February 12th in History

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.