Important Events From This day in History – 12th November

Today in History

• 1991 Dili massacre

  Indonesian soldiers shot several pro-independence protesters at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, East Timor. This event, also known as the Dili or Santa Cruz massacre, killed approximately 250 people.

• 1990 Coup in Lesotho

  Metsing, Justin Lekhanya staged a coup against Lesotho’s King Moshoeshoe II and took over the country’s government. A few months later, Lekhanya was deposed in another military coup.

• 1984 First salvage operation in space

  Astronauts Dale A. Gardner and Joseph P. Allen of the space shuttle Discovery conducted a series of spacewalks to recover parts from two satellites, the Palapa B-2 and the Westar 6, that had strayed from their orbits.

• 1981 STS-2 launched

  NASA’s second space shuttle mission, Columbia, was launched from NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the first time a manned space shuttle was launched twice in a row.

• 1966 First images of a Solar Eclipse taken from space

  The Gemini 12 crew, which included Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, was able to view and photograph the total solar eclipse over South America.