This Day in History - November 12

Looking back at this day in history, in nineteen eighty-two, Yuri Andropov became the leader of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party, taking over after Leonid Brezhnev. Moving forward to nineteen ninety-five, leaders reached the Erdut Agreement, a plan to peacefully end the war in Croatia. In two thousand three, during the Iraq War, a suicide bombing struck an Italian police base in Nasiriyah, Iraq, killing at least twenty-three people, including the first Italian victims of the invasion. Later, in two thousand fifteen, two suicide bombers attacked the Bourj el-Barajneh area of Beirut, Lebanon, killing forty-three people and injuring more than two hundred. More recently, in two thousand twenty-two, a Boeing B-seventeen and a Bell P-sixty-three aircraft collided in the air during a show near Dallas Executive Airport in Texas, killing six people. These events remind us that history holds moments of change, peace efforts, and tragedy.

(UPDATED November 12, 2026 09:01 UTC)

In 1982, Yuri Andropov succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as Soviet Communist Party General Secretary. In 1995, negotiators reached the Erdut Agreement to resolve Croatia’s independence war peacefully. In 2003, a suicide bombing killed at least 23 people at an Italian police base in Nasiriyah. In 2015, two suicide bombers killed 43 people and injured over 200 in Beirut. In 2022, a B-17 and P-63 collided during an airshow, killing six.