December 12

1204 Jewish physician, rabbi and philosopher Maimonides, also known as Moses Maimonides, passed away on December 12, 1204, in Cairo, Egypt, at the age of 66 or 69, depending on historical accounts. 

Maimonides is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Jewish intellectual history. His works include contributions to philosophy, theology, medicine, and law. His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah, a code of Jewish law, is adhered to by Orthodox Jews to this day.

18th-century portrait of Maimonides

1712 The colony of South Carolina passed a law on December 12, 1712 requiring "all persons whatsoever" to attend church each Sunday and refrain from skilled labor and travel. Violators of the "Sunday Law" could be fined 10 shillings or locked in the stocks for two hours.

1799 On December 12, 1799 George Washington made his usual circuit of his farms on horseback in hail and snow. He went down with acute laryngitis, was bled heavily four times and given gargles of "molasses, vinegar and butter," and a blister of cantharides (a preparation of dried beetles) was placed on his throat. He passed away two days later.

1851 The poinsettia is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, who served as the USA's first ambassador to Mexico, from 1825 to 1829. During that time he came to admire the bright red red shrub, which the Mexicans had adopted as their Christmas flower. He sent specimens back to the USA where they flourished. Poinsettia Day was officially declared by an Act of Congress on December 12 in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, who died on December 12, 1851.

A red Poinsettia. By André Karwath aka Aka  Wikipedia Commons

1862 On December 12, 1862, the USS Cairo was clearing mines from the Yazoo River during the Civil War in preparation to the attack on Haines Bluff, Mississippi, when it struck a naval mine detonated by volunteers hidden behind the river bank, It sank in 12 minutes and there were no casualties. It was the first armored ship to be sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand.

1866 Twin explosions at Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley, Yorkshire killed 383 victims on December 12, 1866. The deceased comprised miners some as young as ten, plus around 27 rescuers. It remains England’s worst mining disaster.

1870 The politician Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina was sworn in as the second African American congressman on December 12, 1870. (The first being Hiram Revels.) Rainey served a total of four terms until March 3, 1879, establishing a record of length of service for a black Congressman that was not surpassed until that of William L. Dawson of Chicago in the 1950s.

Joseph H Rainey

1889 English poet Robert Browning died of bronchitis on December 12, 1889 at his son's apartment in the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice. He was brought back to London for burial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey; his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.

1896 On December 12, 1896, radio innovators Guglielmo Marconi and William Preece arranged a demonstration of radio controlled apparatus at Toynbee Hall, a center of social reform in East London. Marconi advertised the event and invited the newspaper press. During the event, the pair amazed the assembled audience by making a bell ring by pushing a button in a box that was not connected by any wires.

British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment on May 13, 1897 Wikipedia

1897 Belo Horizonte, the first planned modern city in Brazil, was founded on December 12, 1897.
The downtown street plan for Belo Horizonte included a symmetrical array of perpendicular and diagonal streets named after Brazilian states and Brazilian indigenous tribes.

1897 German immigrant Rudolph Dirks was the creator of The Katzenjammer Kids, which debuted December 12, 1897 in the American Humorist. He was the first cartoonist to express dialogue in comic characters through the use of speech balloons.

"Katzenjammer 1901" by Rudolph Dirks (1877–1968) Wikipedia Commons

1900 On December 12, 1900 three lighthouse keepers mysteriously disappeared from the lighthouse on Eilian Mor, an island north of Scotland. Their logbook indicated they were frightened by a storm that hit on that day, but all other reports in the area stated the weather was clear on December 12th.

1901 At the turn of the 20th century, Guglielmo Marconi began investigating the means to transmit radio signals completely across the Atlantic. He  received the first transatlantic radio signal on December 12, 1901 in St John's, Newfoundland from a 164 foot antenna in Poldhu, Cornwall using the 3 morse dots of "s".

1913 The Mona Lisa was taken from the Louvre in 1911. The museum's employee, Italian handyman Vincenzo Peruggia stole it by hiding in a closet and walking out with the artwork hidden under his coat after the Louvre had closed. The painting was believed to be lost forever until it was retrieved from his Florence hotel room on December 12, 1913.

1915 Frank Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in an upstairs tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was the only child of Italian immigrants. Francis weighed 13 pounds and 7oz when he was born — almost double the average of a newborn. Francis was so big he suffered scars to his ear and the side of his face from the forceps used to help deliver him.

1918 The Flag of Estonia was associated with Estonian nationalism and was used as the national flag when the Estonian Declaration of Independence was issued in February 1918. It was raised for the first time in on December 12, 1918 atop the Pikk Hermann in Tallinn.

1929 The English playwright John Osborne was born on December 12, 1929. Osborne made his name with Look Back in Anger (1956), which proved a landmark in the history of the British theatre and a major contribution to the image of the Angry Young Man.

1938 Life, a prominent American magazine known for its iconic photographs, featured many dogs on its covers over the years, The first dog to appear on the cover of Life Magazine was a 4-year-old black Labrador Retriever called ‘Blind of Arden’ in the December 12, 1938 issue.

1941 Adolf Hitler declared the imminent extermination of the Jews at a Nazi Party meeting on December 12, 1941 in the Reich Chancellery. Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary for that day:
"Regarding the Jewish Question, the Führer has decided to make a clean sweep. He prophesied to the Jews that, if they yet again brought about a world war, they would experience their own annihilation. That was not just a phrase. The world war is here, and the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence."

1946 Thick fog on the night of December 12-13 1946 paralysed London, Most of the 4,000 people who attended the ice hockey matches at Wembley had to stay there the whole night. Bus conductors walked in front of their buses, holding lighted newspapers.

1949 Saab was founded as an airplane maker in Trollhattan, Sweden in 1937.  Full-scale production of the Saab company's first automobile, Saab 92, started December 12, 1949. The design of the Saab 92 was very aerodynamic for its time, due to Saab's experience in making fighter aircraft. The entire body was stamped out of one piece of sheet metal and then cut to accommodate doors and windows.

1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy - A Memorial Album became the fastest-selling album up to that time when four million copies sold between December 7-12, 1963. The memorial tribute was recorded November 22, 1963 the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

1963 European settlers began establishing themselves as large-scale farmers in the Kenyan highlands in the early 1900s, taking lands from local tribes like the Kikuyu and Masai. In 1920, the British designated the interior of the region Kenya Colony and a coastal strip the Protectorate of Kenya. Kenya gained its independence from Britain on December 12, 1963.

1970 Brian Spencer was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. On December 12, 1970, Spencer was called up to play with the Toronto Maple Leafs in what he was told would be his first NHL game on television. However, a different game was broadcast instead. Infuriated, Spencer's father Roy held a Canadian TV station hostage and forced them to broadcast the Leafs game, before being shot and killed.

1989 The American billionairess Leona Helmsley, famous for saying "we don't pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes," was jailed for four years on December 12, 1989 and fined $7 million for tax evasion. Helmsley served 18 months in prison before being released in 1994 on grounds of poor health. 

1992 Princess Anne wed for the second time on December 12, 1992, marrying Timothy Laurence. They were married in a small, private ceremony at Crathie Kirk, a church near Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the royal family often spends their summer holidays. The couple chose this location for its intimacy and privacy. Her 11-year-old daughter Zara was bridesmaid.

1994 JumpStation was the first World Wide Web search engine that behaved, and appeared to the user, the way current web search engines do. It was created by computer science graduate Jonathon Fletcher at the University of Stirling in Scotland on December 12, 1993 and announced on the Mosaic "What's New" webpage nine days later. JumpStation was discontinued when Fletcher left the University in late 1994, having failed to get any investors.

2003 The 3-ton killer whale Keiko became a whale star in the 1993 movie Free Willy. After the success of the film, he was moved  to a luxury aquarium in Newport, Oregon.  Keiko was eventually freed in Iceland, in July 2002. He did not fully adapt to the wild and died at the age of 27 on December 12, 2003 in a Norwegian fjord.

2014 December 12, 2014 was the last date with three consecutive even numbers until April 2nd, 2106.

2014 On December 12, 2004, Jesus Aparicio – a huge Roger Federer fan – was seriously injured in a car crash. The accident would leave him in a coma, one he’d remain in for nearly 11 years. When he woke up in August 2015, he was shocked to learn that Federer was still among the best in the world.

2017 "Il Canto degli Italiani," commonly known as "Fratelli d'Italia," was officially adopted as Italy's national anthem on December 12, 2017. However, it had been used in a de facto capacity as the national anthem since 1946, after the establishment of the Italian Republic following World War II. The lyrics were written by Goffredo Mameli in 1847, with music composed by Michele Novaro."

2019 Several months after Boris Johnson succeeded Theresa May as Conservative leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he called a general election for December 12, 2019. He ran on a promise to “get Brexit done,” a platform that seemed to win over areas that had traditionally voted for Labour.  Johnson led the Conservative Party to its biggest parliamentary victory since 1987, winning 43.6% of the vote – the largest share of any party since 1979 and an overall majority of about 80 seats.