1. The Battle of Harpers Ferry: On September 12, 1862, Confederate forces under General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, located just across the border from South Carolina. The victory secured Jackson's flank during the Maryland Campaign of the Civil War.

2. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan: On September 12, 1866, a group of Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee founded the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization that would become active in South Carolina during Reconstruction and beyond.

3. Hurricane Hugo: On September 12, 1989, Hurricane Hugo made landfall near Charleston, South Carolina, causing widespread damage and claiming at least 35 lives in the state. The storm's impact was felt across the Southeastern United States, and it remains one of the most costly and destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

4. The Orangeburg Massacre: On September 12, 1968, three African Americans were killed and twenty-seven others injured when South Carolina Highway Patrolmen opened fire on a student protest at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg. The tragedy was one of the most violent incidents of the Civil Rights Movement in the South.

5. The founding of Columbia College: On September 12, 1854, the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church established Columbia Female College, which would later become Columbia College. The women's college, located in Columbia, South Carolina, has a long and distinguished history of providing quality education to young women in the state.