Template:On this day - February 12

Francisco Javier Balmis

• 1483 – Death of Francis I of Foix, King of Navarre (present-day Spain) (b. 1469).
• 1502 – The Catholic Monarchs issue a Pragmatic prohibiting Islam in the territories of the Crown of Castile, providing ships to transport those Muslims who preferred to go to Barbary rather than convert to Christianity.
• 1517 – Death of Catherine I of Navarre, Queen of Navarre (present-day Spain) (b. 1468).
• 1541 – In Chile, Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura (now Santiago, the country's capital).
• 1542 – In South America, the expedition of fifty men under the command of Francisco de Orellana reaches the Amazon River.
• 1567 – In the Captaincy General of Chile, Captain Martín Ruiz de Gamboa founds the city of Castro.
• 1577 – John of Austria signs with the rebels of the Netherlands the Perpetual Edict, by which he agrees to withdraw the Spanish tercios.
• 1689 – Death of Marie Louise of Orléans, Queen consort of Spain from 1679 to 1689 (b. 1662).
• 1779 – Death of Jacobo Sedelmayer, Jesuit missionary and explorer of New Spain (b. 1703).
• 1814 – The Battle of La Victoria takes place during the Venezuelan War of Independence.
• 1818 – Bernardo O'Higgins proclaims the Act of Independence of Chile in Talca.
• 1819 – Death of Francisco Javier Balmis, Spanish physician, promoter of the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition (b. 1753).
• 1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
• 1879 – In the Saltpeter War (or War of the Pacific), Chile wrests the maritime strip of Atacama from Bolivia.
• 1899 – Spain sells the archipelagos of the Carolines, Marianas and Palau to Germany.
• 1921 – The pact of union between Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is approved, establishing a single sovereignty and representation. They adopted the name of United Provinces of Central America.
• 1941 – Peru declares war on the Axis powers during the Second World War.
• 1949 – In Ecuador, during a broadcast of the science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds (radio) on the station Radio Quito, many listeners thought it was real news coverage. On learning of the hoax, they set fire to the building, which housed not only the radio station but also the newspaper El Comercio. Five people died.
• 2002 – At the United Nations (New York), the World Day against the Use of Child Soldiers is observed.
• 2003 – Death of Emilio Romero Gómez, Spanish writer considered one of the leading journalists of Francoism (b. 1917).
• 2008 – Bolivia declares a state of emergency after almost 4 months of the La Niña phenomenon, which causes floods throughout the country.
• 2012 – Death of Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, Spanish businessman, publisher and patron, founder of the Anaya Group (b. 1926).
• 2016 – In Cuba, meeting and signing of a joint declaration between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow.
• 2022 – Death of Hugo Torres Jiménez, Nicaraguan military officer, politician and poet, one of the military leaders of the Sandinista guerrillas that overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle (b. 1948).