Thursday, November 12, 1693

The European Space Agency's lander Philae touched down on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet.

An explosion in the Shahid Modarres missile base led to the deaths of 17 members of the Revolutionary Guards, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program.

Although the Georgian government declared it illegal, South Ossetia held a referendum on independence, with more than 99 percent of voters in favour of preserving the region's status as a de facto independent state.

American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into residential buildings five minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing a total of 265 people.

A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 collided in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 people, the deadliest such collision in history.

Indonesian forces opened fire on student demonstrators protesting the occupation of East Timor in the capital Dili, killing at least 250 people.

The first episode of Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running television sitcom in history, premiered on the BBC.

The Oregon Highway Division unsuccessfully attempted to destroy a rotting beached sperm whale near Florence, Oregon, with dynamite.

The deadliest tropical cyclone in history made landfall on the coast of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), killing at least 250,000 people.

Suez Crisis: During an invasion of Rafah, Israeli soldiers shot and killed an estimated 111 Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants.

Second World War: In Operation Catechism, the Royal Air Force sank the German battleship Tirpitz (video featured) near Tromsø, Norway, killing about 1,000 sailors on board.

World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the decisive engagement in a series of sea battles between Allied and Japanese forces during the months-long Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands, began.