May 12 is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 233 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Sunday or Monday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Wednesday or Friday (56).
+ 1862 – American Civil War: U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
+ 1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Jr., is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
+ 1942 – World War II: The U.S. tanker SS Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German submarine U-507.
+ 1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
+ 2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
( Births )
+ 1820 – Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse, social reformer, and statistician (d. 1910)
+ 1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)
+ 1925 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2015)
+ 1962 – Emilio Estevez, American actor
+ 1969 – Kim Fields, American actress