Title: February 12 Content: ==Events== === Up to 1900 === * 881 - Pope John VIII crowns Charles the Fat as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. * 1354 – Treaty of Stralsund settles border disputes between the duchies of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. * 1502 - Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon on his second voyage to India. * 1541 – Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia. * 1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason. * 1593 - Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by General Kwok Yul, successfully repel over 30,000 Japanese in the Siege of Haengju. * 1619 - The Diego Ramirez Islands to the southwest of Cape Horn and near Antarctica are discovered. * 1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes and declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication. * 1719 – The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded. * 1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13th and final American colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah. * 1737 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated. * 1771 – Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden when his father Adolf Frederick "[eats] himself to death". * 1772 - Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Tremarec's expedition discovers the Kerguelen Islands in the Southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica. * 1817 – The Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco. * 1818 – Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción. * 1825 – The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west. * 1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands. * 1851 - The Australian gold rushes start, as Edward Hargreaves announces finding gold in Bathurst, New South Wales. * 1855 - Michigan State University is founded. * 1870 – Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory. * 1879 – At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens. * 1892 – Former President Abraham Lincoln's birthday is declared a national holiday in the United States. * 1894 – Anarchist Emile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20. === 1901 2000 === * 1909 - Inter- island ferry SS Penguin sinks and explodes in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. * 1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded. * 1912 – Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicates. * 1912 – China adopts the Gregorian calendar. * 1914 – In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place. * 1924 – Premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman's Palais Royal Orchestra in Aeolian Hall in New York City. * 1924 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio. * 1934 – The Austrian Civil War begins. * 1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated. * 1934 – In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista is inaugurated. The council decides to merge the movement with the Falange Española. * 1935 - The helium-filled airship SS Macon crashes into the Pacific Ocean off California. * 1938 – Anschluss: German troops enter Austria. * 1941 - A police officer in London becomes the first person treated by penicillin. * 1944 - Japanese U-boat I-27 sinks British troop transporter Khedive Ismail in the Indian Ocean, killing 1,297 out of the 1,511 people on board. The Japanese U-boat itself is sunk later that day, killing all but one of the naval personnel on board. * 1946 – Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats. * 1947 - A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote- Alin, Soviet Union. * 1947 - Christian Dior unveils a "New Look", helping Paris regain its place as capital of the fashion world. * 1951 – Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari marries the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi at Golestan Palace in Teheran at age of 17. * 1961 - The Soviet Venera 1 space probe is sent to Venus. * 1963 - Building work on the Gateway Arch, Saint Louis, Missouri, begins. * 1971 - Bhutan's full sovereignty from India is gained. * 1973 – Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in SI units on signs. * 1973 – Vietnam War: The first American prisoners of war are released by the NLF. * 1974 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is exiled from the Soviet Union. * 1990 - In Western Australia, Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier of an Australian state. * 1994 – 1994 Winter Olympics open in Lillehammer, Norway. * 1998 – The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by a United States federal judge. * 1999 – President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial. === From 2001 === * 2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. * 2001 – Google obtains Usenet, creating Google Groups. (press release) * 2002 – The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. * 2002 – Nuclear waste: US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository. * 2002 – An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119. * 2004 – Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, California, on National Freedom to Marry Day, orders his county clerk to revise marriage licenses to allow gay and lesbian couples to legally wed. * 2004 – Mattel Inc. announces the split of Barbara Millicent Roberts and Ken Carson (aka Barbie and Ken) after 43 years of dating. * 2005 – Former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean becomes chairman of the Democratic National Committee. * 2009 – A plane crash, of Colgan Air Flight 3407, in Clarence Center, Buffalo, New York, kills all of the people on board and one on the ground. * 2010 – Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili dies after an accident that occurred while he was training for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which open on the same day. * 2012 - The Zambia national football team wins the Africa Cup of Nations, defeating the Ivory Coast national football team in a penalty shoot- out. * 2013 - North Korea announces that it has carried out an underground nuclear test, at around a kilometer's depth, despite criticism from around the world. * 2017 - North Korea announces that it has launched a rocket, leading to condemnation from the United States, Japan and South Korea. * 2017 - Frank- Walter Steinmeier is chosen to succeed Joachim Gauck as President of Germany on March 19. * 2017 - People living near the Oroville Dam in California are told to evacuate over flooding fears. ==Births== === Up to 1800 === * 41 – Britannicus, Roman heir to the throne (d. 55) * 712 – Du Fu, Chinese poet (d. 770) * 1074 - Conrad II of Italy (d. 1101) * 1218 - Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shogun (d. 1256) * 1322 - John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (d. 1375) * 1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer and poet (d. 1620) * 1584 - Caspar Berlaeus, Dutch theologian, poet and historian (d. 1648) * 1606 - John Winthrop the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676) * 1637 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist (d. 1680) * 1665 - Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721) * 1752 - Josef Reicha, Czech cellist, composer and conductor (d. 1795) * 1761 - Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech composer and conductor (d. 1812) * 1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835) * 1773 - Jacques Dupré, American politician, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1846) * 1775 – Louisa Adams, First Lady of the United States (d. 1852) * 1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German poet (d. 1843) * 1788 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (d. 1869) * 1791 - Peter Cooper, American industrialist, inventor and philanthropist (d. 1883) * 1794 - Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player (d. 1867) * 1800 - John Edward Gray, English zoologist (d. 1875) === 1801 1900 === * 1804 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (d. 1865) * 1809 – Charles Darwin, English naturalist (d. 1882) * 1809 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865) * 1813 - James Dwight Dana, American geologist, mineralogist and zoologist (d. 1895) * 1813 - Otto Ludwig, German writer (d. 1865) * 1814 - Jenny von Westphalen, German socialist and wife of Karl Marx (d. 1881) * 1815 - Edward Forbes, British naturalist (d. 1854) * 1817 - Conrad Baker, 15th Governor of Indiana (d. 1885) * 1828 - George Meredith, English writer (d. 1909) * 1837 - Thomas Moran, American painter (d. 1926) * 1843 - John Graham Chambers, English race walker (d. 1883) * 1865 - Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (d. 1940) * 1869 – Kien Phuc, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1884) * 1870 - Marie Lloyd, English music-hall performer (d. 1922) * 1876 – Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader (d. 1933) * 1877 – Louis Renault, French industrialist and automobile pioneer (d. 1944) * 1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931) * 1882 - Walter Nash, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1968) * 1884 – Max Beckmann, German artist (d. 1950) * 1884 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957) * 1884 - Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt (d. 1980) * 1885 – Julius Streicher, Nazi publisher (d. 1946) * 1887 - Edelmiro Julian Farrell, President of Argentina (d. 1980) * 1893 – Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981) * 1895 - Kristian Djurhuus, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1984) * 1900 – Vasily Chuikov, Soviet marshal and politician (d. 1982) === 1901 1950 === * 1905 - Federica Montseny, Spanish anarchist, intellectual and politician (d. 1994) * 1908 - Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician (d. 1931) * 1909 - Sigmund Rascher, German Nazi physician (d. 1945) * 1910 - Lee Byung-chull, Korean businessman (d. 1987) * 1911 - Cearbhall O Dalaigh, President of Ireland (d. 1978) * 1911 – Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1994) * 1914 - Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2000) * 1914 - Arvid Pardo, Italian-Maltese diplomat (d. 1999) * 1915 - Lorne Greene, Canadian actor (d. 1987) * 1915 - Olivia Hooker, African-American sailor * 1916 – Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998) * 1917 - Al Cervi, American basketball player (d. 2009) * 1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 2009) * 1918 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist (d. 1994) * 1918 - Norman Farberow, American psychologist (d. 2015) * 1919 – Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italian footballer (d. 2005) * 1920 - Pran, Indian actor (d. 2013) * 1920 - Yoshiko Otaka, Japanese actress, singer and politician (d. 2014) * 1922 – Hussein Onn, Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990) * 1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian movie, opera director and designer (d. 2019) * 1924 - Louis Zorich, American actor (d. 2018) * 1925 - Joan Finney, Governor of Kansas (d. 2001) * 1926 - Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor, illustrator and graphic artist (d. 2014) * 1926 - Joe Garagiola, Sr., American baseball player (d. 2016) * 1926 - Buddy Childers, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2007) * 1926 - Charles Van Doren, American quiz show contestant * 1930 - Arlen Specter, United States Senator for Pennsylvania (d. 2012) * 1932 - Maurice Filion, Canadian ice hockey coach * 1932 - Julian Simon, American economist (d. 1998) * 1933 - Costa-Gravas, Greek-French movie director and producer * 1934 – Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress * 1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player * 1934 - Anne Osborn Krueger, American professor and former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund * 1936 - Fang Lizhi, Chinese activist (d. 2012) * 1936 - Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Iraqi-Israeli politician (d. 2016) * 1936 - Joe Don Baker, American actor * 1939 – Ray Manzarek, American musician (The Doors) (d. 2013) * 1941 – Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (d. 1984) * 1941 - Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 2013) * 1942 - Lionel Grigson, English pianist, composer and educator (d. 1994) * 1942 - Norma Major, English author and charity worker, wife of John Major * 1942 – Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel * 1945 – Thilo Sarrazin, German politician * 1945 - David D. Friedman, American economist * 1946 – Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer * 1946 – Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Prime Minister of Gabon * 1948 – Bernd Franke, German footballer * 1948 – Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor and writer * 1948 - Mike Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player * 1949 - Fergus Slattery, Irish rugby player * 1950 - Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist * 1950 - Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, screenwriter and director * 1950 – Steve Hackett, English guitarist === 1951 1975 === * 1951 – Steven Parent, American murder victim (d. 1969) * 1952 – Simon MacCorkindale, British actor (d. 2010) * 1952 – Michael McDonald, American singer and musician * 1956 – Arsenio Hall, American television host * 1956 - Ad Melkert, Dutch politician * 1956 - Brian Robertson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter * 1961 – Michel Martelly, Haitian musician, businessman, politician and President of Haiti * 1964 - Michel Petit, Canadian ice hockey player * 1965 - John Michael Higgins, American actor * 1968 – Josh Brolin, American actor * 1968 – Christopher McCandless, American nomad (d. 1992) * 1968 - Gregory Charles, Canadian singer, dancer, pianist and actor * 1969 – Meja, Swedish singer-songwriter * 1969 - Steve Backley, British javelin thrower * 1969 - Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian politician (d. 2014) * 1971 - Scott Menville, American actor, voice actor and musician * 1973 – Tara Strong, Canadian-American actress * 1973 - Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater * 1975 - Scott Pollard, American basketball player === From 1976 === * 1976 – Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player * 1977 – Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player * 1978 – Gethin Jones, Welsh television presenter * 1980 – Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player * 1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress * 1980 - Sarah Lancaster, American actress * 1981 - Lisa Hannigan, Irish singer * 1982 – Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player * 1984 – Brad Keselowski, American racing driver * 1984 – Peter Utaka, Nigerian footballer * 1984 - Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer * 1985 – Saskia Burmeister, Australian swimmer * 1987 - Jérémy Chardy, French tennis player * 1988 – Mike Posner, American singer * 1988 – Nicolas Otamendi, Argentine footballer * 1989 - Ron- Robert Zieler, German footballer * 1990 - Moussa Koné, Ivory Coast footballer * 1991 - Patrick Herrmann, German footballer * 1991 - Casey Abrams, American singer * 1993 – Jennifer Stone, American actress * 1994 - Alex Galchenyuk, American ice hockey player ==Deaths== === Up to 1900 === * 821 - Benedict of Ariane, French monk and saint (b. 747) * 991 - Emperor En'yu of Japan (b. 959) * 1242 - Henry (VII) of Germany (b. 1211) * 1538 - Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter (b. 1480) * 1554 – Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days (b. 1537) * 1571 - Nicholas Throckmorton, English diplomat and politician (b. 1515) * 1612 - Christopher Clavius, German astronomer (b. 1538) * 1692 - Hendrick Hamel, Dutch sailor and bookkeeper (b. 1630) * 1700 - Aleksei Shein, Russian general and statesman (b. 1662) * 1724 - Elkanah Settle, English writer (b. 1648) * 1763 – Pierre Carlet de Marivaut, French writer (b. 1688) * 1771 – King Adolf Frederick of Sweden (b. 1710) * 1787 – Rugjer Josip Boskovic, mathematician and physicist (b. 1711) * 1789 – Ethan Allen, American patriot (b. 1738) * 1799 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist (b. 1729) * 1804 – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (b. 1724) * 1834 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German philosopher (b. 1768) * 1886 - Horatio Seymour, American politician, Governor of New York (b. 1810) * 1896 – Ambroise Thomas, French composer (b. 1811) === 1901 2000 === * 1912 – Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian doctor and scientist (b. 1841) * 1916 – Richard Dedekind, mathematician (b. 1831) * 1929 – Lillie Langtry, singer and actress (b. 1853) * 1933 – Henri Duparc, French composer (b. 1848) * 1935 – Auguste Escoffier, French chef (b. 1846) * 1936 - Ibra Charles Blackwood, Governor of South Carolina (b. 1878) * 1942 – Grant Wood, American painter (b. 1891) * 1949 – Imam Hassan al Banna, founder of the Muslim brotherhood (b. 1906) * 1951 – Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founding father of Pakistan (b. 1897) * 1954 – Dziga Vertov, Russian movie maker (b. 1896) * 1960 - Jean-Michel Atlan, French painter (b. 1913) * 1968 - Maria Caspar-Filser, German artist (b. 1878) * 1970 - Ishman Bracey, American blues musician (b. 1901) * 1971 – James C. Penney, American department store founder (b. 1875) * 1976 – Sal Mineo, actor (b. 1939) * 1979 – Jean Renoir, director (b. 1894) * 1982 – Victor Jory, Canadian actor (b. 1902) * 1983 – Eubie Blake, American musician and songwriter (b. 1883 or 1887) * 1984 – Anna Anderson, claimant to the Russian throne (b. 1896) * 1984 – Julio Cortázar, writer, intellectual (b. 1914) * 1985 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924) * 1985 - Leslie Sarony, English entertainer and songwriter (b. 1897) * 1992 – María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist (b. 1960) * 1993 – James Bulger, murder victim (b. 1990) * 1995 – Robert Bolt, writer (b. 1924) * 1996 – Bob Shaw, writer (b. 1931) * 1998 - Gardner Ackley, American economist and diplomat (b. 1915) * 2000 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American musician (b. 1929) * 2000 – Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924) * 2000 – Charles Schulz, American comics writer (b. 1922) === From 2001 === * 2001 – Kristina Söderbaum, German actress and photographer (b. 1912) * 2002 - John Eriksen, Danish footballer (b. 1957) * 2005 - Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete (b. 1964) * 2007 – Georg Buschner, East German footballer and manager (b. 1925) * 2008 – Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgian businessman (b. 1955) * 2009 – Giacomo Bulgarelli, Italian footballer (b. 1940) * 2010 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (b. 1988) * 2010 – Leroy Nash, American death row inmate (b. 1915) * 2011 – Peter Alexander, Austrian singer and actor (b. 1926) * 2011 – Betty Garrett, American actress (b. 1919) * 2011 - Kenneth Mars, American actor (b. 1935) * 2012 - David Kelly, Irish actor (b. 1929) * 2013 - Christopher Dorner, American former police officer, and spree killer (b. 1979) * 2014 - Sid Caesar, American actor and writer (b. 1922) * 2014 - John Pickstone, English historian and author (b. 1944) * 2015 - Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian politician (b. 1931) * 2015 - David Carr, American journalist (b. 1956) * 2015 - Tomie Ohtake, Japanese- Brazilian artist (b. 1913) * 2015 - Steve Strange, British musician (b. 1959) * 2015 - Cornelis Pieter van den Hoek, Dutch resistance fighter (b. 1921) * 2015 - Oliver Rackham, English landscape ecologist (b. 1939) * 2015 - Gary Owens, American actor and television announcer (b. 1934) * 2015 - Movita Castaneda, American actress (b. 1916) * 2015 - Richie Pratt, American jazz drummer (b. 1943) * 2015 - Ernest J. Sternglass, American physicist and professor (b. 1923) * 2016 - Dominique D'Onofrio, Italian-Belgian football coach (b. 1953) * 2016 - Eddie Barry, American ice hockey player (b. 1919) * 2016 - Robert Frederick Froehlke, American lawyer (b. 1922) * 2016 - Johnny Lattner, American football player (b. 1932) * 2017 - Sione Lauaki, Tongan-New Zealand rugby player (b. 1981) * 2017 - Dave Adolph, American football coach (b. 1937) * 2017 - Damian, British pop singer (b. 1964) * 2017 - Al Jarreau, American jazz and R&B; singer (b. 1940) * 2017 - Yitzhak Livni, Polish-born Israeli media executive and writer (b. 1924) * 2017 - Quentin Moses, American football player (b. 1983) * 2017 - Bobby Murdoch, English footballer (b. 1936) * 2017 - Ren Xinmin, Chinese rocket scientist and engineer (b. 1915) * 2017 - Clint Roberts, American politician (b. 1935) * 2017 - Krystyna Sienkiewicz, Polish actress and singer (b. 1935) * 2018 - Marty Allen, American actor and comedian (b. 1923) * 2018 - Martin van der Borgh, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1934) * 2018 - Giuseppe Galasso, Italian historian and politician (b. 1929) * 2018 - Luo Haocai, Chinese politician (b. 1934) * 2018 - Grant McBride, Australian politician (b. 1949) * 2018 - Fethia Mzali, Tunisian educator and politician (b. 1927) * 2018 - Daryle Singletary, American country music singer (b. 1971) == Observances == * Darwin Day * Abraham Lincoln's birthday (United States) * Union Day (Burma) * Youth Day (Venezuela) * Red Hand Day (UN) == Trivia == * Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on this date in 1809, in a very rare occasion of two highly influential and famous people being born on exactly the same day as each other. Category:Days of the year