February 12 is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 322 days remaining, 323 in leap years.

Events

• 1354 - Treaty of Stralsund settled border disputes between the duchies of Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
• 1541 - Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
• 1554 - A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
• 1689 - The Convention Parliament convened and declared that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Catholic British monarch, had constituted an abdication.
• 1719 - The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest still existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded
• 1733 - Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13^th and final American colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah.
• 1737 - The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated.
• 1771 - Gustav III became the King of Sweden when his father Adolf Frederick "ate himself to death".
• 1817 - Chilean patriotic army, after cross the Andes, defeat Spanish troops on the battle of Chacabuco
• 1818 - Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepcion, Chile
• 1825 - The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
• 1832 - Ecuador annexes the Galapagos Islands.
• 1870 - Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.
• 1879 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
• 1892 - Former President Abraham Lincoln's birthday is declared a national holiday in the United States.
• 1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
• 1912 - Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicated.
• 1912 - China adopts the Gregorian calendar.
• 1915 - In Washington, DC the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
• 1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.
• 1934 - The Export-Import Bank is incorporated.
• 1938 - Anschluss: German troops enter Austria.
• 1946 - Operation Deadlight ended after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
• 1951 - Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari marries the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi at Golestan Palace in Teheran at age of 17.
• 1973 - Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in SI units on signs.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: The first American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.
• 1994 - 1994 Winter Olympics open in Lillehammer, Norway.
• 1998 - The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by United States federal judge.
• 1999 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
• 2001 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
• 2002 - The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
• 2002 - Nuclear waste: US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
• 2002 - An Iran Air Tours (subsidiary of Iran Air) Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119
• 2004 - Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, California, on National Freedom to Marry Day, ordered his county clerk to revise marriage licenses to allow gay and lesbian couples to legally wed.
• 2004 - Mattel Inc. spokespeople announced the split of Barbara Millicent Roberts and Ken Carson after 43 years of dating.
• 2005 - Former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean becomes chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Births

• 1567 - Thomas Campion, English composer, poet (d. 1620)
• 1637 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (d. 1680)
• 1663 - Cotton Mather, New England Puritan minister (d. 1728)
• 1768 - Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
• 1775 - Louisa Adams, First Lady, wife of President John Quincy Adams (d. 1852)
• 1777 - Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, French poet (d. 1843)
• 1809 - Charles Darwin, English naturalist (d. 1882)
• 1809 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)
• 1857 - Bobby Peel, Yorkshire left-arm spinner and leading bowler of 1880s and 1890s (d. 1943).
• 1861 - Lou Andreas-Salome, author (d. 1937)
• 1865 - Kazimierz Tetmajer, full name Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (d. 1940)
• 1880 - John L. Lewis, American labor union leader (d. 1969)
• 1881 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)
• 1884 - Max Beckmann, painter and graphic artist (d. 1950)
• 1884 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)
• 1893 - Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
• 1904 - Ted Mack, American television host (d. 1976)
• 1907 - Joseph Kearns , American actor (d. 1962)
• 1911 - Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive (d. 1968)
• 1912 - R. F. Delderfield, English author (d. 1972)
• 1914 - Tex Beneke , musician, band leader (d. 2000)
• 1915 - Lorne Greene, American actor (d. 1987)
• 1916 - Joseph Alioto, mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
• 1919 - Forrest Tucker, actor (d. 1986)
• 1920 - William Roscoe Estep, Baptist historian and professor of Church history emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (d. 2000)
• 1923 - Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director
• 1925 - Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (d. 1984)
• 1926 - Paul Kurtz, philosopher, founder of numerous secular humanist groups
• 1926 - Charles Van Doren, quiz show contestant
• 1926 - Joe Garagiola, American baseball player
• 1930 - Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania
• 1931 - Janwillem van de Wetering, author
• 1932 - Julian Simon, economist, author (d. 1998)
• 1933 - Costa-Gavras, director, writer
• 1934 - Bill Russell, basketball star
• 1936 - Joe Don Baker, American actor
• 1937 - Charles Dumas, American high jumper
• 1938 - Judy Blume, American author
• 1939 - Ray Manzarek, keyboardist
• 1942 - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel
• 1943 - Samuel Karokikki, athlete
• 1945 - Maud Adams, Swedish actress
• 1950 - Michael Ironside, actor
• 1953 - Joanna Kerns, American television actress and director
• 1954 - Philip Zimmermann, cryptographer
• 1955 - Arsenio Hall, American actor, talk show host
• 1967 - Chris McKinstry, computer scientist, Artificial Intelligence, Mindpixel
• 1968 - Chynna Phillips, American singer
• 1969 - Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean football player
• 1970 - Neil Cormack , poet, language professor
• 1970 - Jim Creeggan , bass player for Barenaked Ladies
• 1976 - Sylvia Saint, porn star
• 1980 - Christina Ricci, actress
• 1980 - Juan Carlos Ferrero, tennis player

Deaths

• 1538 - Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter
• 1554 - Lady Jane Grey, briefly Queen of England (beheaded) (b. 1537)
• 1595 - Archduke Ernest of Austria, governor of the Spanish Netherlands
• 1612 - Christopher Clavius, astronomer
• 1771 - King Adolf Frederick of Sweden (b. 1710)
• 1799 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, biologist (b. 1729)
• 1804 - Immanuel Kant, German philosopher
• 1916 - Richard Dedekind, mathematician (b. 1831)
• 1929 - Lily Langtry , singer, actress
• 1949 - Hassan al Banna, Egyptian Islamist and founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. October 14, 1906)
• 1951 - Choudhary Rahmat Ali, founding father of Pakistan (b. 1895)
• 1954 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896)
• 1971 - James C. Penney, department store founder (b. 1875)
• 1976 - Sal Mineo, actor (b. 1939)
• 1979 - Jean Renoir, director (b. 1894)
• 1982 - Victor Jory, Canadian actor (b. 1902)
• 1983 - Eubie Blake, musician, songwriter (b. 1883 or 1887)
• 1984 - Julio Cortázar, author, intellectual (b. 1914)
• 1985 - Nicholas Colasanto , American actor
• 1992 - María Elena Moyano, Peruvian community activist (b. 1960)
• 1993 - James Bulger, abduction/murder victim (b. 1990)
• 1995 - Robert Bolt, writer (b. 1924)
• 1995 - Philip Taylor Kramer, musician (Iron Butterfly)
• 1996 - Bob Shaw, science fiction author (b. 1931)
• 2000 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins, musician (b. 1929)
• 2000 - Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
• 2000 - Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip (b. 1922)
• 2000 - Oliver , singer
• 2001 - Kristina Söderbaum, German actress and photographer (b. 1912)
• 2005 - Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan Olympic medalist (b. 1964)
• 2005 - Brian Kelly, American actor

Holidays and observances

• United States - Lincoln's Birthday (traditionally)
• 1991, 2002, 2013 Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras)
• Georgia Day in the U.S. state of Georgia
• National Freedom to Marry Day (unofficial)
• Darwin Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 11 - February 13 - January 12 - March 12 -- listing of all days