Historical Events on February 12

Events 1 - 200 of 228

• 1049 Bruno count of Egesheim & Dagsburg crowned Pope Leo IX
• 1111 German King Hendry V arrives at St Peter, Rome
• 1130 Pope Innocent II elected
• 1502 Muslims in Granada forced to convert to Catholicism

• 1528 Treaty of Dordrecht between emperor & ecclesiastical power
• 1541 Santiago, Chile founded (or Feb 24)
• 1554 Queen of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is executed for treason
• 1577 Spanish land guardian Don Juan of Habsburg signs "Eternal Edict"
• 1624 English "Happy Parliament commenced
• 1700 The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe between Denmark–Norway, Saxony and Russia and the Swedish Empire.
• 1719 The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded
• 1733 Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah
• 1762 British fleet occupies Martinique
• 1763 John Casteret appointed British minister of foreign affairs
• 1771 Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.


• 1772 Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India
• 1793 1st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves
• 1797 Haydn's song "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" premieres in Vienna
• 1818 Chile gains independence from Spain
• 1821 Mercantile Library of City of NY opens
• 1825 Creek Indian treaty signed. Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west by Sept 1, 1826
• 1832 Ecuador annexes Galapagos Islands
• 1839 Aroostoock (or "Pork & Beans) War: Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick
• 1840 Housatonic Railroad opens
• 1848 Ballet "Faust" premieres in Milan
• 1850 Original Washington's Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300
• 1855 Michigan State University established
• 1861 State troops seize US munitions in Napoleon, Arkansas, during the US Civil War
• 1865 Henry Highland Garnet becomes the 1st African American minister to preach to the US House of Representatives, he talks about the end of slavery
• 1870 Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada
• 1873 US Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1873, abolishing bimetallism and placing the country on the gold standard
• 1876 Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop
• 1877 1st news dispatch by telephone, between Boston & Salem, Massachusetts
• 1877 US railroad builders strike against wage reduction
• 1878 Frederick Thayer patents catcher's mask (pat # 200,358)
• 1879 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
• 1879 News about slaughtering of Isandlwana reaches London
• 1880 US National Croquet League organizes (Philadelphia)
• 1882 Social-Democratic Union forms in Amsterdam
• 1885 Carl Peters founds German East-Africa Society


• 1886 2nd British government of Salisbury forms
• 1889 Caesar Franck's Symphony in D premieres
• 1889 Henrik Ibsen's "Fruen fra Haven" premieres in Oslo
• 1894 Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
• 1899 -47°F (-44°C), Camp Clarke, Nebraska (state record)
• 1899 1st 2-man team 6-day bicycle race in US begins, Madison Square Garden, NYC
• 1901 Dutch Penitentiary children's law proclaimed
• 1906 George Cohan's musical "George Washington" premieres in NYC
• 1908 Anna Jeanes bequeaths $1,000,000 to Swarthmore to become all female
• 1908 NY to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in NYC George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel
• 1909 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) forms
• 1909 Netherlands' SDAP suspends Marxist Tribune group (Gorter & Wijnkoop)
• 1909 Robert Fowler runs world record marathon (2:46:52.6)

• 1912 China adopts Gregorian calendar
• 1912 Last Ch'ing (Manchu) Emperor of China, Hsuan T'ung, abdicates
• 1914 Dedication ceremony for the about to be constructed Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

• 1917 1st edition of Joseph Patterson and Sidney Smith's strip "The Gumps"
• 1920 -Apr 26] 14,000 Rotterdam/Amsterdam harbor workers strike
• 1920 NL votes 6-2 for 1 commissioner AL votes 6-2 to keep group commission
• 1921 Soviet troops invade Georgia

• 1924 George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" premieres at influential concert "Experiment in Modern Music" held by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra at the Aeolian Hall, NYC
• 1924 George Kaufman's "Beggar on Horseback" premieres in NYC
• 1925 1st federal arbitration law approved by Congress
• 1925 E Thieffry departs with Handley Page for the Belgian Congo
• 1925 Estonia bans communist Party
• 1926 Barendrecht soccer team forms
• 1927 British expeditionary army lands in Shanghai
• 1929 Karst Leemburg wins Dutch 11 cities skate (11:30)
• 1931 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting with the callsign HVJ
• 1932 Communist Party of Holland forms Unemployed Combat Committees
• 1933 German vice-chancellor von Papen demands Catholic aid for Nazis
• 1934 Export-Import Bank incorporates
• 1934 France hit by a general strike against fascists & royalists
• 1934 The four-day February Uprising, sometimes called the Austrian Civil War, begins.
• 1935 Great airship, USS Macon, crashes into Pacific Ocean

• 1937 Cleveland (now Los Angeles) Rams granted an NFL franchise
• 1938 Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg visits Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden
• 1938 German troops entered Austria
• 1938 The first 'Kindertransport' carrying Jewish refugee children from Nazi Germany arrives in Britain
• 1938 3rd British Empire Games close in Sydney, Australia
• 1941 Jewish Council for Amsterdam forms under Ascher and Cohen
• 1941 Occupation Police arrest "Jewish Foursome"
• 1942 German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen escape from Brest to Germany in a dash up the English Channel

• 1944 Wendell Wilkie (R) enters presidential race
• 1945 SF selected for site of UN Conference
• 1947 Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia
• 1947 Record 100.5-kg sailfish caught, C W Stewart, Galapagos Islands

• 1948 1st Lt Nancy Leftenant becomes 1st African American in army nursing corps
• 1949 "Annie Get Your Gun" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 1147 performances
• 1949 Panic in Quito, Ecuador, after "War of the Worlds" played on radio
• 1949 Team Canada beats Denmark 47-0 in hockey
• 1949 Unidentified aircraft bomb Jerusalem

• 1950 Senator Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees
• 1953 USSR breaks relations with Israel
• 1954 The UK government establishes an organisation to control atomic energy in the country under The Atomic Energy Authority Bill
• 1955 McGuire Sisters' "Sincerely" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks
• 1955 President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam
• 1955 Soviets decides space center built in Baikonur, Kazakhstan
• 1955 WTVY TV channel 4 in Dothan, AL (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1957 Researchers announce Borazan (harder than diamonds) been developed

• 1958 Gen Miguel Ydegoras Fuentes elected President of Guatemala


• 1959 The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design
• 1960 Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers
• 1961 Celtic Bill Russell grabs 40 rebounds to beat Warriors 136-125
• 1961 Mushtaq Mohammad scores 1st Test Cricket century at 17 yrs 82 days
• 1961 USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus
• 1962 Bus boycott starts in Macon, Georgia
• 1963 Argentina asks extraditon of ex-president Peron
• 1964 Beatles 1st NYC concert (Carnegie Hall)

• 1964 US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming
• 1964 US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Allen
• 1964 Fighting breaks out between Turks and Greeks over dispute islands in Cyprus and 16 are killed; the UN responds the following month by sending a peacekeeping force
• 1965 KHFI (now KBVO) TV channel 42 in Austin, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1965 Nuclear test at Pacific Ocean
• 1967 Kees Verkerk becomes world champ all round skater

• 1967 Pirate Radio Free Harlem (NYC) begins transmitting

• 1970 Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" premieres in NYC
• 1971 Only Test Cricket for Ken Eastwood, who scored 5 & 0 Aust v England
• 1973 1st US POWs in N Vietnam released; 116 of 456 flown to Philippines
• 1974 Heads of state of Algeria, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia discuss oil strategy in view of the progress in Arab-Israeli disengagement
• 1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1977 Toronto Maple Leafs shutout Washington Capitals 10-0
• 1977 Festac '77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, finishes in Lagos, Nigeria
• 1978 "Jesus Christ Superstar" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 96 performances
• 1978 Debbie Austin wins LPGA American Cancer Society Golf Classic
• 1978 US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne
• 1978 US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner
• 1979 Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched
• 1979 Bakhtiar resigns as prime minister of Iran after losing support of the military
• 1980 "Canterbury Tales" opens at Rialto Theater NYC for 16 performances
• 1980 NY Islanders 2nd scoreless tie, vs Winnipeg Jets

• 1981 Admiral Bobby R Inman, USN, becomes deputy director of CIA
• 1981 Arbitrator Goetz declares Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk a free agent
• 1981 Cape Verde amends its constitution
• 1981 Pete Squires sets record for 1575 steps of Empire State Building, 10m
• 1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1982 32nd Berlin International Film Festival: "Veronika Voss" wins the Golden Bear
• 1984 Cale Yarborough, becomes 1st Daytona 500 qualifier, above 200 MPH
• 1984 Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean skate "Bolero" at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo
• 1984 West Indies beat Australia 2-1 to win cricket's World Series Cup after going undefeated in the qualifying rounds
• 1985 37th NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 6-4 at Calgary
• 1985 West Indies beat Australia 2-1 to win cricket's World Series Cup (Australian Tri-Series)
• 1986 1st-class cricket debut of Curtly Ambrose, Leeward Is v Guyana
• 1987 Survivors of a black man murdered by KKK members awarded $7 M damages
• 1988 38th Berlin International Film Festival: "Red Sorgum" wins the Golden Bear
• 1989 39th NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 143-134 at Houston
• 1989 5 Pakistani Muslim rioters killed protesting "Satanic Verses" novel
• 1989 50th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Larry Mowry
• 1989 Barbara Harris becomes 1st female bishop of a US Episcopal church
• 1989 Gretzky sets 2 records, his 45th hat trick & 10th 40+ goal season
• 1989 Thursday's Child sets sailing record, NY-Cape Horn-SF, 80 d 20 h
• 1989 US male Figure Skating championship won by Christopher Bowman
• 1989 Loyalist paramilitary group kill Pat Finucane, a Belfast lawyer who represented republican hunger striker Bobby Sands, while he is having dinner with family
• 1991 Iceland recognizes Lithuania's independence
• 1991 North & South Korea form a joint team for table tennis competition
• 1994 17th Winter Olympic games opens in Lillehammer, Norway
• 1994 20th century premiere of 6 restored Haydn-sonatas in Boston

• 1994 Inna Lassovskaya jumps world record 14.90m
• 1994 Model Anna Nicole Smith hospitalized for drug overdose
• 1995 45th NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 139-112 at Phoenix
• 1995 Angela Kennedy swims woman's world record 50m butterfly

• 1995 Dieter Baumann runs European record 3k indoor (7:37.51)
• 1995 Jeff Rouse swims world record 50m backstroke (24.37 sec)
• 1995 Moses Kiptanui runs world record 3k indoor (7:35.15)
• 1995 PRI loses and PAN wins Mexican regional elections
• 1995 Sun Cayun pole vaults indoor female world record (4.13m)
• 1995 Susan Auch skates female world record 500m (38.94 sec)

• 1998 "Freak" opens at Cort Theater NYC
• 1998 250-car Italy pile-up due to fog, 4 die & 50 hurt
• 1998 Dallas Cowboys sign Chan Gailey as their 4th head coach
• 1998 Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740
• 1998 US district judge T Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional

• 1999 Scientists warn about harmful impacts on health of genetically modified (GM) food
• 2000 31st NAACP Image Awards: "The Best Man" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
• 2001 NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

• 2001 "Ain't Nothing 'bout You" single released by Brooks & Dunn
• 2002 US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear waste repository
• 2002 An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119

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