On February 12, 2002, the trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Yugoslavia, began at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Milošević was indicted on sixty-six counts of war crimes allegedly perpetrated during the Balkan civil wars of the 1990s, including allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial ended without a verdict, when Milosevic died of a heart attack during the proceedings. Read ICTY documents from the trial of Slobodan Milošević.

On February 12, 1793, the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, prohibiting anyone from assisting a runaway slave.