USS Macon

Today in History

• The NAACP is founded (1909)
• The last emperor of China abdicates (1912)
• The Lincoln Memorial begins construction (1915)
• George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiers (1925)
• The airship USS Macon crashes into the Pacific (1935)
• African-American US Army veteran Isaac Woodard is beaten by a South Carolina police officer and loses vision in both eyes, helping to trigger the Civil Rights Movement and inspiring the Orson Welles film Touch of Evil (1946)
• St. Louis’s Gateway Arch begins construction (1963)
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn is exiled from the Soviet Union (1974)
• Thieves steal Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream (1994)
• US President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial (1999)

Birthdays

• Britannicus, son of Emperor Claudius (41)
• Thomas Campion, composer, poet and physician (1567)
• Cotton Mather, Puritan minister (1663)
• Charles Darwin, developed the theory of evolution (1809)
• Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President (1809)
• Louis Renault, car manufacturer (1877)
• John L. Lewis, labor leader (1880)
• Anna Pavlova, ballerina (1881)
• Alice Roosevelt Longworth, author and Presidential daughter (1884)
• Omar Bradley, US general (1893)
• Ted Mack, “Amateur Hour” host (1904)
• Tex Beneke, jazz musician (1914)
• Lorne Greene, actor (1915)
• Forrest Tucker, actor (1919)
• Joe Garagiola Sr., baseball player and sportscaster (1926)
• Charles Van Doren, involved in a quiz show scandal (1926)
• Costa-Gavras, filmmaker (1933)
• Judy Blume, author (1938)
• Ray Manzarek, member of The Doors (1939)
• Maud Adams, model and actress (1945)
• Ray Kurzweil, computer scientist and futurist (1948)
• Arsenio Hall, talk show host (1956)
• Josh Brolin, actor (1968)
• Chynna Phillips, singer and actress (1968)
• Christina Ricci, actress (1980)

Deaths

• Lady Jane Grey, monarch of England for nine days (1554)
• Ethan Allen, US general (1789)
• Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1804)
• Lillie Langtry, singer and actress (1929)
• Auguste Escoffier, chef (1935)
• Grant Wood, painter (1942)
• Sal Mineo, actor (1976)
• Jean Renoir, filmmaker (1979)
• Eubie Blake, composer and pianist (1983)
• Tom Landry, football coach (2000)
• Charles M. Schultz, creator of Peanuts (2000)
• Sid Caesar, actor and comedian (2014)
• Gary Owens, announcer (2015)
• Al Jarreau, singer (2017)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Darwin Day (international)
• Georgia Day (US)
• International Day of Women’s Health
• Lincoln’s Birthday (US)
• National Freedom to Marry Day (US)
• Red Hand Day (UN)
• Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Day (Canada)
• Union Day (Myanmar)
• Youth Day (Venezuela)

February 12 is the 43rd day of the year. There are 322 days (323 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.