Template:On this day - August 12

Mario Moreno Cantinflas

• 1762 – In Cuba, the city of Havana is taken by a British squadron.
• 1806 – In present-day Argentine Republic, the militias commanded by Santiago de Liniers retake the city of Buenos Aires, defeating the British army and capturing its general, William Beresford.
• 1812 – In Spain, the French troops abandon Madrid when the allied army commanded by the Duke of Wellington defeats them at the Battle of the Arapiles.
• 1829 – Death of Gabriel Císcar, Spanish mathematician, sailor and politician (b. 1769).
• 1854 – In Guaymas (Mexico) the Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon is executed by firing squad for the armed action of the previous July 13.
• 1866 – Birth of Jacinto Benavente, Spanish playwright, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1922 (d. 1954).
• 1869 – During the Battle of Piribebuy, one of the bloodiest of the War of the Triple Alliance (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay), the Brazilian army burns the town's hospital with 600 wounded, doctors and nurses inside.
• 1911 – Birth of Mario Moreno Cantinflas, Mexican mime, actor, producer, screenwriter and comedian of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (d. 1993).
• 1919 – In Costa Rica the dictator Pelico Tinoco leaves the country with 100,000 dollars (equivalent to several million dollars today) after a strike sparked by the murder of the Salvadoran teacher Marcelino García Flamenco (30), burned alive by Tinoco's supporters.
• 1964 – Death of Isidro Fabela Alfaro, Mexican politician, lawyer, writer, journalist, historian, linguist, philologist and diplomat (b. 1882).
• 1980 – In Uruguay the Treaty of Montevideo is signed, creating the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI).
• 2010 – In Bogotá (Colombia) the building of the radio station Caracol Radio is attacked with a car bomb.