📜 This Day in History

March 12

• 538The Gothic king Vitiges ended his year-long siege of Rome, which was defended by the Byzantine general Belisarius
• 1622Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Jesuits, were canonized by Pope Gregory XV.
• 1928The failure of the St. Francis Dam northwest of Los Angeles resulted in a flood that killed 400 people.
• 1940The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union.
• 1967General Suharto seized power from President Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly sworn him in as acting president of Indonesia.
• 2014A gas leak caused an explosion in East Harlem, New York City, destroying two apartment buildings and causing eight deaths.

Born on this day

• 1685George Berkeley, Irish bishop and philosopher (died 1753)
• 1863Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian soldier, journalist, poet, and playwright (died 1938)
• 1922Jack Kerouac, American author and poet (died 1969)
• 1947Mitt Romney, American businessman and politician, 70th Governor of Massachusetts