In the early hours of August 26, 2012, on the Baomao Expressway in Ansai County, Yan'an, Shaanxi, a double-decker sleeper bus rear-ended a methanol tanker and caught fire, killing 36 people and injuring 3.
On August 7, 2012, in the men's 110 metres hurdles heats at the London Olympics, Liu Xiang fell at the first hurdle. He was diagnosed after the race with a ruptured Achilles tendon and never competed in an official event again.
Toutiao, founded by ByteDance, released its first version in August 2012, using a data-mining recommendation engine to recommend news to individuals based on their behavior.