1. On May 12, 1874, New Hampshire became one of the first states to enact a law for compulsory education, requiring all children between the ages of 8 and 14 to attend school for at least 12 weeks per year.

2. May 12, 1816, marked the beginning of the "year without a summer" in New Hampshire and much of the Northern Hemisphere, following the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the previous year. The resulting ash and debris in the atmosphere caused temperatures to plummet and led to crop failures and food shortages.

3. In 1932, the New Hampshire state Legislature declared May 12 as "Rochester Day" in honor of the town's 250th anniversary. A parade, speeches, and other festivities marked the occasion.

4. May 12, 1877, saw the founding of the Colebrook News and Sentinel, which still publishes to this day as a weekly newspaper covering the northern part of the state.

5. On May 12, 1954, Dartmouth College student David McKeen was killed in a car crash while returning from a weekend ski trip. His father, Wallace McKeen, established a memorial fund in his son's honor, which later became the David T. McKeen Fund for Medical Research at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.