* Markus Weimer, The Peace Dividend: Analysis of a Decade of Angolan Indicators, 2002 – 2012

* 2012 – The Independent State of Azawad is declared.

* 1919 – István Anhalt, Hungarian-Canadian composer ( d. 2012 )

* 1983 – Anthony Sedlak, Canadian chef ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.

* 1916 – Dom Mintoff, Maltese politician and journalist, 8th Prime Minister of Malta ( d. 2012 )

* 1935 – Fortunato Baldelli, Italian cardinal ( d. 2012 )

* 1942 – Byard Lancaster, American saxophonist ( d. 2012 )

* 1945 – Aleksandr Gorelik, Russian figure skater ( d. 2012 )

* 1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer ( d. 2012 )

* 1914 – Big Walter Price, American singer-songwriter and pianist ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – Ekrem Bora, Turkish actor ( b. 1934 )

* 2012 – Lionel Bowen, Australian politician ( b. 1922 )

* 2012 – Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian footballer ( b. 1947 )

* 2012 – Miguel de la Madrid, Mexican politician, President of Mexico ( b. 1934 )

* 2012 – Leila Denmark, American pediatrician ( b. 1898 )

* 2012 – Jamaa Fanaka, American director, producer, and screenwriter ( b. 1942 )

* 2012 – Jerry Lynch, American baseball player ( b. 1930 )

* 2012 – N. K. P. Salve, Indian politician ( b. 1921 )

* 1933 – Pierluigi Vigna, Italian magistrate ( d. 2012 )

* 1921 – Richard Adler, American songwriter and composer ( d. 2012 )

* 1923 – Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria ( d. 2012 )

* 1928 – Henning Moritzen, Danish actor ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – John Berry, English motorcycle racing promoter and manager ( b. 1944 )

* 2012 – Martin Fleischmann, Czech-English chemist ( b. 1927 )

As of 2012 the chairman is Hiroshi Kimura and the CEO is Mitsuomi Koizumi.

* 1939 – Tadahiro Matsushita, Japanese politician ( d. 2012 )

From July 2012 a new registration system will be enacted: all residents ( both Japanese and resident foreigners ) will be recorded by municipal offices in the jūminhyō system.

In early 2012, 90 to 95 percent of mobile phone sales in Japan are waterproof due to the Japanese young girls are so fond to their mobile phones and even use them in the shower.

* 1936 – Tsutomu Koyama, Japanese volleyball player ( d. 2012 )

* 1967 – Mika Yamamoto, Japanese journalist ( d. 2012 )

* 1898 – Kame Nakamura, Japanese super-centenarian ( d. 2012 )

It was accepted as a Japanese Industrial Standard ( JIS X 3017 ) in 2011 and an international standard ( ISO / IEC 30170 ) in 2012., there are a number of complete or upcoming alternative implementations of Ruby, including YARV, JRuby, Rubinius, IronRuby, MacRuby ( and its iOS counterpart, RubyMotion ), and HotRuby.

Debuting in Japanese cinemas on April 7, 2012, 2199 is a remake of the 1974 series.

* February 5 – Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress ( d. 2012 )

** Kaneto Shindō, Japanese film director ( d. 2012 )

** Sayuri Yamauchi, Japanese voice actress ( d. 2012 )

On July 7, 2012, at their annual convention, the National Council of the Japanese American Citizens League unanimously ratified the Power of Words Handbook, calling for the use of "... truthful and accurate terms, and retiring the misleading euphemisms created by the government to cover up the denial of Constitutional and human rights, the force, oppressive conditions, and racism against 120, 000 innocent people of Japanese ancestry locked up in America ’ s World War II concentration camps.

As of September 2012, seven disease-modifying treatments have been approved by regulatory agencies of different countries, including the U. S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ), the European Medicines Agency ( EMEA ) and the Japanese PMDA.

For 2012, only a handful of LMPs are being entered, with almost all of them being powered by Japanese manufacturers ( Nissan, Honda, etc .).

A Japanese study in 2012 found that vitamin E may contribute to osteoporosis.

< i > al </ i >., retrieved 06 Sep 2012 ; http :// www. biroco. com / yijing / index. htm </ ref > such as the Japanese martial art < i > Kendo </ i > ( 剣道 ) " way of the sword ".

* L ' Arc-en-Ciel: The legendary Japanese band, which has sold over 40 million records worldwide, played a sold out live show on March 25, 2012 as part of their 20th L ' Anniversary World Tour 2012.

The 2012 January transfer window brought Japanese striker Tadanari Lee to the South coast side along with Doncaster talisman striker Billy Sharp for a rumoured fee of £ 1. 8m.

** Ryō Un Maru, a Japanese fishing boat washed away from her moorings after the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami, and was deliberately sunk on 5 April 2012 after entering U. S. waters off the coast of Alaska.

In May 2012, borough officials in Palisades Park rejected requests by two diplomatic delegations from Japan to remove a small monument from a public park, a brass plaque on a block of stone, dedicated in 2010 to the memory of the 200, 000 comfort women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Model-singer Kyarypamyupamyu also shared the same success as Perfume's under Nakata's production with the album Pamyu Pamyu Revolution in 2012, which topped electronic charts on iTunes as well as the Japanese Albums chart.

* Helter Skelter, a 2012 Japanese film adaptation of the manga of the same name