• The allegedly unsinkable British ocean liner Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
• Chinese boy Emperor Pu Yi abdicates in favor of the new Chinese Republic, officially ending the 300-year old Qing Dynasty.
• An allegedly "defensive" alliance between Serbia, Bugaria, Greece, and Montenegro forms and then immediately attacks the Ottoman Empire, setting off the Balkan Wars.
• US troops intervene in support of pro-US dictators in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Cuba.
• The Chinese revolutionary party Kuomintang is organized by Sung Chiao-jen under the nominal leadership of Sun Yat-sen.
• The African National Congress is founded in South Africa.
• British biochemist Sir Frederick Hopkins and Polish-born American biochemist Casimir Funk recognize the link between vitamins and health. Funk coins the term "vitamin" from "vital amine".
• French surgeon Alexis Carrel develops a method for joining blood vessels, making possible the transplantation of organs.
• German airship pioneer Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin creates the first commercial airline, DELAG. His airships will carry 34,000 passengers by the start of World War I.
• Jim Thorpe dominates Stockholm Olympic Games, winning the pentathlon and decathlon, but is stripped of his medals when it is discovered he once played semi-pro baseball. Meanwhile, female athletes appear in the Olympics for the first time.
• New Mexico and Arizona become America's 47th and 48th states.
• Construction work begins on what will become New Delhi.
• A small Russian communist newspaper, Pravda ("truth") begins publication, with a young Josef Stalin as one of its editors. The paper will later become the official daily of the Russian Communist Party.
• Rice University opens.
• Followers of Italian educator Maria Montessori establish the first Montessori school in Tarrytown, NY.
• The Girl Scouts are founded in Savannah, Georgia by Juliette Gordon Low.

These people were born in 1912:

• Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I.
• Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who helped save about 100,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi extermination during World War II.
• North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
• Quebecois politician Jean Lesage.
• German born American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.
• British mathematician and computer theorist Alan Turing.
• British physicist and Communist spy Klaus Emil Fuchs.
• American painter Jackson Pollock.
• Hungarian born British conductor Sir Georg Solti.
• American composer John Cage.
• American author Conrad Aiken.
• American author John Cheever.
• Hitler's mistress Eva Braun.
• Lyndon Johnson's first lady, Lady Bird Johnson.
• American actor and dancer Gene Kelly.
• American folk singer Woody Guthrie.
• American comedian Minnie Pearl.
• American western film actress Dale Evans.
• American cartoonist Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family.
• American golf immortal Ben Hogan.
• American golf immortal Sam Snead.
• American golf great Byron Nelson.
• American cooking teacher Julia Child.
• American statesman Tip O'Neill
• Norwegian born American figure skater and movie actress Sonja Henie.

These people died in 1912:

• Japanese Emperor Meiji, ending the Meiji Era of Japanese History. He is succeeded by his son, the Taisho Emperor.
• Japanese general and war hero Nogi Maresuke, of ritual suicide upon the death of Emperor Meiji, according to the ancient practice of junshi or following one's lord in death.
• Danish king Frederik VIII. He is succeeded by his son Christian X.
• Clara Barton, organizer of the American Red Cross.
• English novelist Bram Stoker, author of Dracula.
• English painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

1911 - 1912 - 1913

20th century