February 12

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 Concepcion.
1825 - The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
1832 - Ecuador annexes the Galapagos 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 Espanola.
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 Milosevic 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 Dupre, American politician, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1846)
1775 - Louisa Adams, First Lady of the United States (d. 1852)
1777 - Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, 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 Eyeghe 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 - Jeremy Chardy, French tennis player
1988 - Mike Posner, American singer
1988 - Nicolas Otamendi, Argentine footballer
1989 - Ron-Robert Zieler, German footballer
1990 - Moussa Kone, 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 Cortazar, writer, intellectual (b. 1914)
1985 - Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (b. 1924)
1985 - Leslie Sarony, English entertainer and songwriter (b. 1897)
1992 - Maria 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 Soderbaum, 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.