1541 On February 12, 1541, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded Santiago, today the capital of Chile, as Santiago del Nuevo Extremo. It was named in honor of St. James, patron saint of Spain. (The name Santiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctu Iacobu, "Saint James".)
1554 After King Edward VI died on July 6, 1553, the powerful Duke of Northumberland plotted to exclude the rightful successor to the throne, Princess Mary, and instead installed the devout 15-year-old Protestant Lady Jane Grey. She lasted nine days as Queen before being overthrown by Mary who swiftly ascended the throne. On February 12, 1554, the ‘nine-day queen’ Lady Jane Grey was beheaded at the Tower of London, an hour after her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley.
1733 The state of Georgia was founded by English soldier and philanthropist James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733. The last of the 13 colonies, it was named after George II of Great Britain. The government's main reason for creating the colony was to get debtors off its hands and show an English presence between the Carolinas and Florida. For a period in 1736, James Oglethorpe's secretary was John Wesley's brother, Charles, later well known as a hymn writer of Methodism.
1797 Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote the music for "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser"(God Save Franz the Emperor), in 1797, during the Napoleonic wars as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II. It was first performed on the Emperor's birthday, February 12, 1797. It is now known as "Deutschland uber Alles," the German national anthem.
1799 The Italian priest-biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani died on February 12, 1799. Spallanzani discovered and described animal (mammal) reproduction, showing that it requires both semen and an ovum. Spallanzani was also the first to perform in vitro fertilization, with frogs, and an artificial insemination, using a dog.
1809 Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury. His father, Robert Darwin, was a successful local doctor, but was stern and critical towards him. Darwin's mother, Susannah Wedgwood, was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter. His other grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, a naturalist, poet and philosopher who had put forward his own theory of evolution. As a boy he was so enamored with chemistry that his young friends nicknamed him "Gas".
1809 Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. in a one roomed log cabin, on Sinking Spring farm at Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was the first president to be born outside of the original 13 colonies. Lincoln was born into an illiterate and wandering frontier family. His father, Thomas was a farmer. Throughout his life Lincoln was convinced he was illegitimate. It was only after his death that he was discovered to be legitimate after all.
1809 Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin share the same birthday. They were both born on February 12, 1809.
1836 Copenhagen was the Duke of Wellington's war horse, which he most famously rode at the Battle of Waterloo. He was a three-quarter Thoroughbred, one-quarter Arabian. Copenhagen died on February 12, 1836, at the age of 28 from eating too many sponge cakes, bath buns and chocolate creams.
1855 Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan on February 12, 1855. It was established with the mission to provide education and training in the fields of agriculture, natural sciences, and mechanical arts, making it the first institution of its kind in the United States. It was the United States' first agricultural college.
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| 1541 founding of Santiago. Painting by Pedro Lira |
1554 After King Edward VI died on July 6, 1553, the powerful Duke of Northumberland plotted to exclude the rightful successor to the throne, Princess Mary, and instead installed the devout 15-year-old Protestant Lady Jane Grey. She lasted nine days as Queen before being overthrown by Mary who swiftly ascended the throne. On February 12, 1554, the ‘nine-day queen’ Lady Jane Grey was beheaded at the Tower of London, an hour after her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley.
1733 The state of Georgia was founded by English soldier and philanthropist James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733. The last of the 13 colonies, it was named after George II of Great Britain. The government's main reason for creating the colony was to get debtors off its hands and show an English presence between the Carolinas and Florida. For a period in 1736, James Oglethorpe's secretary was John Wesley's brother, Charles, later well known as a hymn writer of Methodism.
1797 Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote the music for "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser"(God Save Franz the Emperor), in 1797, during the Napoleonic wars as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II. It was first performed on the Emperor's birthday, February 12, 1797. It is now known as "Deutschland uber Alles," the German national anthem.
1799 The Italian priest-biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani died on February 12, 1799. Spallanzani discovered and described animal (mammal) reproduction, showing that it requires both semen and an ovum. Spallanzani was also the first to perform in vitro fertilization, with frogs, and an artificial insemination, using a dog.
1809 Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury. His father, Robert Darwin, was a successful local doctor, but was stern and critical towards him. Darwin's mother, Susannah Wedgwood, was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter. His other grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, a naturalist, poet and philosopher who had put forward his own theory of evolution. As a boy he was so enamored with chemistry that his young friends nicknamed him "Gas".
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| Painting of seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816. |
1809 Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. in a one roomed log cabin, on Sinking Spring farm at Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was the first president to be born outside of the original 13 colonies. Lincoln was born into an illiterate and wandering frontier family. His father, Thomas was a farmer. Throughout his life Lincoln was convinced he was illegitimate. It was only after his death that he was discovered to be legitimate after all.
1809 Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin share the same birthday. They were both born on February 12, 1809.
1836 Copenhagen was the Duke of Wellington's war horse, which he most famously rode at the Battle of Waterloo. He was a three-quarter Thoroughbred, one-quarter Arabian. Copenhagen died on February 12, 1836, at the age of 28 from eating too many sponge cakes, bath buns and chocolate creams.
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| Copenhagen as painted in his retirement by Samuel Spode |
1855 Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan on February 12, 1855. It was established with the mission to provide education and training in the fields of agriculture, natural sciences, and mechanical arts, making it the first institution of its kind in the United States. It was the United States' first agricultural college.
1862 The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 12–16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The Union's success in capturing the Confederate fort near the Tennessee–Kentucky border opened the Cumberland River, an important avenue for the invasion of the South.
The Union's victory also elevated Ulysses S. Grant from an obscure and largely unproven leader to the rank of major general.
1884 Alice Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's only child from his first marriage, was born on February 12, 1884. Alice Lee Roosevelt was the toast of Washington, D.C. When friends asked if he could rein in his daughter, Roosevelt said, "I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both." When she was 16, the song "Alice-Blue Gown" was written about Alice. As a result Alice Blue came to describe a light blueish green color.
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York on February 12, 1909. The civil rights organization was formed as a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans. Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination."
1924 In 1923, bandleader Paul Whiteman commissioned George Gershwin to write a short composition for a jazz concert. The result was “Rhapsody in Blue” which Gershwin conceived while on a train to Boston. He recalled: "I had already done some work on the rhapsody. It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang that is often so stimulating for a composer." It premiered at Aeolian Hall, New York City on February 12, 1924 and became one of his most acclaimed works.
1941 In the early 1940s a team of Oxford research scientists led by an Australian pathologist Howard Florey started looking into Alexander Fleming’s work on penicillin. They proved that penicillin could fight infections in people, after treating PC Albert Alexander on February 12, 1941 for a dangerous infection caused by a scratch from a thorn. Penicillin saved the lives of countless soldiers during World War II, who would have died from their wounds in previous wars.
1946 On February 12, 1946, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, African-American Isaac Woodard was severely beaten by South Carolina police as he was taking a bus home. Woodard lost the sight in both eyes, and the incident galvanized the American civil rights movement.
1947 The phrase 'The New Look' was coined by Harper's Bazaar, the fashion monthly, for Christian Dior's first fashion collection, on February 12, 1947. His long-skirted "new look" brought Dior worldwide fame and helped Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world as out went fashion rations and in came masses of material, designed to suit a curvy hour-glass figure.
1986 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand met on February 12, 1986 at Canterbury Cathedral to sign an agreement that would begin the building of the Channel Tunnel — a plan first mooted by Napoleon. The Treaty of Canterbury that was agreed was significant and unusual as it was a modern and recent modification to the national borders of the UK and France.
1992 The current Mongolian flag (see below) was adopted on February 12, 1992, after the transition of the country to a democracy. It is similar to the flag of 1940, except for the removal of the socialist star on top of the Soyombo.
2001 NASA's robotic space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros on February 12, 2001, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit and soft land on an asteroid. To the surprise of the controllers, the spacecraft was undamaged and operational after the landing at an estimated speed of 1.5 to 1.8 meters per second.
2016 Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow signed an Ecumenical Declaration on February 12, 2016. It was the first meeting of the leaders of the Roman Church and Russian Orthodox since the East–West Schism in 1054.
2021 When Israeli farmer Ariel Chahi found an unusually large strawberry during harvest with an approximate height of 18 cm (7.09 in) and circumference of 34 cm (13.4 in) he contacted Guinness World Records. It was weighed on February 12, 2021 at a huge 289 g (10.19 oz) breaking the weight record for the heaviest ever strawberry.
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