughout the Carolina campaign of 1780-81 eventually chased the far more numerous British force into Virginia, where they eventually surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

May 12 1903

After successful military operations in Sokoto and Kano Britain added 260,000 km2 to its Nigerian territory.

May 12 1941 World War II: North Africa

Urgent supplies, including tanks and aircraft arrived at the Egyptian port of Alexandria with the convoy, code-named 'Tiger'. General Wavell can now prepare for operation 'Brevity', and the push against Rommel's forces on the Egypt-Libya border.

May 12 1943 - World War II: Arnim surrenders

At 11:15 am Giovanni Messe, promoted to Field Marshal of the Italian First Army, was authorised to capitulate by Mussolini: "As the aims of your resistance can be considered achieved, your Excellency is free to accept an honourable surrender." Meanwhile at Ste. Marie-du-Zit, Generaloberst Hanz-Jürgen von Arnim and his command, camped with the remains of the Afrika Korps, surrender to the British. Arnim, however, will not disobey Hitler's orders and instruct the rest of the German army in North Africa to surrender.

May 12 1949: Berlin Blockade Lifted

On May 12, 1949, an early crisis of the Cold War came to an end when the Soviet Union lifted its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin’s two million citizens.

At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four sectors administered by the four major Allied powers: the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France. Berlin, the German capital, was likewise divided into four sectors, even though it was located deep within the Soviet sector of eastern Germany. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar treaty talks, especially after the United States, Britain, and France sought to unite their occupation zones into a single economic zone. In March 1948, the Soviet Union quit the Allied Control Council governing occupied Germany over this issue. In May, the three Western powers agreed to the imminent formation of West Germany, a nation that would exist entirely independent of Soviet-occupied eastern Germany. The three western sectors of Berlin were united as West Berlin, which was to be under the administration of West Germany. 

May 12 1964

Aid to Tunis was suspended by France in response to recent land seizure.

May 12 1987: Forest Fire Swept Across China

Firefighters finally contain a giant fire that swept eastward across China on this day in 1987, but not before 193 people are killed.

The fateful fire began on May 6 in Mohe County of the Heilongjiang Province. From the outset, authorities mishandled the blaze, failing to contain it while the size was still manageable. It spread quickly and within two days, 2,000 square miles had burned and 100 people were dead. Firefighters also had to contend with a separate large forest fire that had broken out near China’s border with the Soviet Union that threatened to join the initial blaze.

It took several more days for the firefighters to finally stop the spread of the fire as it moved toward Inner Mongolia. Although the city of Manqui was saved by controlled fire breaks set by the firefighters, the toll from this huge fire was already immense. Two and a half million acres of land burned and 50,000 people lost their homes. In addition to the 193 people who were killed, hundreds more were injured.

When the fire finally burned out completely on May 27, Yang Zhong, China’s Forestry Minister, was fired for the initially incompetent firefighting response.

Source: africanhistory.about.com, history.com