January 12


January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are
353 days remaining (354 in leap years).

Events

   * 1585 - The Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar
   * 1773 - The first American museum open to the public is opened in
     (Charleston, South Carolina).
   * 1777 - Mission Santa Clara de As’s 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.
   * 1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for
     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 (+ 1703)
   * 1729 - Edmund Burke, statesman, philosopher
   * 1746 - Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue (+ 1827)
   * 1856 - John Singer Sargent, artist (+ 1925)
   * 1863 - Swami Vivekananda, guru (+ 1902)
   * 1876 - Jack London, author (+ 1916)
   * 1876 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer (+ 1948)
   * 1878 - Ferenc Moln‡r, writer (+ 1952)
   * 1884 - Texas Guinan, vaudeville performer (+ 1933)
   * 1893 - Hermann Gšring, Nazi offical (+ 1946)
   * 1893 - Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi official (+ 1946)
   * 1896 - Rex Ingram, director and actor (+ 1950)
   * 1899 - Paul Hermann MŸller, chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in
     Physiology or Medicine in 1948 (+ 1965)
   * 1905 - Tex Ritter, actor, singer (+ 1974)
   * 1908 - Jean Delannoy, film director
   * 1910 - Luise Rainer, actress
   * 1915 - Paul Jarrico, writer (+ 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
   * 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
   * 1665 - Pierre de Fermat, mathematician and lawyer
   * 1817 - Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit
   * 1960 - Nevil Shute, writer
   * 1965 - Lorraine Hansberry, writer
   * 1976 - Agatha Christie, writer
   * 2001 - William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard
   * 2002 - Cyrus Vance, former United States Secretary of State (1977-1980)
   * 2003 - Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, dictator of Argentina
   * 2003 - Maurice Gibb, singer and bassist in the Bee Gees

Fiction

   * In 2001: A Space Odyssey, 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.