August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 141 days remaining.
Events
- 1099 - The First Crusade concluded with a decisive victory in the Battle of Ascalon over Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah.
- 1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg - Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time
- 1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under the Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol
- 1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shot and killed Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
- 1851 - Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine
- 1854 - Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon is executed by shooting, in regard to the Battle of Guaymas.
- 1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos
- 1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam
- 1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War
- 1898 - 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 Hawaii to the United States.
- 1908 - First Model T Ford built
- 1914 - Great War - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.
- 1953 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
- 1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched
- 1966 - John Lennon apologized at a Chicago news conference for saying the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus."
- 1978 - Japan and China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China.
- 1981 - The IBM PC, an early personal computer, is introduced
- 1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture Japan killing 520 in the world's worst single-plane air disaster. Four people miraculously survive.
- 1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, was discovered near Faith, South Dakota.
- 1992 - Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
- 1994 - The Woodstock '94 rock concert takes place.
- 1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage will force the cancellation of the World Series.
- 2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
- 2004 - Sweden's nine millionth inhabitant is born.
- 2004 - Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as Singapore's 3rd Prime Minister.
Births
- 1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (d. 1559)
- 1604 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
- 1626 - Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (d. 1690)
- 1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia (d. 1676)
- 1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
- 1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)
- 1647 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
- 1686 - John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
- 1696 - Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)
- 1774 - Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)
- 1831 - Helena Blavatsky, author (d. 1891)
- 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)
- 1866 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer (d. 1954)
- 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, author (d. 1958)
- 1880 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player (d. 1925)
- 1880 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (d. 1943)
- 1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (d. 1959)
- 1883 - Pauline Frederick, stage and film actress (d. 1938)
- 1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1892 - Alfred Lunt, actor (d. 1977)
- 1904 - Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, Tsarevich (d. 1918)
- 1906 - Pauline Frederick, journalist (d. 1990)
- 1906 - Tedd Pierce, animator (d. 1972)
- 1907 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)
- 1911 - Cantinflas, actor (d. 1993)
- 1911 - Jane Wyatt, actress
- 1924 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
- 1924 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer
- 1925 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
- 1925 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
- 1926 - John Derek, actor (d. 1998)
- 1927 - Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist
- 1927 - Porter Wagoner, singer
- 1928 - Bob Buhl, baseball player (d. 2001)
- 1928 - Dan Curtis, film and television producer and director
- 1929 - Buck Owens, singer
- 1930 - George Soros American businessman
- 1931 - William Goldman, screenwriter
- 1933 - Parnelli Jones, race car driver
- 1939 - George Hamilton, actor
- 1949 - Mark Knopfler, musician
- 1954 - Pat Metheny, guitarist
- 1971 - Michael Ian Black, comedian
- 1971 - Pete Sampras, tennis player
- 1972 - Rebecca Gayheart, actress
- 1972 - Takanohana Kōji, sumo wrestler
- 1973 - Richard Reid, English bomber
- 1974 - Matt Clement, Major League Baseball pitcher
- 1976 - Antoine Walker, basketball player
- 1977 - Plaxico Burress, American football player
- 1980 - Dominique Swain, American actress
- 1988 - Leah Pipes, actress
Deaths
- 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor
- 1484 - Pope Sixtus IV
- 1484 - George of Trebizond, philosopher
- 1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
- 1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer
- 1689 - Pope Innocent XI
- 1822 - Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquis of Londonderry, British Foreign Secretary
- 1827 - William Blake, English poet and printmaker (b. 1757)
- 1848 - George Stephenson, locomotive designer
- 1864 - Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)
- 1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)
- 1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
- 1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, chess player (b. 1836)
- 1901 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
- 1914 - John Philip Holland, submarine designer (b. 1840)
- 1918 - Anna Held, actress amd singer, (b. 1872)
- 1923 - Vatrslav Jagić, Croatian philologist (b. 1838)
- 1928 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- 1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)
- 1943 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857).
- 1948 - Harry Brearley, inventor of stainless steel
- 1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
- 1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1964 - Ian Fleming, British novelist
- 1968 - Angus Walters, Canadian sailor (b. 1882)
- 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
- 1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor
- 1982 - Joe Tex (Joseph Arrington), singer
- 1982 - Salvador Sanchez, boxer
- 1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, race car driver
- 1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, singer (b. 1941)
- 1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 1992 - John Cage, American composer
- 1997 - Luther Allison, blues musician
- 2000 - Loretta Young, actress
- 2002 - Enos Slaughter, baseball player
- 2002 - Ed Headrick, developer of the Frisbee
- 2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1919)
- 2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor
Holidays and observations