| Date | Type | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1912-01-18 | In 1912 British explorer Robert Falcon Scott finally made his way to the South Pole. On arrival, he discovered that the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, had beaten him to his goal by just one month. Distraught Scott had to turn around and make the arduous journey home. Robert Falcon Scott, a British naval officer and explorer, is renowned for his heroic but ultimately tragic attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. His journey during the Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913) is a story of remarkable determination, scientific achievement, and heartbreaking loss. Scott was born on June 6, 1868, in Devonport, England. He joined the Royal Navy at 13 and rose through the ranks. His first Antarctic experience came during the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904), where he established himself as a capable leader and explorer. The Terra Nova Expedition, named after its ship, was Scott's second Antarctic venture. Scott's team consisted of 65 men, including scientists, seamen, and support staff. He employed a combination of ponies, dogs, and motor sledges to haul supplies—a controversial approach that proved problematic. Unbeknownst to Scott, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was also racing to the South Pole. Amundsen used lighter sledges and relied exclusively on dogs, which were better suited to the harsh Antarctic conditions. On January 18, 1912, Scott and his team of four—Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates, and Edgar Evans—finally reached the South Pole, only to discover Amundsen’s Norwegian flag. Amundsen had arrived 33 days earlier on December 14, 1911. The journey home proved catastrophic. Edgar Evans succumbed to injuries and exhaustion in February 1912 and Lawrence Oates, suffering from frostbite, walked into a blizzard on March 17, 1912, famously saying, “I am just going outside and may be some time.” The remaining three men faced relentless snowstorms and dwindling supplies. They perished in their tent in late March, just 11 miles from a supply depot. Scott’s final camp was discovered eight months later, in November 1912. His diary, preserved in the icy conditions, revealed the harrowing details of the journey. The expedition’s scientific achievements, including fossil discoveries supporting the theory of continental drift, were overshadowed by the tragedy. Scott was celebrated as a national hero in Britain, epitomizing courage, endurance, and sacrifice. However, later analyses criticized his leadership, logistical decisions, and reliance on unsuitable equipment. Despite this, Scott’s story remains a poignant symbol of human aspiration and the limits of endurance. The Norwegian explorers, particularly Roald Amundsen, played a pivotal role in Antarctic exploration, with Amundsen becoming the first person to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911. Norway’s seafaring tradition, combined with a deep understanding of polar environments, positioned these explorers as some of the most skilled and successful in polar history. | |
| 1912-02-12 | In 1912 the last emperor of China, Aisin-Gioro Puyi, abdicated ending imperial rule in China after more than 2,000 years. The First Chinese emperor dates back to Qin Shi Huang in 221BC and the forming of the Qin Dynasty. Xuantong Emperor Puyi, as he was known, became emperor on the 2nd of December aged 2 and was forced to abdicate after the Xinhai Revolution aged just 4 years old. The Xinhai Revolution was in 1911 and led to the creation of the Republic of China and ended with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor. | |
| 1912-04-13 | In 1912 the Royal Flying Corps was createdA little over 2 years before the start of World War 1, the British Army created the Royal Air Corps as a reconnaissance division of the Army. Balloons had been used in wars before for reconnaissance of the enemy’s position, but this was the first time the British army had employed planes for that use. Britain was a couple of years behind the French and German armies that had been using reconnaissance planes since 1910. The French were the first nation to see the benefit of using planes in military combat. Many couldn’t see an advantage to planes over balloons or even the cavalry, but the new military weapons of the day, such as a well-prepared artillery battery, made cavalry charges almost impossible. The Poem “Charge of the Light Brigade” talks of one such encounter with the British light cavalry almost obliterated as it was wrongly sent against a Russian artillery battery on the 25th of October 1854 during the Crimean War. The effectiveness of planes for military observation would be proven after the outbreak of World War I (on the 28th of July 1914). On the 22nd of October, a British Captain and Lieutenant spotted the German army preparing to surround the British Expeditionary Force. Their report allowed the BEF to retreat and possibly saved the lives of the 100,000 soldiers. Initially, Britain relied heavily on France's air corps for reconnaissance, but leading up to and during the First World War, Britain began to catch up in its use of military aircraft. When the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the 1st of April 1918, it became the world's first independent Air Force with an Air Force equal to, and not subordinate to, the Army or Navy. | |
| 1912-04-15 |
On this day in 1912 the worlds largest, fastest and most luxurious cruise ship, the Titanic, sinks on its maiden voyage. On the 10th of April 1912 the Titanic left the port of Southampton, England on its maiden voyage to New York, United States (via Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland). Carrying 2,224 passengers, including some of the richest people in the world, the new cruise ship was thought to be the safest cruise ship ever built. White Star Liners commissioned it’s building by Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and the Titanic was built with 16 separate airtight compartments. This design meant that even if the hull was penetrated the rest of the airtight compartments would keep her afloat. In fact the Titanic was designed to withstand four of these compartments being breached and this led to many claiming that she was virtually unsinkable. As she crossed the North Atlantic after leaving Queenstown, Ireland on the night of the 14th of April 1912 a large ice-burg was spotted in the water, but it was too late to manoeuvre the ship enough to avoid the ice-burg. At 11:40 pm ‘ships time’ the ship collided with the ice-burg and it starboard side, slicing through six of the airtight compartments. Ships time was calculated from when the sun would be at the highest point on that day and making that mid-day. It has been calculated that this would have been 4 hours and 27 minutes less than British Sumer Time (BST) so the titanic would have hit the ice-burg at about 4:20am (BST) on the 15th of April 1912. Just after midnight the SOS signal was sent out and passengers were ordered to board the life boats. The Titanic had only enough life boats for about half the passengers and so the order was given for women and children first. With the panic most of the lifeboats were launched at less than full capacity. As one side of the ship began to sink the weight of the other half caused the Titanic to split in two about 2 hours and 20 minutes after the initial collision. More than 1,000 people were still aboard the Titanic when she split and those lives were lost at sea. About 2 hours later RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard the 705 survivors, of the 2,224 passengers.
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| 1912-11-14 | In 1918 Czechoslovakia became a republic shortly after its independence was declared With the First World War coming to an end the Austro-Hungarian Empire also began to collapse. On the 28th of October Czechoslovakia was granted freedom from the former empire and its people experienced independence for the first time in 300 years. Shortly after on the 14th of November 1918, Czechoslovakia became a republic with Tomas G. Masaryk as President and Karel Kramar as Prime Minister. Czechoslovakia’s independence didn’t last for long. On the 15th of March 1939, Hitler invaded the country and during World War II the country's government was in exile in England. Czechoslovakia returned to independence after the war until it was dissolved on the 1st of January 1993 when it became the Czech Republic and Slovakia. |
