12th August

Events

• 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders defeat Saracens and the Kingdom of Jerusalem is established under Godfrey of Bouillon.
• 1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under the Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol
• 1676 - King Philip's War ends
• 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 Phobos
• 1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam
• 1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War
• 1898 - Hawaii annexed by 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 Union detonates its first hydrogen bomb.
• 1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched
• 1961 - Cold War - Construction begins on the Berlin Wall
• 1981 - The IBM PC, the first bit personal computer, is introduced
• 1985 - A Japan Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet crashes into Mount Ogura, Japan killing 520, in world's worst single plane air disaster
• 1992 - Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA.
• 1994 - Woodstock '94 rock concert
• 1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage will force the cancellation of the World Series.
• 2000 - Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea

Births

• 1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway († 1559)
• 1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia († 1676)
• 1774 - Robert Southey, poet, biographer († 1843)
• 1859 - Katherine Lee Bates, poet, author of America the Beautiful († 1929)
• 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, author († 1958)
• 1880 - Christy Mathewson, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame († 1925)
• 1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, director († 1959)
• 1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, physicist († 1961)
• 1892 - Alfred Lunt, actor († 1977)
• 1904 - Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, Tsarevich, heir to the throne of Russia († 1918)
• 1906 - Pauline Frederick, journalist († 1990)
• 1907 - Joe Besser, actor, member of the Three Stooges († 1988)
• 1911 - Jane Wyatt, actress
• 1911 - Cantinflas (Mario Moreno Reyes), actor († 1993)
• 1924 - Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, Leader of Pakistan, (d. 1988)
• 1926 - John Derek, actor († 1998)
• 1927 - Mstislav Rostropovich, cellist
• 1927 - Porter Wagoner, country and western singer
• 1928 - Dan Curtis, movie and television producer and director
• 1929 - Buck Owens, country and western singer
• 1930 - George Soros American businessman
• 1931 - William Goldman, screenwriter
• 1933 - Parnelli Jones, auto racer
• 1939 - George Hamilton, actor
• 1949 - Mark Knopfler, musician
• 1954 - Pat Metheny, guitarist
• 1971 - Pete Sampras, tennis player
• 1972 - Rebecca Gayheart, actress

Deaths

• 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor
• 1484 - Pope Sixtus IV
• 1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
• 1633 - Jacopo Peri, composer
• 1689 - Pope Innocent XI
• 1827 - William Blake, poet and printmaker
• 1848 - George Stephenson, locomotive designer
• 1914 - John Philip Holland, early submarine designer
• 1928 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer
• 1955 - Thomas Mann, author
• 1964 - Ian Fleming, novelist
• 1968 - Angus Walters, schooner captain
• 1982 - Henry Fonda, actor
• 1982 - Joe Tex (Joseph Arrington), singer
• 1982 - Salvador Sanchez world champion boxer
• 1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, auto racing driver
• 1989 - William Shockley, physicist
• 1992 - John Cage, American composer
• 2000 - Loretta Young, actress
• 2002 - Enos Slaughter, baseball Hall of Famer
• 2002 - Ed Headrick, developer of the Frisbee

Holidays and observations

• Glorious Twelfth at the Yorkshire Dales

August 11 - August 13 - July 12 - September 12 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December