Historical Events on 12 Feb

Historical Events on 12 Feb

1429 - English Forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orleans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and John Stuart in the Battle of Rouvray (also known as the Battle of the Herrings).
1502 - Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal on his second voyage to India.
1541 - Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
1554 - A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
1689 - The Convention Parliament convenes and declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
1700 - The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe.
1719 - The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded.
1733 - Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13th United States colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).
1771 - Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.
1816 - The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is destroyed by fire.
1817 - Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeat Spanish troops on the battle of Chacabuco.
1818 - Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción.
1825 - The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
1832 - Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
1855 - Michigan State University was established.
1870 - Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.
1879 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
1894 - Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
1912 - The Republic of China adopts the Gregorian calendar.
1912 - Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.
1914 - In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.
1934 - In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista is inaugurated. The council decides to merge the movement with the Falange Española.
1934 - The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
1934 - The Austrian Civil War begins.
1946 - World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
1961 - U.S.S.R. launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
1966 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, announced famous Six Points in Karachi as election manifesto of Awami League that later led to formation of Bangladesh.
1973 - Vietnam War: The first United States prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.
1990 - Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian History when she becomes premier of Western Australia.
1997 - Hwang Jang-yop, secretary in the Workers' Party of Korea and a prime architect of North Korea's Juche doctrine, defects at the South Korean embassy in Beijing along with his aide, Kim Dok-hong.
1999 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
2001 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
2002 - The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He eventually dies four years later before its conclusion.
2002 - US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear waste repository.
2002 - An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119.
2004 - The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
2006 - A powerful winter storm blankets the Northeastern United States dumping 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington DC up to Boston, Massachusetts. The storm dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow in New York City.
2007 - A gunman opens fire in a mall in Salt Lake City, killing 5 people in the Trolley Square shooting.