September 12

Events

• 490 BC - Athens defeats Persia at the Battle of Marathon
• 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River
• 1683 - Battle of Vienna
• 1846 - Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning
• 1890 - Salisbury, Rhodesia is founded
• 1933 - Leo Szilard, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
• 1938 - Adolf Hitler demands autonomy for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia
• 1940 - Cave paintings discovered in Lascaux, France
• 1940 - The Hercules Munitions Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.
• 1943 - Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest by German commando Otto Skorzeny
• 1947 - Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath
• 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• 1953 - John F. Kennedy marries Jackie Bouvier
• 1962 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade
• 1974 - Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie deposed
• 1980 - Military coup in Turkey
• 1992 - Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African-American woman in space
• 1994 - The Netscape browser is released
• 2001 - NATO Article V of the NATO agreement is invoked for the first time in response to the September 11 Terrorist Attack against the United States of America.
• 2003 - During the Ontario general election, 2003, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party issued a press release that called the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, Dalton McGuinty, an "Evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet". It proved to be an embarrassment that helped the Tories lose the election.

Births

• 1449 - Lorenzo de Medici, Italian politician († 1492)
• 1812 - Richard Hoe, inventor, industrialist († 1886)
• 1818 - Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun († 1903)
• 1880 - H.L. Mencken, journalist, author († 1956)
• 1888 - Maurice Chevalier, singer, actor († 1972)
• 1897 - Irene Joliot-Curie, scientist († 1956)
• 1901 - Ben Blue, vaudeville star († 1975)
• 1902 - Margaret Hamilton, actress († 1985)
• 1912 - Jacques Fath, French couturier († 1954)
• 1913 - Jesse Owens, athlete († 1980)
• 1914 - Desmond Llewelyn, actor († 1999)
• 1915 - Frank McGee, journalist († 1974)
• 1916 - Tony Bettenhausen, race car driver († 1961)
• 1918 - Chaim Herzog, President of Israel († 1997)
• 1921 - Stanislaw Lem, science fiction writer
• 1931 - George Jones, country music singer
• 1931 - Sir Ian Holm, actor
• 1934 - Glenn Davis, Olympic Games track and field gold medalist
• 1943 - Maria Muldaur, singer
• 1943 - Michael Ondaatje, poet
• 1944 - Barry White, singer († 2003)
• 1951 - Joe Pantoliano, actor
• 1952 - Neil Peart, musician
• 1954 - Peter Scolari, actor
• 1957 - Rachel Ward, actress
• 1958 - Wilfredo Benitez, three time world champion boxer
• 1973 - Paul Walker, actor
• 1980 - Yao Ming, Chinese NBA star

Deaths

• 1213 - King Peter II of Aragon
• 1764 - Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer
• 1972 - William Boyd, actor
• 1977 - Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist
• 1992 - Anthony Perkins, actor
• 1993 - Willie Mosconi, billiards champion
• 1993 - Raymond Burr, actor
• 1994 - Tom Ewell, actor
• 1994 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
• 2003 - Johnny Cash, country music singer and guitarist

Holidays and observances

• Programmer's day on leap years.

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December - more historical anniversaries

Referenced By