Today in History
12 February
Alexander Selkirk
Yves de Kerguelen
Mercantile Library of City of NY
Housatonic Railroad
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12 February |
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| 1049 Bruno count of Egesheim & Dagsburg crowned Pope Leo IX |
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| 1111 German King Hendry V arrives at St Peter, Rome | ||
| 1130 Pope Innocent II elected | ||
| 1211 Henry VII, Roman catholic German king (1220-35) was born | ||
| 1429 The French were defeated by the English at the Battle of the Herrings (or Rouvray). | ||
| 1502 Granada] Moslems forced to convert to Catholicism | ||
| 1528 Treaty of Dordrecht between emperor & ecclesiastical power | ||
| 1554 Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days in 1553, was executed for high treason. | ||
| 1577 Spanish land guardian Don Juan of Habsburg signs "Eternal Edict" | ||
| 1665 Rudolph J Camerarius, German botanist/physician (sexuality plant) was born | ||
| 1709 Alexander Selkirk, Scottish seaman is rescued after 4+ years from Fernandez Island (inspiration for Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe") | Alexander Selkirk |
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| 1733 Led by English philanthropist James Edward Oglethorpe, the first Georgia colonists arrived at Savannah. | ||
| 1736 Maria Theresa Habsburg marries French Stefanus (emperor Francois I) | ||
| 1762 English fleet occupies Martinique | ||
| 1763 John Casteret appointed British minister of foreign affairs | ||
| 1768 Francis II was born in Florence; he was the last Holy Roman Emperor and also ruled as emperor of Austria. | ||
| 1772 Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India | ||
| 1792 Ferdinand de Braekeleer, Belgian painter was born | ||
| 1804 German philosopher Immanuel Kant died; his works included "Critique of Pure Reason," "Critique of Practical Reason" and "Critique of Judgement." |
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| 1809 Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky, (R) 16th president (1861-65) was born | ||
| 1809 Charles Darwin, England, discovered evolution (Origin of species) was born | ||
| 1818 Chile's independence from Spain was proclaimed in Santiago. | ||
| 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 The Galapagos Islands were incorporated as part of Ecuador. | Yves de Kerguelen |
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| 1839 Aroostock War: Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick | ||
| 1840 Housatonic Railroad opens | ||
| 1850 Original Washington's Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300 | ||
| 1851 Edward Hargraves discovered gold at Summerhill Creek in New South Wales, triggering the Australian gold rush. | ||
| 1852 Hendrik Blink, geographer (Van de Eems tot de Schelde) was born | ||
| 1861 State troops seize US munitions in Napoleon, AK | ||
| 1870 Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada | ||
| 1873 Congress abolishes bimetallism & authorizes $1 & $3 gold coins | ||
| 1874 King David Kalakaua of Sandwich Is Hawaii, is 1st king to visit US | ||
| 1879 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Sq Garden, NYC) |
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| 1885 Carl Peters founds German East-Africa Society | ||
| 1886 2nd British govt of Salisbury forms | ||
| 1894 Hans von Bulow, German pianist and conductor, died; in 1864 he became director of the music school at Munich. | ||
| 1895 China surrendered at the Battle of Weihaiwei, ending the Sino-Japanese War. | ||
| 1899 Germany bought the Pacific islands of Marianas, Caroline and Pelew from Spain. | ||
| 1908 NY to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in NYC | ||
| 1912 China adopts Gregorian calendar | ||
| 1912 The Manchu dynasty under Pu Yi abdicated in China and a provisional republic was established under Sun Yat-sen. | ||
| 1916 1st edition of Joseph Patterson/Sidney Smith strip "Gumps" | ||
| 1921 Soviet troops invade Georgia in Russia | ||
| 1921 Winston Churchill becomes British, minister of Colonies | ||
| 1922 Indian Nationalist Mohandas Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience was suspended amid a rising tide of violence. | Mercantile Library of City of NY |
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| 1923 Franco Zeffirelli, Florence Italy, director (Romeo & Juliet) was born | ||
| 1924 Tutankhamen's sarcophagus was opened to reveal his coffin, 15 months after the tomb was first discovered. | ||
| 1925 E Thieffry departs with Handley Page for the Belgian Congo | ||
| 1925 Estonia forbids communist Party | ||
| 1927 British expeditionary army lands in Shanghai | ||
| 1929 Lillie Langtry (Emilie Charlotte Le Breton), actress and King Edward VII's mistress, died. | ||
| 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 | ||
| 1935 Great airship, USS Macon, crashes into Pacific Ocean | ||
| 1938 German troops entered Austria | ||
| 1943 General Eisenhower departs Algiers to Tebessa | ||
| 1947 Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia |
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| 1949 Unidentified aircraft bomb Jerusalem | ||
| 1950 Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb | ||
| 1950 The European Broadcasting Union was founded. | ||
| 1953 The Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel after a bomb exploded at the Soviet legation in Tel Aviv. | ||
| 1958 Gen Miguel Ydegoras Fuentes elected president of Guatemala | ||
| 1960 Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers | ||
| 1961 USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus | ||
| 1961 Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first prime minister, was reported to have been murdered by Katangan separatists. The exact date and circumstances of his death were never discovered. | ||
| 1963 Argentina asks extraditon of ex-president Peron | Housatonic Railroad |
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| 1973 The first group of U.S. prisoners of war were freed from North Vietnam. | ||
| 1979 Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched | ||
| 1979 In Rhodesia, 59 people died when an Air Rhodesia civilian plane was shot down by Nationalist guerrillas. | ||
| 1980 Former West German chancellor Willy Brandt delivered his report to the U.N. secretary-general on the need for the reshaping of the relationship between rich and poor countries. | ||
| 1981 Admiral Bobby R Inman, USN, becomes deputy director of CIA | ||
| 1981 Cape Verde amends its constitution | ||
| 1986 The Channel Tunnel treaty between Britain and France was signed. | ||
| 1989 Barbara Harris becomes 1st female bishop of a US Episcopal church | ||
| 1990 Carmen Lawrence became premier of Western Australia, the first woman premier of an Australian state. | ||
| 1991 Iceland recognizes Lithuania's independence | ||
| 1992 Thousands of people celebrated as Mongolia's new non-communist constitution took effect. | ||
| 1993 Ex-President Moussa Traore of Mali and three senior army officers were sentenced to death after a court found them guilty of mass murder in 1991. | ||
| 1994 17th Winter Olympic games opens in Lillehammer, Norway | ||
| 1994 Lawyers for U.S. figure skater Tonya Harding and the U.S. Olympic Committee agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the skater, allowing her to skate at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. | ||
| 1994 Two thieves stole one of the world's most famous paintings, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, in Oslo. | ||
| 1994 At least 14 political parties registered for South Africa's April elections. | ||
| 1996 Yasser Arafat took office as the first Palestinian president. | ||
| 1997 Hwang Jang-yop, a senior adviser to North Korean president Kim Jong-il, defected to Seoul's Beijing embassy. | ||
| 1998 250-car Italy pile-up due to fog, 4 die & 50 hurt | ||
| 1998 Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740 | ||
C.H. OSTFELD