January • January 1 – New laws that go into effect on January 1: • Hawaii and
Delaware's
civil union laws go into effect. •
Illinois allows motorcyclists the right to yield at red lights since magnetic streetlight sensors will not recognize motorcycles. •
Utah bans discounts or specials on alcoholic drinks, essentially banning
happy hour. •
Arizona,
Oregon,
Washington,
Montana,
Colorado,
Ohio,
Vermont and Florida raise their
minimum wage. • San Francisco raises the minimum wage within its jurisdiction to over $10 per hour, making it the highest minimum wage in the country. • California adds the
historical contributions of sexual minorities and disabled people to its school curriculum. • January 3 – Former
Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum wins the
Republican Iowa Caucus by a record low margin of 34 votes over former
Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney. • January 4 –
Michele Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate, drops out of the race. • January 5 – Classified documents are leaked detailing a range of advanced
non-lethal weapons proposed or in development by the
U.S. Armed Forces. Among the systems described are a
laser-based weapon designed to divert hostile aircraft, an underwater
sonic weapon for incapacitating
SCUBA divers and a heat-based weapon designed to compel crowds to disperse. • January 9 –
White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley steps down. The Office of Management and Budget Director
Jack Lew takes his place. • January 10 •
Mississippi Governor
Haley Barbour pardons 200 prisoners. On January 12, a Mississippi judge blocks the release of 21 of those inmates. •
Alaska sees record snowfall. • The
U.S. Supreme Court makes an 8–1 decision in
Minneci v. Pollard that abused inmates cannot sue a privately, state-hired prison company in federal court. The ruling went against prisoner Richard Lee Pollard in a dispute of damages over a violation of the
Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, claiming that
Wackenhut/GEO, a privately run federal prison in California, had deprived him of adequate medical care. Writing for the majority, Associate Justice
Stephen Breyer said that "... the existence of an Eighth Amendment-based damages action ... against ... a privately operated federal prison .. state tort law authorizes adequate alternative damages actions, ... actions that provide both significant deterrence and compensation ... For these reasons, where, as here, a federal prisoner seeks damages from privately employed personnel working at a privately operated federal prison, where the conduct allegedly amounts to a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and where that conduct is of a kind that typically falls within the scope of traditional state tort law (such as the conduct involving improper medical care at issue here), the prisoner must seek a remedy under state tort law. We cannot imply a Bivens remedy in such a case. The judgment of the Ninth Circuit is reversed." • January 14 – Miss Wisconsin,
Laura Kaeppeler, wins
Miss America pageant. • January 16 •
Zappos.com computer system is hacked, compromising the personal information of 24 million customers. •
Jon Huntsman, a Republican presidential candidate, drops out of the race. • January 17 – Volunteers in
Wisconsin submit more than a million signatures to start a
recall election of
Governor Scott Walker in protest of his public fight last year to restrict
collective bargaining rights of public workers and his cuts in the
social safety net. • January 18 • The
U.S. Supreme Court makes a unanimous 9–0 decision that telephone consumers can gain standing in federal courts to sue abusive telephone marketers. The ruling went against
Arrow Financial Services (Arrow), a debt-collection agency, in a dispute of standing over the federal jurisdiction of the
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991. The act was passed so that out-of-state telemarketers, by operating interstate, could not escape state-law prohibitions on intrusive nuisance calls. Petitioner Marcus D. Mims filed a damages action in Federal District Court, alleging that respondent Arrow, seeking to collect a debt, violated the TCPA by repeatedly using an automatic telephone dialing system or prerecorded or artificial voice to call Mims's cellular phone without his consent. Writing for the unanimous court, Associate Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that "We find no convincing reason to read into the TCPA's permissive grant of jurisdiction to state courts any barrier to the U. S. district courts' exercise of the general federal-question jurisdiction ... We hold, therefore, that federal and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over private suits arising under the TCPA ... The Eleventh Circuit erred in dismissing Mims's case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction ... The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion." • The
U.S. Supreme Court makes a
6–2 decision that restores copyright status to some foreign works previously in the public domain. The case challenges the constitutionality of the application of Section 514 of the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), a treaty seeking to equalize copyright protection on an international basis. The practical effect of the decision is that some works that were once free to use (such as
Prokofiev's
Peter and the Wolf,
Metropolis (1927),
The Third Man (1949), the works of
Igor Stravinsky, several works of
H. G. Wells, including the film
Things to Come (1936), as well as innumerable others) now must be paid for. The ruling went against Lawrence Golan, and many others, in a dispute of URAA bringing some works whose copyright had lapsed back under copyright. Writing for the majority, Associate Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that "... (if there is) ... copyright protection abroad ... (then there must be given) ... the same full term of protection ... (in the) ...U. S. ... Congress did so in §514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), which grants copyright protection to preexisting works of Berne member countries, protected in their country of origin, but lacking protection in the United States ... The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is therefore affirmed." • January 19 •
Kodak files for bankruptcy protection. Kodak is best known for its wide range of photographic film products. •
Rick Perry, a Republican presidential candidate, drops out after seeing no way to continue his campaign past
South Carolina. • January 22 •
U.S. House Representative Gabby Giffords of
Arizona announces her resignation from office to focus on her recovery after surviving an
attempted assassination in 2011. •
Joe Paterno, the winningest football coach in
Penn State history, dies at the age of 85 from lung cancer. • January 23 • The
U.S. Supreme Court makes a unanimous
9–0 decision that government officials must obtain a search warrant permitting them to install a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device on citizens' private property. The ruling involves a
Fourth Amendment case, the requirement of obtaining a valid warrant in searches by law enforcement. The court ruled in favor of Antoine Jones in a dispute that attaching a GPS device to private property in a public space still constitutes a search and therefore falls under the Fourth Amendment. The opinion of the court was written by Associate Justice
Antonin Scalia who said that "We decide whether the attachment of a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device to an individual's vehicle, and subsequent use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements on public streets, constitutes a search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment ... The Fourth Amendment provides in relevant part that '[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.' It is beyond dispute that a vehicle is an 'effect' as that term is used in the Amendment. United States v. Chadwick, 433 U. S. 1, 12 (1977). We hold that the Government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a 'search.'" • An
intense EF3 tornado strikes the northeastern part of the
Birmingham, Alabama metropolitan area, killing one person, injuring 75 others, and caused over $18 million in damage. • January 24 • President
Barack Obama delivers his
2012 State of the Union Address. •
84th Academy Awards: Nominations are announced at 5:38 am. PST (13:38 UTC) (8:38 am. EST) at Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The
Best Picture nominees are
The Artist,
The Descendants,
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,
The Help,
Hugo,
Midnight in Paris,
Moneyball,
The Tree of Life,
War Horse • January 25 – The
Indiana House of Representatives passes
right to work legislation, becoming the first state in the
Rust Belt to pass such a measure. • January 26 – The
United States Department of Transportation requires airline companies to disclose in advance all price constituents. • January 29 – 10 people die in a suspected arson on the
Interstate 75 south of
Gainesville, Florida. • January 30 – In Illinois, the
Byron nuclear power plant loses power and is vented to reduce pressure, releasing radioactive steam. • January 31 – A teacher,
Mark Berndt, is charged with molesting 23 Los Angeles elementary school students.
February • February 5 •
Super Bowl XLVI: The
National Football Conference champion
New York Giants defeat the
American Football Conference champion
New England Patriots 21–17 at
Lucas Oil Stadium in
Indianapolis. It was officially the most watched program in the history of United States television with 111.3 million viewers in the United States (as per the Nielsen Company). •
Disappearance of Susan Powell: Josh Powell, who was widely suspected in his wife's disappearance, kills himself and the couple's two children. • February 7 – A
federal appeals court upholds
the district court decision that struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage. • February 11 – Singer
Whitney Houston is found dead at the age of 48 in her suite at the Los Angeles Beverly Hilton Hotel, which coincided with the 2012
Grammy Awards and triggered a worldwide outpouring of grief. Her death later impaired several major websites and services. • February 13 –
Washington Governor
Chris Gregoire signs a bill legalizing
same-sex marriage, becoming the seventh state to legalize gay marriage. • February 15 – The
Kellogg Company purchases snack maker
Pringles from
Procter & Gamble for US$2.7 billion. • February 16 •
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called "underwear bomber", is sentenced to
life imprisonment for attempting to detonate a bomb on
Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in Detroit, Michigan. • Researchers at
Dartmouth College find that many organic food products that contain organic brown rice syrup have a much higher concentration of the toxic element
arsenic. Brown rice syrup, used as an alternative for the much-maligned
high fructose corn syrup, is said to contain environmental arsenic absorbed by the husk of the rice. • February 18 – Legendary singer
Whitney Houston is laid to rest in a private televised funeral in her hometown of
Newark, New Jersey at the New Hope Baptist Church in which she was raised. • February 21 • The
Dow Jones Industrial Average goes above 13,000 points for the first time since May 2008. • The
U.S. Supreme Court makes a 6–3 decision that law enforcement officials do not need to issue Miranda warnings to prison inmates under questioning if these inmates are warned that they may end the interrogation at any time. The ruling involves an inmate who was removed from the general prison population and questioned. The court ruled against convict Randall Fields in a dispute that questioning without Miranda invocation was proper as long as the convict was advised of his freedom to leave. The opinion of the court was written by Associate Justice
Samuel Alito who said that "The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that our precedents clearly establish that a prisoner is in custody within the meaning of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), if the prisoner is taken aside and questioned about events that occurred outside the prison walls. Our decisions, however, do not clearly establish such a rule, and therefore the Court of Appeals erred inholding that this rule provides a permissible basis for federal habeas relief under the relevant provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996(AEDPA), 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1). Indeed, the rule applied by the court below does not represent a correct interpretation of our Miranda case law. We therefore reverse." • February 22 • In
Charlottesville, Virginia, former
University of Virginia men's lacrosse player George Huguely is found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2010 death of former UVA women's lacrosse player
Yeardley Love. The jury recommends a 26-year prison sentence; he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. • Seven
US Marines die when two
helicopters collide and crash on the border of the states of California and
Arizona. The
Bell AH-1 SuperCobra attack helicopter and the
UH-1Y Huey utility chopper accident occurs during a nighttime training exercise. • February 23 – The case against Gabe Watson in relation to the
death of his newlywed wife Tina on the
Great Barrier Reef in Australia is dismissed in
Alabama. • February 26 •
84th Academy Awards: The ceremony, hosted by
Billy Crystal, is held at the
Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre (formerly Kodak Theatre).
Michel Hazanavicius'
The Artist wins five awards, including
Best Director and
Best Picture, the first silent film to win the latter award since
Wings in 1927 and the first black-and-white film since ''
Schindler's List'' in 1993.
Martin Scorsese's
Hugo ties in award wins and leads in nominations with 11. The telecast garners nearly 39.5 million viewers. • A trial begins in
Cairo of 16 Americans and 27 others linked to an
Egyptian government crackdown on
non-government organizations which has created tension between the U.S. and
Egypt. •
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, is fatally shot by
George Zimmerman in
Sanford, Florida. The killing receives widespread attention focusing on aspects including the possible role of Martin's race and the initial lack of prosecution against Zimmerman, who is later charged with second degree murder. • February 27 • Teenager Thomas Lane
kills three students at
Chardon High School in
Chardon, Ohio. •
2012 Daytona 500: In a first ever delay, the race is postponed to Monday due to heavy rain in
Daytona.
Matt Kenseth wins on Tuesday morning. •
WikiLeaks begins disclosing 5 million e-mails from the private intelligence company
Stratfor. • February 29 •
2012 Leap Day tornado outbreak:
Tornados hit the
midwestern United States with 14 people killed, six in
Harrisburg, Illinois. •
Egypt lifts a travel ban on seven Americans employed by pro-democracy U.S. groups, including the son of U.S. Transportation secretary
Ray LaHood, who is among 16 Americans on trial in Egypt for trying to foment unrest and incite protests against the nation's military rulers.
March • March 1 –
Maryland becomes the eighth state to legalize
gay marriage. • March 2 •
NASA claims that it was
hacked 13 times in 2011, compromising security. •
Tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2012: 40 people die in the
South and the
Ohio Valley. •
BP and
plaintiffs reach an agreement over compensation for the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico. •
Dr. Seuss'
The Lorax is released in theaters. • March 6 • Retired British businessman
Christopher Tappin is denied bail in
Texas as he faces arms dealing charges. He is accused by the U.S. Government of exporting
thermal batteries to
Iran that could be used in the manufacture of
surface-to-air missiles. • Law enforcement agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland arrest alleged senior members of the
computer hacking group
Lulz Sec. • Businessman
Allen Stanford is
convicted of running a US$7 billion
Ponzi scheme. •
Super Tuesday of the
Republican Party presidential primaries: • Voters in 10 US states go to the
polls for Super Tuesday. •
Newt Gingrich is projected as the winner of the
Georgia primary. •
Mitt Romney is projected as the winner of
primaries in
Virginia,
Massachusetts,
Ohio and
Vermont as well as the
Idaho and
Alaska caucuses. •
Rick Santorum is projected as the winner of the
Oklahoma and
Tennessee primaries and
North Dakota caucuses. • Veteran
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is defeated in a
Democrat primary in the
9th district by incumbent
Marcia C. Kaptur after he was affected by redistricting. Samuel Wurzelbacher, popularly known as
Joe the Plumber, wins the
Republican Party primary. • March 8 • Former
Los Angeles Police Department detective
Stephanie Lazarus is found guilty of a high-profile 1986 murder. • A study suggests that donor
stem cells may prevent
organ rejection in imperfectly matched
transplant cases. • In a 6–3 opinion, the
Mississippi Supreme Court lets stand the pardons signed by the exiting Governor
Haley Barbour. • March 11 –
United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales kills 17 civilians in the
Panjwayi District of
Afghanistan near
Kandahar. Of those murdered, 4 were women and 9 were children. • March 12 – The
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that a 22-year sentence given to
Ahmed Ressam for attempting to bomb the
Los Angeles International Airport as part of the
2000 millennium attack plots was too light. The court orders that a new District judge re-sentence Ressam. • March 13 • Based in Chicago, Illinois,
Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest encyclopedia still in print in the English language, announces that it will no longer be producing printed versions, but will continue online editions. • The United States, Japan, and the
European Union file a case against China at the
WTO regarding export restrictions on
rare-earth metals. •
Citigroup,
MetLife,
Ally Financial, and
SunTrust, some of the largest financial institutions in the United States, fail a
Federal Reserve System stress test of 19 banks. • March 14 – A jury finds
Virginia Tech guilty of negligence for delaying a campus warning about the
Virginia Tech massacre of 33 students in 2007. • March 15 – Former
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich reports to
Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood in Littleton, Colorado, to begin serving 14 years in federal prison. Under federal rules, Blagojevich will serve 85%, or 12 years, of his sentence. • March 16 – Former
Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi is found guilty of a
hate crime and
invasion of privacy for his role in the
suicide of Tyler Clementi. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21. • March 20 • The
U.S. Supreme Court unanimously
rejects two patents held by Prometheus Laboratories, a unit of
Nestlé S.A., continuing a trend in recent years toward a narrowing of the grounds of patentability. •
John Carter records one of the
biggest losses in cinema history, forcing
Disney to take a $200 million writedown and chairman
Rich Ross to resign. •
MIT researchers Ramesh Raskar and Andreas Velten demonstrate an
augmented reality apparatus which can allow observation of a non-line of sight object by means of a non-mirror, reflective surface. • March 21 –
New Orleans Saints head coach
Sean Payton is suspended for a year without pay while former Saints
defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is banned indefinitely from the
National Football League for their role in the
New Orleans Saints bounty scandal. • March 23 –
Disney Junior,
Disney Channel's daytime children's programming block, becomes a standalone 24-hour cable channel. The channel replaces
Soapnet, which remains available (in a limited, automated form) for some cable and satellite providers who have not yet finalized carriage deals for Disney Junior, as well for
Cablevision and
Verizon FiOS (both of them have kept Soapnet on the air and added Disney Junior to their lineups as an additional channel). • March 24 • Seven children and two adults are killed in a house fire in
Charleston, West Virginia. It is considered the worst fire in six decades in the city. • In
Falls Church, Virginia, 71-year-old former United States Vice President
Dick Cheney receives a heart transplant from an unidentified donor. • March 26–28 –
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius: In a historic three days of arguments, the
U.S. Supreme Court hears from 26 states arguing against the constitutionality of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. • March 27 –
Guggenheim Partners, LLC agrees to purchase the
Los Angeles Dodgers for US$2.1 billion, the most ever for a professional sports franchise. • March 30–April 2 –
Visa and
Mastercard warn banks across the United States about a "massive" breach of security with more than 1.5 million North American credit card numbers potentially compromised. The security issue occurred at Atlanta-based
Global Payments Inc. Subsequently, Visa announces that it is dropping Global Payments over the hacking data breach. • March 31 – The two largest acting unions in the U.S., the
Screen Actors Guild and
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, agree to merge forming
SAG-AFTRA.
April • April 1 –
WWE holds
WrestleMania XXVIII at
Sun Life Stadium in
Miami Gardens, Florida, drawing a crowd of 78,363. • April 2 • A
mass shooting at the private Korean Christian
Oikos University in
Oakland, California leaves seven people dead and three injured. It was perpetrated by 43-year-old One L. Goh, a former student at the school. He died on March 20, 2019, while in custody at
California State Prison-Sacramento. • The data from the
1940 United States census is released, including information on 132 million people. • In college basketball, the
University of Kentucky defeats the
University of Kansas to win the
2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. • The
U.S. Supreme Court makes a controversial
5–4 decision that law enforcement officials can
strip-search newly admitted jail inmates even if the holding charge is minor. • April 5 • In New York City, Russian businessman
Victor Bout is sentenced to 25 years in prison for smuggling weapons to the Colombian
FARC guerilla movement. •
Connecticut repeals the
death penalty (those already on
death row remain there). • April 5–8 – American golfer
Bubba Watson wins the
US Masters defeating
Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa in a playoff. Although Oosthuizen was runner-up, in the final round he hit a rare
albatross on the second hole (occurring last in 1994, it was only the fourth ever albatross in Masters history and the first to be televised, as well as, the first ever on that hole). • April 12 –
U.S. Secret Service agents in
Cartagena, Colombia, for President
Barack Obama's attendance at the
6th Summit of the Americas, become embroiled in a scandal over the
hiring of prostitutes. The investigation also implicates military personnel, and results in 9 agents being forced out of the Service. • April 13 – In
Miami-Dade County, a drunk driver illegally driving the South Dade TransitWay (then known as the Busway) southbound at more than 100 miles per hour t-bones a minivan traveling eastbound on Eureka Drive, approximately 17 miles southwest of Downtown Miami. One person is killed, three others (including the drunk driver) were injured, and the drunk driver arrested. No bus drivers or passengers were injured or killed, as no buses were passing through (or stopping at an adjacent station) at the time of the crash. • April 20 –
Marcus Robinson, due to have been executed in 2007, is ordered off death row after
North Carolina Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks rules his trial was tainted by
racial bias, grounds for cancellation of a death sentence under the state's
Racial Justice Act. The judge uses controversial statistical evidence of bias to grant the change of sentence. • April 22–May 2 –
Chen Guangcheng, a
civil rights activist in China, flees
house arrest and seeks shelter at the
U.S. Embassy in Beijing, causing a diplomatic incident. • April 24 – The
USDA announces that
bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease") was found in a dairy cow in California. • April 29 – Seven people are killed, including three children, when the vehicle they were in flipped over on the
Bronx River Parkway in
The Bronx, New York City.
May • May 1 – The sale for
Guggenheim Partners to purchase the
Los Angeles Dodgers is finalized for US$2.1 billion, the most ever for a professional sports franchise. • May 2 –
J. T. Ready, a border militia leader, apparently kills four people and himself at the home of his girlfriend in
Phoenix, Arizona. • May 4 –
The Avengers, directed by
Joss Whedon, is released by
Marvel Studios as the sixth film of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the final film in its "
Phase One" slate. The first in the franchise distributed by
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it becomes the third highest-grossing film of all time at that point (currently the eighth) and helps to boost the MCU and superhero films in general to a wider audience. • May 5 – In US
horse racing,
I'll Have Another wins the
2012 Kentucky Derby. • May 7 • The
CIA announces it had foiled a plot by
Fahd al-Quso, a Yemeni affiliate of
al-Qaida, to have a suicide bomber, using an improved version of the underwear bomb used by
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in 2009, to blow up an American-bound airliner; no lives were ever at risk. • The first licenses for
autonomous cars in the U.S. are granted in
Nevada to Google. • May 8 • In a
voter referendum,
North Carolina amends the state constitution to include a ban on
gay marriage and all other forms of
same-sex unions. • U.S. Senator
Richard Lugar loses a Republican primary in
Indiana to a
Tea Party-backed challenger, becoming the first six-term Senator to lose a primary election since 1952. •
Milwaukee Mayor
Tom Barrett wins a Democratic primary, and will face
Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker on June 5 in the nation's
third gubernatorial recall election. • May 9 –
Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to announce support for
gay marriage. • May 11 • William Balfour is found guilty of murdering the mother, brother and nephew of American entertainer
Jennifer Hudson. • A panel of American health experts recommends formal approval of the
Truvada anti-HIV drug for prescription to non-infected men who have sex with multiple male partners, a decision opposed by some health workers and groups active among those with HIV. • May 20–21 – At the
Chicago Summit,
NATO leaders discuss the Middle East,
nuclear weapons, Russia, and the
Afghanistan War. • May 21 •
Dharun Ravi, the U.S. student who secretly filmed the sexual activities of his gay roommate
Tyler Clementi, who later committed suicide when the film was exposed, is sentenced to 30 days in prison by a
New Jersey judge. Ravi avoids the maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment. • A rare
annular solar eclipse occurs, visible from East Asia, the
North Pacific, and the Western United States. • May 22 –
NASA and
SpaceX launch
Dragon COTS Demo Flight 2 toward the
International Space Station. It becomes the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous and berth with another spacecraft. • May 23 –
Shakeel Afridi, a Pakistani physician who helped the
CIA to track down
Osama bin Laden by collecting
DNA samples from residents of
bin Laden's compound, is sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment for
treason. • May 27 –
Scottish driver
Dario Franchitti wins the
96th Indianapolis 500. It is his
third win there. • May 31 – A jury clears former
Democratic Party vice presidential candidate for
John Edwards on one count of corruption, with the judge ordering a mistrial on the other five counts.
June • June 5 – Incumbent Governor of Wisconsin
Scott Walker wins a
recall election against
Milwaukee Mayor
Tom Barrett, becoming the first Governor in United States history to survive a recall. • June 7 –
LinkedIn says that some of its members' passwords have been "compromised" following reports that more than six million passwords were leaked on the Internet. • June 11 • In ice hockey, the
NHL's
Los Angeles Kings defeat the
New Jersey Devils 6–1 in game 6 of the
2012 Stanley Cup Final to win the Los Angeles Kings' first
Stanley Cup. Los Angeles
goalie Jonathan Quick is awarded the
Conn Smythe Trophy as the
playoffs MVP. •
John Bryson crashes: • Police in the
San Gabriel Valley in
southern California cite
United States Secretary of Commerce John Bryson for felony hit and run for alleged involvement in a series of accidents on the weekend. • Bryson takes medical leave while he undergoes test related to a seizure that occurred during the crashes. • June 12 – The children's illustrated storybook
Topsy Turvy Tales is published. • The
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brings drugs charges against seven-time
Tour de France winner
Lance Armstrong. • June 13 • Scientists decode the
bonobo genome, making it last
great ape to have its
DNA sequence laid bare, following the
chimpanzee,
orangutan and
gorilla. • U.S. federal prosecutors drop corruption charges against former
Senator John Edwards following a mistrial. •
Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) launches. The satellite is a space-based
X-ray telescope that will use a
Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays at 5 to 80
keV from
astrophysical sources, especially for
nuclear spectroscopy. It is the eleventh mission of the
NASA Small Explorer satellite program (SMEX-11) and the first space-based direct-imaging
X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of the
Chandra X-ray Observatory and
XMM-Newton. • June 14 – Financier and cricket mogul
Allen Stanford is sentenced to 110 years in prison after siphoning billions from investors. • June 15 • U.S. president
Barack Obama announces that the U.S.
will stop deporting some
illegal immigrants. • Former
Goldman Sachs director
Rajat Gupta is convicted of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy related to
insider trading in 2011. • June 17 – In golf, American
Webb Simpson wins the
U.S. Open. • June 18 – Former American
Major League Baseball player
Roger Clemens is acquitted on all charges in a
perjury trial. • June 20 • The
United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform votes 23–17 in favor of holding
United States Attorney General Eric Holder in
contempt of Congress after he failed to release documents relating to
Operation Fast and Furious. It is the first time a US Attorney General is held in contempt. • President
Barack Obama invokes
executive privilege on documents associated with Fast and Furious following a request by the House Oversight Committee. • June 21 • The
Miami Heat wins the
2012 NBA Finals defeating the
Oklahoma City Thunder four games to one.
LeBron James wins the
NBA Finals MVP award. •
Moody's downgrades the credit rating of 15 major world banks: UK (
Royal Bank of Scotland,
Barclays and
HSBC), US (
Bank of America,
Citigroup,
Goldman Sachs and
JP Morgan), Rest of world (
Credit Suisse,
UBS,
BNP Paribas,
Credit Agricole,
Societe Generale,
Deutsche Bank,
Royal Bank of Canada and
Morgan Stanley). •
John Bryson resigns as
United States Secretary of Commerce following a seizure that led to two car accidents. • June 22 •
Jerry Sandusky, former
American football coach at
Pennsylvania State University, is convicted on
45 charges of
child sex abuse. He is on suicide watch. •
Pixar Animation Studios' 13th feature film,
Brave, is released in theaters. • June 25 •
Arizona defeats
South Carolina to win its first
College World Series title since 1986 and fourth overall. Arizona outfielder
Robert Refsnyder is named the
Most Outstanding Player. •
Arizona v. United States: In a 5–3 decision, the
US Supreme Court strikes down most of the
Arizona Immigration Law passed in 2010, but unanimously upholds the most controversial provision, which allows police officers to ask the immigration status of any person suspected of a crime. • June 28 •
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius: In a 5–4 decision, the
US Supreme Court upholds the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as constitutional under the
taxing and spending clause. •
US Attorney General Eric Holder is held in
contempt of Congress by a vote of 255–67. Holder is the first Attorney General held in contempt of Congress in US history. • United States and United Kingdom regulators hit
Barclays bank with a record fine (US$453 million) for distorting key interest rates to rig international markets. •
Anthony Davis is chosen first in the
2012 NBA draft at
Newark, New Jersey. • Dealing a blow to the FBI's high-profile global copyright theft case, a New Zealand court rules that
search warrants used to raid the home of
Kim Dotcom, founder of
MegaUpload, in connection to alleged copyright infringement were invalid.
July • July 2 •
NASA and
Lockheed Martin unveil the first space-bound
Orion spacecraft in
Cape Canaveral. • At least 2 million throughout the Eastern United States are still without power due to
strong storms and
a heat wave that killed 19 people. •
GlaxoSmithKline settles the largest
healthcare fraud case in US history for $3 billion. • July 9 – FBI has stopped assisting in DNS Changer Malware redirects; after this date Americans were told to visit the designated website to determine if their computers are infected. • July 12 • Former
FBI Director Louis Freeh's report into the
Penn State sex abuse scandal is released, alleging that late head football coach
Joe Paterno and other school officials covered up child sexual abuse by former assistant coach
Jerry Sandusky. •
Wells Fargo decides to pay a $175 million settlement in a
subprime mortgage compensation case. • July 16 •
NBCUniversal buys full control of the US news website MSNBC.com and rebrands it as
NBCNews.com. • The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration approves
Truvada as the first drug shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection. • July 17 – After President Barack Obama's
long-form birth certificate was released by the White House on April 27, 2011, Maricopa County Sheriff
Joe Arpaio contends that the document is a computer-generated forgery. Additionally, his six-month-long review included an examination of President Obama's Selective Service card and contended that it, also, is a forgery. Their claims were presented at that press conference, and at a second press conference held on March 31, 2012. The allegations regarding the birth certificate were repeated at a July 17, 2012, news conference, where Arpaio stated that his investigators are certain that Obama's long-form birth certificate is fraudulent. In response to Arpaio's claims, Joshua A. Wisch, a special assistant to Hawaii's attorney general, said, "President Obama was born in Honolulu, and his birth certificate is valid. Regarding the latest allegations from a sheriff in Arizona, they are untrue, misinformed and misconstrue Hawaii law." • July 20 –
2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting: Twelve people die and 70 are injured in a
mass shooting at a movie theater in
Aurora, Colorado. The shooter, James Holmes, opens fire on a crowd during a screening of
The Dark Knight Rises. He is found behind the theater claiming to be "
The Joker". • July 22 – Thirteen are killed and another 10 are injured when a
pickup truck crashes in
Texas. • July 23 – The
NCAA announces
severe penalties against
Penn State's
football program as a result of the school's
child sex abuse scandal as a result of the scandal coach
Joe Paterno has his wins from 1998 to 2011 vacated dropping him from 1st to 12th on the
list of college football career coaching wins leaders. However his wins are restored three years later as part of a settlement. • July 25 –
Dawn (spacecraft) begins its departure from
4 Vesta. The spacecraft is using its ion propulsion system to gradually raise its orbit. • July 27–August 12 – The
United States compete at the
Summer Olympics in London, England and win 46 gold, 29 silver, and 29 bronze medals. • July 31 –
2012 Summer Olympics: In swimming,
Michael Phelps of the United States wins a
record 19th Olympic medal, with gold in the 4 × 200 meters freestyle relay.
August • August 5 – White Supremacist Wade Michael Page
opens fire at a Sikh temple in
Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six and wounding four before committing suicide after police arrived. • August 6 • A fire at the
Chevron Richmond Refinery in
Richmond, California spreads thick black smoke over
Contra Costa County, prompting warnings from officials to
shelter in place. •
NASA's
Mars Science Laboratory lands with the Curiosity rover. • August 8 •
Marvin Lee Wilson is
executed by the state of
Texas, despite the low IQ results that could have invalidated his punishment. •
Jared Lee Loughner, the shooter in the
2011 Tucson shooting, pleads guilty to all charges and is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. • August 12 •
Kissing Shakespeare, a debut novel is published. • Golfer
Rory McIlroy wins the
2012 US PGA Championship at
Kiawah Island. • August 16 – After an outbreak of the mosquito-borne
West Nile virus kills at least 17 people, the mayor of
Dallas Mike Rawlings declares a state of emergency in the city. This paves the way for aerial spraying of synthetic
pyrethroid insecticides from tonight on. Many residents express their concerns over safety and effectiveness; they suggest other preventive methods of
mosquito control. Officials said the measures could cost as much as $1.2 million.Over the whole of the United States for the year, there were
243 deaths out of 5387 total cases. • August 24 •
2012 Empire State Building shooting: A gunman shoots and
kills a former coworker near the
Empire State Building in New York City. Following the initial shooting, police kill the gunman, and nine other people are wounded. • A jury in the U.S. state of California rules that
Samsung Electronics owes
Apple Inc. over US$1 billion for patent infringement. • The
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in the case
Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum, awards Sony BMG US$675,000 in statutory damages against Joel Tenenbaum, who shared 30 MP3 files through the defunct
Kazaa network. • The
United States Anti-Doping Agency says it will ban former professional
road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong for life and recommend he be stripped of his record seven
Tour de France titles. • August 25 –
Neil Armstrong, an American astronaut and the
first person to walk upon the Moon, dies at age 82. • August 30 – Lucimarian Tolliver mother of
GMA host
Robin Roberts dies at the age of 88.
September • September 3 – ''
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, a spinoff of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' debuts on
PBS Kids. • September 4 – The
NASA space probe
Dawn escapes from
4 Vesta to begin its flight to
Ceres (arriving in February 2015). • September 9 – American tennis player
Serena Williams wins her fourth
Women's Singles at the
US Open. • September 10 • An agreement is reached allowing the completion of the US
National September 11 Memorial & Museum on the
World Trade Center site in New York City. • In
lawn tennis,
Andy Murray of the United Kingdom wins the
Men's Singles of the
2012 US Open defeating
Novak Djokovic of
Serbia to become the first British player to win a
Grand Slam singles title since
Virginia Wade, and the first British man to do so since
Fred Perry. • September 11 – United States Embassy in
Cairo,
Egypt and Consulate in
Benghazi,
Libya are
attacked by protesters claiming because of film produced by the
Coptic Christian diaspora in Washington, mocking the
Muslim prophet. Although no link has been made to the planned terrorist attack in Benghazi, it was claimed by the insurgent group Ansar al-Sharia. The attackers are responsible for killing a consulate staff,
J. Christopher Stevens, two former U.S. Navy SEALs and GRS Agents Glen "Bub" Doherty and Tyrone "Rone" Woods, and Information Officer Sean Smith in Benghazi. Stevens was the first sitting U.S. ambassador to be killed in office since
Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979. • September 14 •
S&P Dow Jones Indices announces that
UnitedHealth Group will replace
Kraft Foods among the stock issuers that constitute the
Dow Jones Industrial Average. •
Jack Daniel McCullough, formerly known as John Tessier, is convicted of the 1957
Sycamore, IL kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old
Maria Ridulph. He is later sentenced to life imprisonment. • September 16 • The
National Hockey League locks out its players after the expiry of the
collective bargaining agreement. • RazorThreat software company of Ponticac, Michigan expands the reseller program, partnering with Ficus Consulting Group. • September 21–December 28 – There are 39 deaths out of 656 cases of people in 19 states infected with
fungal meningitis from contaminated
steroid medicine produced at an
unsanitary compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. • September 23 – Researchers find that there are four genetically distinct types of breast cancer. • September 27 • The
National Football League and the
NFL Referees Association reach an agreement, ending the
referee lockout that has been ongoing since June of this year. • A
mass shooting takes place at Accent Signage Systems, a sign company in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States; five people are killed, including the gunman who committed suicide, and four others are wounded. • September 28 –
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuts on
Nickelodeon.
October : Large portions of the Manhattan borough of New York City were without electricity • October 3 – The
first U.S. presidential debate of 2012 is held at the
University of Denver in
Denver, Colorado. • October 5 – The Los Angeles Police Department fails to obtain a search warrant when a federal judge in Texas blocks their attempt to obtain 1970s tapes of conversations between a Manson family member and his attorney. LA Police believe this evidence could help solve more than a dozen murders. • October 7 –
SpaceX CRS-1 launches as the third flight for
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's (also known as SpaceX) uncrewed
Dragon cargo spacecraft, the fourth overall flight for the company's two-stage
Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and the first SpaceX operational mission under their
Commercial Resupply Services contract with
NASA. • October 8 – President Obama establishes
César E. Chávez National Monument, encompassing the former headquarters of the
United Farm Workers and the gravesite of
Cesar Chavez in
Keene, California. • October 9 • Frenchman
Serge Haroche and American
David Wineland win the 2012
Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on quantum optics. • An audio recording of
Jerry Sandusky is released in which he "wonders what they've won". A court sentences Sandusky to 30–60 years in prison for
sexual abuse of boys while a coach at
Penn State. His lawyer vows to appeal and says he did not have enough time to prepare for the trial. • October 10 • Two American scientists,
Robert Lefkowitz and
Brian Kobilka, win the 2012
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on discovering the inner workings of
G protein-coupled receptors. •
Chicago Fire debuts on
NBC. •
Arrow debuts on
The CW. • October 11 –
Martha Raddatz hosts the vice presidential debate between
Joe Biden and
Paul Ryan at
Centre College. • October 12 – American attorney
Ryan Poston is shot to death by his girlfriend Shayna Hubers in
Highland Heights, Kentucky. Hubers falsely claimed the shooting was in self-defense and was later convicted of Poston's murder, with the perpetrator compared to Jodi Arias, convicted of the
murder of Travis Alexander. • October 14 –
Felix Baumgartner breaks the world
human ascent by balloon record before
space diving out of the
Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon over
Roswell, New Mexico. • October 16 • The
second U.S. presidential debate of 2012 is held at
Hofstra University in
Hempstead, New York. • The CEO of
Citigroup,
Vikram Pandit, announces his resignation from that post, and is immediately succeeded by
Michael Corbat. • The British computer hacker
Gary McKinnon wins his ten-year legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States after
Home Secretary Theresa May tells the
House of Commons she has blocked the order. • October 18 • American weekly news magazine
Newsweek announces it will cease print publication on December 31 and will move to an online-only format. • The
Boy Scouts of America release documents containing over 15,000 pages relating to allegations of
sexual abuse by over 1200 scout leaders between 1965 and 1985. • October 19 – At the Dallas State Fair,
Big Tex burns down because of a fire in his right boot. • October 22 – The
third U.S. presidential debate of 2012 was held at
Lynn University in
Boca Raton, Florida. • October 25 – A
New York Police Department officer, Gilberto Valle III, along with an unnamed co-conspirator, is charged with allegedly conspiring to cross state lines and kidnap, torture, cook, and eat women (at least 100 names and pictures, some with physical descriptions, were found on his computer). • October 26 –
Microsoft releases
Windows 8. • October 28 – The
San Francisco Giants sweep The
Detroit Tigers in 4 games during the
2012 World Series to win their 2nd championship in the last 3 years. • October 29 •
Hurricane Sandy's
storm surge slams into the Eastern seaboard and causes destruction especially in the states of
New Jersey and New York. In addition to record flooding damage along the Jersey Shore in
Atlantic City and
Seaside Heights, the superstorm causes almost 50 deaths in the states and leaves more than 8 million customers (all of
Lower Manhattan, 65% of
New Jersey, and many more) without electricity. In New York City alone, 18 deaths are reported, subways and tunnels are flooded for days, 80 homes are destroyed by an electrical fire in
Breezy Point, Queens, and waters reach record highs in
Battery Park. With the storm being late in the hurricane season, there are also blizzards in
West Virginia. The
New York Stock Exchange closes for trading for two days, the first weather closure of the exchange since 1985. It is also the first two-day weather closure since the Great
Blizzard of 1888. •
Penguin and
Random House agree to merge to form Penguin Random House, the world's largest publisher. • October 30 –
The Walt Disney Company purchases
Lucasfilm Ltd. from
George Lucas for US$4.05 billion. Included in the deal are the rights to the
Star Wars and
Indiana Jones franchises.
November reelected President • November 2 –
Walt Disney Animation Studios' 52nd feature film,
Wreck-It Ralph, is released in theaters and is a critical and commercial success. • November 6 –
2012 elections •
Barack Obama is
reelected President of the United States, defeating
Republican nominee
Mitt Romney. •
Democrats maintain a majority in the
Senate. •
Republicans maintain a majority in the
House. •
Maine becomes the first state to legalize
gay marriage via
voter referendum.
Maryland and
Washington do the same.
Minnesota also rejects a constitutional amendment which would have banned same-sex marriage. •
Washington becomes the first state to legalize
marijuana.
Colorado does the same. •
Puerto Rico votes to become a state. Congressional approval is still needed. • November 8 –
Jared Lee Loughner, the perpetrator in the
2011 Tucson shooting, is given 7 consecutive life sentences. • November 15 –
Deepwater Horizon oil spill: •
BP announces it will plead guilty to charges of manslaughter and obstruction of Congress, and will pay a total of US$4.5 billion to the
US Department of Justice and
Securities and Exchange Commission. • Separately, the two highest-ranking BP supervisors on board the
Deepwater Horizon on the day of the explosion have been indicted on 23 criminal counts. • November 16 –
Hostess Brands, which includes such brands as cakes
Twinkies, announces it will file for bankruptcy and liquidate its assets, stating that a bakery union's worker
strike stemming from contract disputes "crippled" its operations. 18,500 workers are expected to be laid off. • November 20 –
Puerto Rican professional
boxer Héctor Camacho is shot multiple times in
Bayamon,
Puerto Rico. The driver of Camacho's car is killed in the attack. Shot in the neck and face, Camacho is taken to St. Paul's Hospital in
Río Piedras, where he is pronounced "brain dead". • November 30 – A
New Hampshire federal
grand jury indicts David Kwiatkowski, 33, a former employee of Exeter Hospital in
Exeter, New Hampshire, on fraud and product-tampering charges in connection with an outbreak of
hepatitis C that sickened more than 30 people and caused concern in 7 states.
December , location of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting • December 5 – American businessman
John McAfee is arrested in
Guatemala following an alleged illegal entry after leaving
Belize where he is wanted for questioning over the death of fellow American Gregory Faull. • December 6 –
Washington Initiative 502 comes into effect, making Washington the
1st state to legalize recreational cannabis. • December 8 •
American football player
Josh Brent of the
Dallas Cowboys is arrested for driving while intoxicated and
vehicular manslaughter in relation to the death of teammate
Jerry Brown. •
Texas A&M University quarterback Johnny Manziel becomes the first freshman ever to win the
Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding player in
U.S. college football. • December 9 – The wreckage of a plane carrying American singer
Jenni Rivera with two pilots and four other passengers is found in northern Mexico with no apparent survivors. • December 10 •
Colorado Amendment 64 comes into effect, making Colorado the
2nd state to legalize recreational cannabis. • The trial of Jodi Arias begins in
Arizona. She is accused of the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend
Travis Alexander and the case receives widespread media attention. • December 11 • The
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit strikes down
Illinois's ban on
concealed weapons. Illinois is the last state in the United States not to enact a
concealed carry law. •
Syrian civil war: President
Barack Obama recognizes
Syria's
rebel opposition as the "legitimate representatives" of the
Syrian people. • British-based bank
HSBC will pay U.S. authorities $1.9 billion in a settlement over
money laundering for
drug cartels and countries under
sanctions, the largest ever such penalty. •
Michigan's state government passes
right-to-work legislation, making Michigan the 23rd state and the most highly unionized state in the US to have such laws. • December 14 – Twenty-six people, including 20 children (ages 6 and 7), are killed in the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in
Newtown, Connecticut. Prior to the school shooting, Adam Lanza, age 20, shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, age 52, at the home they shared in Newtown, as the 27th victim. The suspect killed himself during the incident. It is the second-deadliest
school shooting in U.S. history, after the 2007
Virginia Tech massacre. • December 15–30 –
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sustained a
concussion after fainting from
dehydration at her home. Subsequently, she is hospitalized after doctors discover a
blood clot related to the concussion that she had had earlier in the month. • December 19 –
Miss USA Olivia Culpo of
Rhode Island wins
Miss Universe. • December 20 – The
New York Stock Exchange, the largest
stock exchange in the United States and the world, is sold to
Atlanta-based
IntercontinentalExchange. • December 27 –
Toyota Motor Corporation, moving to put years of legal problems behind it, has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle dozens of lawsuits relating to
sudden acceleration. • December 30 – A tour bus crashes off
Interstate 84 in northeastern
Oregon, leaving 9 of its passengers dead and 26 injured.
Ongoing •
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) == Births ==