diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 46afa167..afe50078 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ Changes in 1.4.12-stable:
  o Try to contain degree of failure when running on a win32 version so heavily firewalled that we can't fake a socketpair.
  o Fix an obscure timing-dependent, allocator-dependent crash in the evdns code.
  o Use __VA_ARGS__ syntax for varargs macros in event_rpcgen when compiler is not GCC.
+ o Activate fd events in a pseudorandom order with O(N) backends, so that we don't systematically favor low fds (select) or earlier-added fds (poll, win32).
  o Fix another pair of fencepost bugs in epoll.c.  [Patch from Adam Langley.]
 
 Changes in 1.4.11-stable:
@@ -86,7 +87,6 @@ Changes in 1.4.4-stable:
  o Fix autoconf script behavior on IRIX.
  o Make sure winsock2.h include always comes before windows.h include.
 
-
 Changes in 1.4.3-stable:
  o include Content-Length in reply for HTTP/1.0 requests with keep-alive
  o Patch from Tani Hosokawa: make some functions in http.c threadsafe.
diff --git a/WIN32-Code/win32.c b/WIN32-Code/win32.c
index 213af37a..0d4705fd 100644
--- a/WIN32-Code/win32.c
+++ b/WIN32-Code/win32.c
@@ -352,8 +352,9 @@ win32_dispatch(struct event_base *base, void *op,
 {
 	struct win32op *win32op = op;
 	int res = 0;
-	unsigned i;
+	unsigned j, i;
 	int fd_count;
+	SOCKET s;
 
 	fd_set_copy(win32op->readset_out, win32op->readset_in);
 	fd_set_copy(win32op->exset_out, win32op->readset_in);
@@ -384,29 +385,37 @@ win32_dispatch(struct event_base *base, void *op,
 		evsignal_process(base);
 	}
 
-	for (i=0; i<win32op->readset_out->fd_count; ++i) {
-		struct event_entry *ent;
-		SOCKET s = win32op->readset_out->fd_array[i];
-		if ((ent = get_event_entry(win32op, s, 0)) && ent->read_event)
-			event_active(ent->read_event, EV_READ, 1);
+	if (win32op->readset_out->fd_count) {
+		i = rand() % win32op->readset_out->fd_count;
+		for (j=0; j<win32op->readset_out->fd_count; ++j) {
+			if (++i >= win32op->readset_out->fd_count)
+				i = 0;
+			s = win32op->readset_out->fd_array[i];
+			if ((ent = get_event_entry(win32op, s, 0)) && ent->read_event)
+				event_active(ent->read_event, EV_READ, 1);
+		}
 	}
-	for (i=0; i<win32op->exset_out->fd_count; ++i) {
-		struct event_entry *ent;
-		SOCKET s = win32op->exset_out->fd_array[i];
-		if ((ent = get_event_entry(win32op, s, 0)) && ent->read_event)
-			event_active(ent->read_event, EV_READ, 1);
-	}
-	for (i=0; i<win32op->writeset_out->fd_count; ++i) {
-		struct event_entry *ent;
-		SOCKET s = win32op->writeset_out->fd_array[i];
-		if ((ent = get_event_entry(win32op, s, 0)) && ent->write_event)
-			event_active(ent->write_event, EV_WRITE, 1);
+	if (win32op->exset_out->fd_count) {
+		i = rand() % win32op->exset_out->fd_count;
+		for (j=0; j<win32op->exset_out->fd_count; ++j) {
+			if (++i >= win32op-exset_out->fd_count)
+				i = 0;
+			s = win32op->exset_out->fd_array[i];
+			if ((ent = get_event_entry(win32op, s, 0)) && ent->read_event)
+				event_active(ent->read_event, EV_READ, 1);
+		}
 	}
+	if (win32op->writeset_out->fd_count) {
+		i = rand() % win32op->writeset_out->fd_count;
+		for (j=0; j<win32op->writeset_out->fd_count; ++j) {
+			if (++i >= win32op-exset_out->fd_count)
+				i = 0;
+			s = win32op->writeset_out->fd_array[i];
+			if ((ent = get_event_entry(win32op, s, 0)) && ent->write_event)
+				event_active(ent->write_event, EV_WRITE, 1);
 
-#if 0
-	if (signal_recalc() == -1)
-		return (-1);
-#endif
+		}
+	}
 
 	return (0);
 }
diff --git a/poll.c b/poll.c
index b67c6ffa..5d496618 100644
--- a/poll.c
+++ b/poll.c
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ poll_check_ok(struct pollop *pop)
 static int
 poll_dispatch(struct event_base *base, void *arg, struct timeval *tv)
 {
-	int res, i, msec = -1, nfds;
+	int res, i, j, msec = -1, nfds;
 	struct pollop *pop = arg;
 
 	poll_check_ok(pop);
@@ -160,12 +160,17 @@ poll_dispatch(struct event_base *base, void *arg, struct timeval *tv)
 
 	event_debug(("%s: poll reports %d", __func__, res));
 
-	if (res == 0)
+	if (res == 0 || nfds == 0)
 		return (0);
 
-	for (i = 0; i < nfds; i++) {
-		int what = pop->event_set[i].revents;
+	i = random() % nfds;
+	for (j = 0; j < nfds; j++) {
 		struct event *r_ev = NULL, *w_ev = NULL;
+		int what;
+		if (++i == nfds)
+			i = 0;
+		what = pop->event_set[i].revents;
+
 		if (!what)
 			continue;
 
diff --git a/select.c b/select.c
index 7faafe4e..ca6639fd 100644
--- a/select.c
+++ b/select.c
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ check_selectop(struct selectop *sop)
 static int
 select_dispatch(struct event_base *base, void *arg, struct timeval *tv)
 {
-	int res, i;
+	int res, i, j;
 	struct selectop *sop = arg;
 
 	check_selectop(sop);
@@ -167,8 +167,12 @@ select_dispatch(struct event_base *base, void *arg, struct timeval *tv)
 	event_debug(("%s: select reports %d", __func__, res));
 
 	check_selectop(sop);
-	for (i = 0; i <= sop->event_fds; ++i) {
+	i = random() % (sop->event_fds+1);
+	for (j = 0; j <= sop->event_fds; ++j) {
 		struct event *r_ev = NULL, *w_ev = NULL;
+		if (++i >= sop->event_fds+1)
+			i = 0;
+
 		res = 0;
 		if (FD_ISSET(i, sop->event_readset_out)) {
 			r_ev = sop->event_r_by_fd[i];