February 12

February 12 is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 322 days remaining, 323 in leap years.

Events

• 1354 – Treaty of Stralsund settles border disputes between the duchies of Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
• 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.
• 1689 – The Convention Parliament convened and declared that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Catholic British monarch, had constituted 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 13^th and final American colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah.
• 1737 – The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated.
• 1771 – Gustav III became the King of Sweden when his father Adolf Frederick "ate himself to death".
• 1817 – Chilean patriotic army, after cross the Andes, defeat Spanish troops on the battle of Chacabuco
• 1818 – Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepcion, Chile
• 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.
• 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 – 22-year-old Anarchist Emile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
• 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.
• 1915 – In Washington, DC the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
• 1924 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.
• 1934 – The Export-Import Bank is incorporated.
• 1938 – Anschluss: German troops enter Austria.
• 1946 – Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
• 1951 – Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari marries the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi at Golestan Palace in Teheran at age of 17.
• 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 Viet Cong.
• 1994 – 1994 Winter Olympics open in Lillehammer, Norway.
• 1998 – The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by United States federal judge.
• 1999 – President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
• 2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
• 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, ordered 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 after 43 years of dating.
• 2005 – Former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean becomes chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Births

• 1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer, poet (d. 1620)
• 1637 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (d. 1680)
• 1663 – Cotton Mather, New England Puritan minister (d. 1728)
• 1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
• 1775 – Louisa Adams, First Lady, wife of President John Quincy Adams (d. 1852)
• 1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, French poet (d. 1843)
• 1809 – Charles Darwin, English naturalist (d. 1882)
• 1809  – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)
• 1857 – Bobby Peel, Yorkshire left-arm spinner and leading bowler of 1880s and 1890s (d. 1943).
• 1861 – Lou Andreas-Salome, author (d. 1937)
• 1865 – Kazimierz Tetmajer, full name Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (d. 1940)
• 1880 – John L. Lewis, American labor union leader (d. 1969)
• 1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)
• 1884 – Max Beckmann, painter and graphic artist (d. 1950)
• 1884  – Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)
• 1893 – Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
• 1900 – Roger J. Traynor, American judge (d. 1980)
• 1904 – Ted Mack, American television host (d. 1976)
• 1907 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (d. 1962)
• 1911 – Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive (d. 1968)
• 1912 – R. F. Delderfield, English author (d. 1972)
• 1914 – Tex Beneke, musician, band leader (d. 2000)
• 1915 – Lorne Greene, American actor (d. 1987)
• 1916 – Joseph Alioto, mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
• 1919 – Forrest Tucker, actor (d. 1986)
• 1920 – William Roscoe Estep, Baptist historian and professor (d. 2000)
• 1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director
• 1925 – Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (d. 1984)
• 1926 – Paul Kurtz, philosopher, founder of numerous secular humanist groups
• 1926 – Charles Van Doren, quiz show contestant
• 1926 – Joe Garagiola, American baseball player
• 1930 – Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania
• 1931 – Janwillem van de Wetering, author
• 1932 – Julian Simon, economist, author (d. 1998)
• 1933 – Costa-Gavras, director, writer
• 1934 – Bill Russell, basketball star
• 1936 – Joe Don Baker, American actor
• 1937 – Charles Dumas, American high jumper
• 1938 – Judy Blume, American author
• 1939 – Ray Manzarek, keyboardist
• 1942 – Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel
• 1943 – Samuel Karokikki, athlete
• 1945 – Maud Adams, Swedish actress
• 1950 – Michael Ironside, actor
• 1953 – Joanna Kerns, American television actress and director
• 1954 – Philip Zimmermann, cryptographer
• 1955 – Arsenio Hall, American actor, talk show host
• 1967 – Chris McKinstry, computer scientist
• 1968 – Chynna Phillips, American singer
• 1969 – Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean football player
• 1970 – Jim Creeggan, bass player for Barenaked Ladies
• 1976 – Sylvia Saint, porn star
• 1980 – Christina Ricci, actress
• 1980  – Juan Carlos Ferrero, tennis player

Deaths

• 1538 – Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter
• 1554 – Lady Jane Grey, queen of Henry VIII of England (beheaded) (b. 1537)
• 1595 – Archduke Ernest of Austria, governor of the Spanish Netherlands
• 1612 – Christopher Clavius, astronomer
• 1771 – King Adolf Frederick of Sweden (b. 1710)
• 1799 – Lazzaro Spallanzani, biologist (b. 1729)
• 1804 – Immanuel Kant, German philosopher
• 1916 – Richard Dedekind, mathematician (b. 1831)
• 1929 – Lily Langtry, singer and actress
• 1933 – Henri Duparc, French composer (b. 1848)
• 1949 – Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian Islamist and founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
• 1951 – Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founding father of Pakistan (b. 1895)
• 1954 – Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896)
• 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, musician and songwriter (b. 1883 or 1887)
• 1984 – Julio Cortázar, author, intellectual (b. 1914)
• 1985 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor
• 1992 – María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist (b. 1960)
• 1993 – James Bulger, murder victim (b. 1990)
• 1995 – Robert Bolt, writer (b. 1924)
• 1995 – Philip Taylor Kramer, musician (Iron Butterfly)
• 1996 – Bob Shaw, author (b. 1931)
• 2000 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, musician (b. 1929)
• 2000  – Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
• 2000  – Charles Schulz, American comics author (b. 1922)
• 2000 – Oliver, singer
• 2001 – Kristina Söderbaum, German actress and photographer (b. 1912)
• 2005 – Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete (b. 1964)
• 2005 – Brian Kelly, American actor

Holidays and observances

• United States – Lincoln's Birthday (traditionally)
• 1991, 2002, 2013 Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)
• Georgia Day in the U.S. state of Georgia
• National Freedom to Marry Day (unofficial)
• Darwin Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 11 – February 13 – January 12 – March 12 — listing of all days