January 12

Events

• 1773 - The first American museum open to the public is opened in (Charleston, South Carolina).
• 1777 - Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California
• 1838 - In order to avoid anti-Mormon persecution, Joseph Smith and his followers flee Ohio for Missouri.
• 1866 - Royal Aeronautical Society is formed (London).
• 1875 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.
• 1896 - H.L. Smith takes the first x-ray photograph.
• 1898 - Ito Hirobumi begins his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
• 1915 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is formed by an act of Congress.
• 1915 - United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
• 1926 - Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, in which the two white performers portrayed two black characters; some consider the show the first situation comedy. It was a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy.
• 1932 - Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
• 1940 - World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.
• 1942 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
• 1945 - World War II: The Soviets begin a very large offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
• 1964 - Rebels in Zanzibar begin a revolt and later proclaim a republic.
• 1966 - Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
• 1966 - Batman debuts on ABC.
• 1969 - Super Bowl III: New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts, 16-7.
• 1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
• 1971 - All in the Family debuts on CBS.
• 1971 - "Harrisburg Six": The Reverend Philip Berrigan and five others are indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, DC.
• 1976 - UN Security Council votes 11-1 to admit the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
• 1986 - Space shuttle Columbia takes-off with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
• 1991 - Persian Gulf War: An act of the United States Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
• 1995 - Malcolm X's daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, is arrested for conspiring to kill Louis Farrakhan.
• 1998 - 19 European nations agree to forbid human cloning.

Births

• 1628 - Charles Perrault, folklorist, (d. 1703)
• 1729 - Edmund Burke, statesman, philosopher, (d. 1797)
• 1746 - Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue, (d. 1827)
• 1856 - John Singer Sargent, artist, (d. 1925)
• 1863 - Swami Vivekananda, guru, (d. 1902)
• 1876 - Jack London, author, (d. 1916)
• 1876 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer, (d. 1948)
• 1878 - Ferenc Molnár, writer, (d. 1952)
• 1884 - Texas Guinan, vaudeville performer, (d. 1933)
• 1893 - Hermann Göring, Nazi official, (d. 1946)
• 1893 - Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi official, (d. 1946)
• 1896 - Rex Ingram, director and actor, (d. 1950)
• 1899 - Paul Hermann Müller, chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948, (d. 1965)
• 1905 - Tex Ritter, actor, singer, (d. 1974)
• 1908 - Jean Delannoy, film director
• 1910 - Luise Rainer, actress
• 1915 - Paul Jarrico, writer, (d. 1997)
• 1916 - P. W. Botha, President of South Africa
• 1926 - Ray Price, country music singer
• 1930 - Glenn Yarborough, singer, songwriter
• 1935 - Kreskin, mentalist
• 1943 - Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors
• 1944 - Joe Frazier, boxing champion
• 1946 - George Duke, musician
• 1949 - Wayne Wang, director
• 1951 - Rush Limbaugh, radio personality
• 1952 - Ricky Van Shelton, country musician
• 1954 - Howard Stern, "shock-jock" radio host
• 1955 - Kirstie Alley, actress
• 1955 - Rockne O'Bannon, writer, producer
• 1957 - John Lasseter, director, writer, animator
• 1960 - Oliver Platt, actor
• 1964 - Jeff Bezos, president of amazon.com
• 1966 - Rob Zombie, musician, artist, writer
• 1970 - Zack de la Rocha, singer

Deaths

• 1519 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, (b. 1459)
• 1665 - Pierre de Fermat, mathematician and lawyer, (b. 1601)
• 1817 - Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit, (b. 1740)
• 1960 - Nevil Shute, writer, (b. 1899)
• 1965 - Lorraine Hansberry, writer
• 1976 - Agatha Christie, writer, (b. 1890)
• 2001 - William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard, (b. 1913)
• 2002 - Cyrus Vance, former United States Secretary of State (1977-1980), (b.1917)
• 2003 - Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, dictator of Argentina, (b. 1926])
• 2003 - Kinji Fukasaku, japanese director, (b. 1930)
• 2003 - Maurice Gibb, singer and bassist in the Bee Gees, (b. 1949)

Holidays and observances

Fiction

• In , the fictional computer HAL became operational on January 12. In the movie by Stanley Kubrick he was "born" in 1992, while in the book by Arthur C. Clarke the same event occurred in 1997.

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

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

Referenced By