Historical timeline for April 12

The Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar wins the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election, defeating Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party, which had ruled the country for 16 years, marking the first change in government in Hungary for over a decade.

The Great Fire of Valparaíso ravages the Chilean city of Valparaíso, killing 16 people, displacing nearly 10,000, and destroying more than 2,500 homes.

Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali.

Merano derailment: A rail accident in South Tyrol kills nine people and injures a further 28.

Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency.

A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people.

A suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market, killing seven people and wounding 104.

During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an American McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle shoots a passenger train, killing between 20 and 60 people.

United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred.

The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland; the resort and its park's name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Resort Paris.

Jim Gary's "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs" exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the only sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition there.

Widerøe Flight 839 crashes after takeoff from Værøy Airport in Norway, killing five people.

Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-51D to deploy two communications satellites.

Harold Washington is elected as the first black mayor of Chicago.

The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission.

Canadian runner and athlete Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope Run in St. John's, NF

The Americo-Liberian government of Liberia is violently deposed.

Transbrasil Flight 303, a Boeing 727, crashes on approach to Hercílio Luz International Airport in Florianópolis, Brazil. Fifty-five out of the 58 people on board are killed.

Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.

The Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits.