Famous birthdays, deaths and events of August 12
Birthdays 1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway, (d. 1559) 1566 - Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, (d. 1633) 1604 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651) 1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia, (d. 1676) 1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704) 1647 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719) 1696 - Maurice Greene , English composer (d. 1755) 1720 - Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778) 1856 - "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917) 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929) 1866 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer 1867 - Edith Hamilton, German classicist (d. 1963) 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author (d. 1958) 1880 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (d. 1943) 1880 - Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d. 1925) 1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (d. 1959) 1883 - Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938) 1885 - Marion Lorne, American actress (d. 1968) 1892 - Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977) 1897 - Maurice Fernandes, West Indian cricketer (d. 1981) 1899 - Ben Sealey, West Indian cricketer (d. 1963) 1906 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972) 1907 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988) 1909 - Richard Bare, American director 1910 - Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006) 1911 - Cantinflas, Mexican actor (d. 1993) 1912 - Samuel Fuller, American film director (d. 1997) 1914 - Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (d. 1981) 1915 - Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007) 1923 - John Holt, West Indian cricketer (d. 1997) 1924 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer (d. 2007) 1924 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988) 1926 - John Derek, American actor (d. 1998) 1926 - Joe Jones, American R&B singer (d. 2005) 1926 - Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002) 1927 - Porter Wagoner, American singer (d. 2007) 1928 - Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001) 1928 - Dan Curtis, film and television producer and director 1929 - Buck Owens, American singer (d. 2006) 1930 - George Soros Hungarian-American financier and political activist, 1931 - William Goldman, American screenwriter 1932 - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS apostle and former Utah Supreme Court Justice 1932 - Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer 1932 - Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat, Queen of Thailand 1933 - Parnelli Jones, American race car driver and team owner 1935 - John Cazale, Italian-American actor (d. 1978) 1937 - Walter Dean Myers, African-American author 1939 - Skip Caray, American TV/radio baseball announcer (Atlanta Braves) (d. 2008) 1939 - George Hamilton, American actor 1940 - Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer (d. 2005) 1941 - Réjean Ducharme, Quebec novelist and playwright 1943 - Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001) 1947 - Ron Mael, American musician (Sparks) 1947 - Sam Rosen, American sportscaster 1949 - Mark Knopfler OBE, Scottish guitarist (Dire Straits) 1950 - Jim Beaver, American actor and writer 1952 - Chen Kaige , Chinese film director 1954 - Sam J. Jones, American actor 1954 - Pat Metheny, American guitarist 1955 - Ann M. Martin, American author 1955 - Terry Taylor, American retired professional wrestler 1956 - Bruce Greenwood , Canadian actor 1956 - Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer 1959 - Amanda Redman, English actress 1960 - Laurent Fignon, French cyclist 1960 - Greg Thomas, England cricketer 1961 - Roy Hay, British guitarist and keyboardist (Culture Club) 1961 - Lawrence Hayward, English musician (Felt 1961 - Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer 1962 - Miss Cleo, American psychic 1963 - Sir Mix A Lot, American rapper 1965 - Peter Krause , American actor 1966 - Les Ferdinand, English footballer 1967 - Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer 1967 - Andrey Plotnikov, Russian race walker 1967 - Andy Hui, Hong Kong actor and singer 1968 - Andras Jones, American actor 1969 - Aga Muhlach, Filipino actor 1969 - Stuart Williams, West Indian cricketer 1970 - Anthony Swofford, American novelist 1970 - Charles Mesure, British actor 1971 - Michael Ian Black, American comedian 1971 - Rebecca Gayheart , American actress 1971 - Pete Sampras , American tennis player 1972 - Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer 1972 - Takanohana, Sumo yokozuna 1972 - Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer 1973 - Joseba Beloki, Spanish cyclist 1973 - Todd Marchant, American ice hockey player 1973 - Richard Reid, British terrorist 1973 - Yvette Nicole Brown, American actress 1973 - Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr, 1973 - Grey DeLisle, American voice actress 1974 - Matt Clement , American baseball player 1975 - Casey Affleck , American actor 1975 - David Filmore, American actor 1976 - Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindström, Finnish guitarist 1976 - Antoine Walker , American basketball player 1976 - Wednesday 13, American musician (Wednesday 13 1976 - Brad Lukowich, Canadian ice hockey player 1976 - Richard McCourt, English children's television presenter 1976 - Henry Tuilagi, Samoan rugby player 1976 - Pedro Collins, West Indian cricketer 1977 - Plaxico Burress, American football player 1977 - Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer 1977 - Park Yong-ha, South Korean actor and singer 1978 - Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player 1978 - Chris Chambers, American football player 1979 - D.J. Houlton, American baseball player 1979 - Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater 1980 - Maggie Lawson , American actress 1980 - Dominique Swain , American actress 1980 - Matt Thiessen, Canadian/American musician (Relient K) 1980 - Jade Villalon, American singer/songwriter 1981 - Tony Capaldi, Northern Ireland footballer 1981 - Djibril Cissé, French footballer 1982 - Alexandros Tzorvas, Greek footballer 1983 - Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer 1984 - Marian Rivera, Philippine actress 1990 - Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer
Deaths 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor, (b. 825) 1588 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (b. 1543) 1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer 1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561) 1638 - Johannes Althusius, German writer (b. 1557) 1864 - Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811) 1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785) 1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819) 1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836) 1918 - Anna Held, Polish-born actress and singer (b. 1872) 1928 - Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b. 1854) 1941 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857) 1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. 1952 - David Bergelson, Yiddish language writer (b. 1884) 1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer 1959 - Mike O'Neill, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1877) 1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (James Bond) (b. 1908) 1968 - Esther Forbes, American novelist (b. 1891) 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist 1982 - Henry Fonda , American actor (b. 1905) 1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959) 1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907) 1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (plane crash) (b. 1941) 1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951) 1989 - Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (b. 1964) 1990 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903) 1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912) 1996 - Robert Gravel, French Canadian actor and theatrical director (b. 1945) 1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939) 2000 - Loretta Young , American actress (b. 1913) 2002 - Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916) 2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931) 2007 - Merv Griffin, American television host and game show creator (b. 1925) 2008 - Christie Allen, British-Australian pop singer (b. 1954)
Events 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon 1164 - Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch. 1281 - The fleet of Qubilai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan. 1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time. 1332 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor 1480 - Battle of Otranto 1499 - First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets. 1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War. 1687 - Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottomans at the Battle of Mohács. 1793 - The Rhône départment is created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre). 1806 - Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion. 1833 - Chicago is founded. 1851 - Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine. 1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos. 1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam. 1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War. 1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States. 1908 - Ford builds the first Model T. 1914 - World War I 1925 - The first cast of Alpha Psi Omega, drawn from The Masquers of Fairmont College, West Virginia, is initiated. 1943 - Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge. 1944 - Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema. 1944 - Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces. 1952 - The Night of the Murdered Poets 1953 - Nuclear testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon. 1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched. 1964 - South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies. 1964 - Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England. 1969 - Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside. 1977 - The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. 1978 - Japan and the People's Republic of China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China. 1980 - Signature of the Montevideo Treaty establishing the Latin American Integration Association. 1981 - The IBM Personal Computer is released. 1982 - Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World. 1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster. 1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, is discovered near Faith, South Dakota. 1992 - Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). 1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage forces the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. 2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise. 2004 - New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey comes out publicly as a gay man. 2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home. 2005 - An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people. 2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives 2005 - An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island 2007 - Bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
