^{Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra. The historical Cleopatra died August 12, 30 BCE.}

Today in History

• Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine (1851)
• Joseph Lister performs the first antiseptic surgery (1865)
• The Soviet Union performs the first test of a real thermonuclear weapon (1853)
• NASA launches its first successful communications satellite (1960)
• The IBM PC is released (1981)
• The Tyrannosaurus.Rex known as “Sue” is discovered (1990)
• Major League Baseball players go on strike (1994)

Birthdays

• Helena Blavatsky, theosophist (1831)
• Diamond Jim Brady, businessman and philanthropist (1856)
• Edith Hamilton, mythologist (1867)
• Mary Roberts Rinehart, writer (1876)
• Cecil B. DeMille, filmmaker (1881)
• Erwin Schrödinger, physicist (1887)
• Jane Wyatt, actress (1910)
• Cantinflas, actor (1911)
• Percy Mayfield, musician (1920)
• Porter Wagoner, country musician (1927)
• Buck Owens, country musician (1929)
• George Soros, investor and activist (1930)
• William Goldman, author and screenwriter (1931)
• George Hamilton, actor (1939)
• Mark Knopfler, guitarist and singer for Dire Straits (1949)
• Pat Metheny, jazz musician (1954)
• Sir Mix-a-Lot, rapper (1963)
•  Pete Sampras, tennis player (1971)
• Dominique Swain, actress (1980)

Deaths

• Cleopatra, Egyptian queen (30 BCE)
• William Blake, poet and painter (1827)
• George Stephenson, engineer known as the “father of railways” (1848)
• Eliphalet Remington, gun manufacturer (1861)
• James Russell Lowell, poet (1891)
• Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., elder brother of US President John F. Kennedy (1944)
• Thomas Mann, writer (1955)
• Ian Fleming, writer (1964)
• Henry Fonda, actor (1982)
• John Cage, composer (1992)
• Loretta Young, actress (2000)
• Merv Griffin, talk show host and game show producer (2007)
• Les Paul, guitarist (2009)
• Lauren Bacall, actress (2014)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Air Force Day (Russia)
• Glorious Twelfth (Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
• International Youth Day
• Mother’s Day (Thailand)
• World Elephant Day
• Julienne Fries Day (US)
• Sea Org Day (Scientology)
• Milkman Day

August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years). There are 141 days remaining until the end of the year.