Wikipedia: August 12

August 12
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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

Events

1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders defeat Saracens and the Kingdom of Jerusalem is established under Godfrey of Bouillon.
1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under the Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol
1676 - King Philip's War ends
1851 - Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine
1854 - Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon is executed by shooting, in regard to the Battle of Guaymas.
1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Phobos
1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam
1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War
1898 - Hawaii annexed by United States
1908 - First Model T Ford built
1914 - Great War - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.
1953 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates its first hydrogen bomb.
1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched
1961 - Cold War - Construction begins on the Berlin Wall
1981 - The IBM PC, the first bit personal computer, is introduced
1985 - A Japan Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet crashes into Mount Ogura, Japan killing 520, in world's worst single plane air disaster
1992 - Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA.
1994 - Woodstock '94 rock concert
1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage will force the cancellation of the World Series.
2000 - Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea

Births

1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway († 1559)
1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia († 1676)
1774 - Robert Southey, poet, biographer († 1843)
1859 - Katherine Lee Bates, poet, author of America the Beautiful († 1929)
1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, author († 1958)
1880 - Christy Mathewson, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame († 1925)
1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, director († 1959)
1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, physicist († 1961)
1892 - Alfred Lunt, actor († 1977)
1904 - Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, Tsarevich, heir to the throne of Russia († 1918)
1906 - Pauline Frederick, journalist († 1990)
1907 - Joe Besser, actor, member of the Three Stooges († 1988)
1911 - Jane Wyatt, actress
1911 - Cantinflas (Mario Moreno Reyes), actor († 1993)
1924 - Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, Leader of Pakistan, (d. 1988)
1926 - John Derek, actor († 1998)
1927 - Mstislav Rostropovich, cellist
1927 - Porter Wagoner, country and western singer
1928 - Dan Curtis, movie and television producer and director
1929 - Buck Owens, country and western singer
1930 - George Soros American businessman
1931 - William Goldman, screenwriter
1933 - Parnelli Jones, auto racer
1939 - George Hamilton, actor
1949 - Mark Knopfler, musician
1954 - Pat Metheny, guitarist
1971 - Pete Sampras, tennis player
1972 - Rebecca Gayheart, actress

Deaths

875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor
1484 - Pope Sixtus IV
1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
1633 - Jacopo Peri, composer
1689 - Pope Innocent XI
1827 - William Blake, poet and printmaker
1848 - George Stephenson, locomotive designer
1914 - John Philip Holland, early submarine designer
1928 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer
1955 - Thomas Mann, author
1964 - Ian Fleming, novelist
1968 - Angus Walters, schooner captain
1982 - Henry Fonda, actor
1982 - Joe Tex (Joseph Arrington), singer
1982 - Salvador Sanchez world champion boxer
1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
1989 - William Shockley, physicist
1992 - John Cage, American composer
2000 - Loretta Young, actress
2002 - Enos Slaughter, baseball Hall of Famer
2002 - Ed Headrick, developer of the Frisbee

Holidays and observations

Glorious Twelfth at the Yorkshire Dales

See Also:

August 11 - August 13 - July 12 - September 12 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December\n