Reuters historical calendar - May 12
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 12 since 1900: 1926 - Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Italian Umberto Nobile and American Lincoln Ellsworth crossed the North Pole in an airship.
1926 - Jozef Pilsudski led a successful military coup in Poland.
1943 - The German commander in North Africa, General von Arnim, surrendered in World War Two.
1949 - The Russian blockade of Berlin officially ended after 11 months.
1957 - Erich Von Stroheim, one of the silent screen's greatest directors, died. His films include ''Greed'' and ''The Merry Widow''.
1991 - The moderate Nepali Congress won Nepal's first multi-party elections in 32 years.
1997 - India and Pakistan agreed to release each other's imprisoned nationals and to set up a telephone hotline to ease tensions.
2001 - Perry Como, popular singer, died. His relaxed vocal style endured through six decades with such easy-listening ballads as ''Catch a Falling Star'' and ''It's Impossible''.
2002 - Former US President Jimmy Carter landed in Havana on a private visit, the highest-profile American to visit since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
2005 - Swedish jazz singer and actress Monica Zetterlund, who performed and recorded with piano legend Bill Evans in the 1960s, died in a fire in her flat in Stockholm. She was 67.
2006 - Finland's parliament voted in favour of the European Union's stalled constitution.
2006 - Around 200 people died when an oil pipeline exploded on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital Lagos after thieves tapped into it to steal fuel.
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