This day in History: November 12

1920

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of baseball.
1927

Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and Joseph Stalin became the ruler of the Soviet Union.
1942

The World War II battle of Guadalcanal begins.
1954

Ellis Island stopped serving as the chief immigration station for the United States. Twenty million immigrants went through Ellis Island in its 62 years of operation.
1970

A cyclone and tidal wave hit East Pakistan, killing over 200,000 people.
1981

The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the second time. It was the first time a space vehicle was used more than once.
1990

Akihito becomes emperor of Japan.
1997

Ramzi Yousef, the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was convicted in New York.

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This Day in History