Template:Selected anniversaries/November 12

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  1793: Astronomer, mathematician, and political leader Jean Sylvain Bailly is guillotined during the Reign of Terror. He participated in the early stages of the French Revolution, presiding over the Tennis Court Oath, and serving as the mayor of Paris from 1789 to 1791.

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  1941: New York mobster and hit man turned goverment informant Abe Reles falls to his death while under police custody. Despite knotted sheets and other evidence of an escape attempt, there is widespread belief that Reles was murdered to prevent him from testifying.

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  1944: Mathematician George David Birkhoff dies. He was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation.

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  1947: Painter and forger Han van Meegeren is convicted on falsification and fraud charges.

• 1969: Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre.
• 1970: The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.
• 1980: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.
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  1990: Engineer and computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.