12 BC 12 BC Year 12 BC was either a common year starting on Saturday, Sunday or Monday or a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar (the sources differ, see leap year error for further information) and a common year starting on Friday of the Proleptic Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Messalla and Quirinius (or, less frequently, year 742 "Ab urbe condita"). The denomination 12 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era
Chinese calendar (, 29 days); stem branches for the first, eleventh, and 21st days, and the date, stem branch and time of the solar terms. The traditional Chinese calendar was developed between 771 and 476 BC, during the Spring and Autumn period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. Before the Zhou dynasty, solar calendars were used. One version of the solar calendar is the five-elements calendar (), which derives from the Wu Xing. A 365-day year was divided into five phases of 73 days, with each phase corresponding to a Wu Xing element. A phase began with a governing-element day (), followed by