12th
August, on this day
30 BC Cleopatra
commits suicide after her lover Mark Antony's defeat at the battle
of Actium.
1099 Battle
of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey
of Bouillon defeat Fatimid
forces under Al-Afdal
Shahanshah. Considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1121 Battle
of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David the Builder won
a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 Battle
of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County
of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1281 The fleet of Qubilai
Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
1323 Treaty
of Nöteborg - Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the
border for the first time.
1332 Battle
of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle
1480 Battle
of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing
to convert to Islam.
1499 First act of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman
fleets.
1508
Juan Ponce de León arrives in Puerto Rico
1553 Pope Julius
III orders confiscation & burning of the Talmud
1676 King
Philip's War (vs Wampanoag Indians) ends in New England
1687 Charles
of Lorraine defeats the Ottomans at the Battle
of Mohács.
1793 The Rhône department was created when the former département
of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two departments: Rhône
and Loire (Lêre).
1806 Santiago
de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first
British invasion.
1833 Chicago was
founded.
1851 Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1851 The Hundred Guinea Cup is offered to the winner of a yacht race
around the Isle of Wight. It was won by the US schooner 'America',
and the trophy becomes known as the America's Cup
1862 Gen John
Hunt Morgan and his raiders capture Gallatin, TX
1863 1st cargo of lumber leaves Burrard Inlet (Vancouver, BC area)
1867 President
A Johnson defies Congress suspending Sec of War Edwin Stanton
1887 American inventor Thomas
Edison makes the world's first sound recording - reciting 'Mary
Had A Little Lamb' onto a foil -wrapped cylinder on a machine called
the Edisonphone
1888 Bertha, wife of inventor Karl
Benz, makes 1st motor tour
1898 Hawaii formally annexed to US. The Hawaiian flag is lowered from
Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with
the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the
Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.
1898 Spain and the United States conclude an armistice
over the possession of Cuba
1908 The first Model
T Ford car, known as the Tin Lizzie, comes off the production
line - replacing the model A
1914 Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries
automatically included.
1915 "Of
Human Bondage," by William
Somerset Maugham, published
1923 Enrico Tiraboschi is 1st to swim English Channel westward
1928 9th Olympic
Games close in Amsterdam
1936 Diver Marjorie
Gestring is youngest Olympic gold medalist (13y 268d)
1941 French Marshal Henri
Petain gave full support to Nazi Germany
1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia
Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
1944 Waffen
SS troops massacre more than 500 civil people in Sant'Anna
di Stazzema.
1944 Alençon
liberated by General
Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis
by French forces.
1944 PLUTO,
the pipeline under the ocean, goes into operation beneath the English
Channel transfering fuel from England to Allied forces in France
1952 The
Night of the Murdered Poets - Thirteen most prominent Jewish intellectuals
were murdered in Moscow.
1953 Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with
the detonation of Joe
4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 Ann Davidson, 1st woman to sail solo across Atlantic, arrives
Miami
1953 Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb
1956 William
Shatner marries Gloria Rand
1959 1st ship firing of a Polaris
missile, Observation Island
1960 Echo
1, 1st communications satellite, is launched
1962 Russia launches Vostok
4, Pavel
Popovich, who lands safely Aug 15
1964 Race riot in Elizabeth, NJ
1964 South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's
racist policies.
1964 Charlie
Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers escapes from Winson Green
Prison in Birmingham, England.
1965 Race riot in West Side of Chicago
1969 Battle of the Bogside,
Catholic community of Derry engage in two-day battle with the Royal
Ulster Constabulary
1972 Last American combat ground troops leave Vietnam
1976 1st approach and lands test (ALT) of orbiter Enterprise
1977 High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 launched into Earth orbit
1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric flight
1978 Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
1978 Japan and the People's Republic of China sign the Treaty
of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of
China.
1980 Signing of the Montevideo
Treaty, which established the Latin
American Integration Association.
1981 IBM
introduces the PC and PC-DOS version 1.0
1981 Jon Erikson (US) becomes 1st to triple cross English Channel
(38:27)
1982 Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt,
marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spread to all of Latin
America and the Third World.
1985 Japan
Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture,
Japan, killing 520. It is the worst single-plane air disaster.
1987 Charles Cole climbs 870' Tyrolean
Traverse from top of Elephant Rock
1988 Movie "Last
Temptation of Christ" is released
1988 Nelson Mandela is treated for tuberculosis at the hospital
1990 Iraq President Saddam Hussein says he is ready to resolve the
Gulf crisis if Israel withdraws from occupied territories
1990 Sue,
the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, is discovered near
Faith, South Dakota.
1992 Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of
negotiations for the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1997 British Tourist Authority comes under fire for dropping the Union
Flag from its publicity material
1999 Total eclipse
of the Sun
2000 The
Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and
sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2004 New Jersey Gov. James
McGreevey comes out publicly as a gay man.
2005 Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman
Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
2005 Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives
2007 Bulk carrier M/V
New Flame collides with oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost
tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
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Birthdates which
occurred on 12th August :
1753 Thomas Bewick
England, artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables)
1757 ALF alien life form (ALF)
1762 George IV king of England (1820-30)
1774 Robert Southey English poet laureate, biographer of Nelson
1781 Robert Mills US, architect (Washington Monument)
1820 Oliver Mowat a founder of the Canadian Confederation
1859 Katharine Lee Bates US, author (America the Beautiful)
1866 Jacinto Benavente y Mart¡nez Spanish dramatist (Nobel 1922)
1867 Edith Hamilton US, writer (Mythology)
1876 Mary Roberts Rinehart mystery writer (Miss Pinkerton)
1880 Christy Mathewson HOF baseball pitcher (Won 37 in 1908)
1881 Cecil B deMille Mass, directed God (10 Commandments)
1884 Frank Swinnerton England, novelist (Summer Storm, Sanctuary)
1887 Erwin Schr”dinger Austria, physicist (had a cat)
1890 Al Goodman Nikopol Russia, orch leader (NBC Comedy Hour)
1893 Howard Smith Attleboro Mass, actor (Harvey Griffin-Hazel)
19-- Carl Sturken Plainfield NJ, rocker (Rythm Syndicate)
19-- Dana Ivey Atlanta Ga, actress (Easy Street)
19-- Elizabeth Kerr KC Mo, actress (Cora-Mork & Mindy)
19-- Jim Storm actor (Bill-Bold & Beautiful)
19-- Jorge Rigo Chile, spanish singer
19-- Kay Campbell actress (All My Children)
19-- Lezlie Dalton actor (Search for Tomorrow)
19-- Marsha Clark actress (Guiding Light)
1904 Frank Ervin harness racer (Hambletonian 1959, 66)
1911 Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) Mexico, actor (Around World in 80 Days)
1912 Jane Wyatt Campgaw NJ, actress (Father Knows Best, Star Trek)
1913 Kurt Kaszner Vienna Austria, actor (Cmdr Fitzhugh-Land of the
Giants)
1915 Alex Wojciechowicz NFL center (Lions, Eagles)
1919 Michael Kidd [Milton Greenwald] choreographer (7 Brides for 7
Bros)
1921 Marjorie Reynolds Buhl Idaho, actress (Peggy-Life of Riley)
1925 Dale Bumpers (Sen-D-Ark)
1925 Norris McWhirter author (Guinness Book of World Records)
1925 Ross McWhirter author (Guinness Book of World Records)
1926 John Derek LA Calif, actor/director (10, Annapolis Story)
1927 Ralph Waite White Plains NY, actor (John-Waltons, Roots)
1929 Buck Owens Sherman Texas, country singer (Hee Haw)
1931 William Goldman author (Lord of the Flies-Nobel 1983)
1932 Porter Wagoner country singer, discovered Dolly Parton (Y'All
Come)
1936 Hans Haacke Cologne Germany, artist (Right to Life, Dripper Boxes)
1936 John Poindexter US Chief of Staff
1939 George Hamilton Memphis Tn, (Love at 1st Bite, Where the Boys
Are)
1941 Deborah Walley Bridgeport Ct, actress (Mothers-in-Law)
1941 Jennifer Warren NYC, actress (Slap Shot, Fatal Beauty, Mutant)
1949 Mark Knopfler guitar/vocals (Dire Straits-Sultans of Swing)
1951 Charles E Brady Jr Pinehurst NC, USN Commander/astronaut
1951 Hector Rodriguez Cuba, lightweight judo (Olympic-gold-1976)
1954 Pat Metheny jazz guitarist (As Wichita Falls)
1954 Sam J Jones Chicago Ill, actor (Chris-Code Red, The Highway Man)
1960 Lonny Chin Liverpool England, playmate (Jan, 1983)
1960 Morty Black heavy metal rocker (TNT-7 Seas)
1961 Pete De Freitas rocker (Echo & the Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here)
1961 Roy Hay guitarist (Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me)
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Deaths which occurred
on August 12th:
1900 Wilhelm Steinitz Prague, Chess champion (1866-1894)
1982 Henry Fonda actor (On Golden Pond), dies at 77 from heart disease
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