History of Today in India – 12 February

Explore the history of today 12 February in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 12 February 2026, 04:21 AM

📜 Important Events on 12 February in World History

12 Feb 2019: The country known as the Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia in accordance with the Prespa agreement, settling a long-standing naming dispute with Greece. Read more
12 Feb 2016: Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their split in 1054. Read more
12 Feb 2009: Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground. Read more
12 Feb 2004: The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom. Read more
12 Feb 2002: The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, begins at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. He dies four years later before its conclusion. Read more
12 Feb 2002: An Iran Airtour Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119. Read more
12 Feb 2001: NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. Read more
12 Feb 1999: United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial. Read more
12 Feb 1994: Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream. Read more
12 Feb 1993: Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him. Read more
12 Feb 1992: The current Constitution of Mongolia comes into effect. Read more
12 Feb 1990: Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia. Read more
12 Feb 1988: Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage. Read more
12 Feb 1983: One hundred women protest in Lahore, Pakistan against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq's proposed Law of Evidence. The women were tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into lock-up. The women were successful in repealing the law. Read more
12 Feb 1974: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union. Read more
12 Feb 1968: Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre. Read more
12 Feb 1966: Rabbi Morris Adler is fatally shot by a disgruntled congregant at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan, United States. Read more
12 Feb 1965: Malcolm X visits Smethwick near Birmingham following the racially-charged 1964 United Kingdom general election. Read more
12 Feb 1963: Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. Read more
12 Feb 1963: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 crashes into the Everglades shortly after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing all 45 people on board. Read more
12 Feb 1961: The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus. Read more
12 Feb 1947: The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union. Read more
12 Feb 1947: Christian Dior unveils a "New Look", helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world. Read more
12 Feb 1946: World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats. Read more
12 Feb 1946: African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the civil rights movement and partially inspires Orson Welles' film Touch of Evil. Read more
12 Feb 1945: A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others. Read more
12 Feb 1935: USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks. Read more
12 Feb 1921: Bolsheviks launch a revolt in Georgia as a preliminary to the Red Army invasion of Georgia. Read more
12 Feb 1919: The Second Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole. Read more
12 Feb 1912: The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates. Read more
12 Feb 1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded. Read more
12 Feb 1909: New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. Read more
12 Feb 1894: Café Terminus bombing by Émile Henry during the Ère des attentats (1892-1894). Influential event for the birth of modern terrorism. Read more
12 Feb 1889: Antonín Dvořák's Jakobín is premiered at the National Theater in Prague. Read more
12 Feb 1832: Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands. Read more
12 Feb 1825: The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government by the Treaty of Indian Springs, and migrate west. Read more
12 Feb 1818: Bernardo O'Higgins formally approves the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, Chile. Read more
12 Feb 1817: An Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 12 February in World History

12 Feb 2001: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Georgian footballer Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is a Georgian professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Georgia national team. Regarded as one of the best players in the world and the greatest Georgian player of all time, he is known for his dribbling, agility, and playmaking. Read more
12 Feb 2000: Kim Ji-min, South Korean actress Kim Ji-min is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her roles in Goddess of Fire (2013) and Pluto Secret Society (2014). Since January 2020, she is part of SM C&C. Read more
12 Feb 1994: Kemal Bilmez, Belgian politician Kemal Bilmez is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he has represented Flemish Brabant since June 2024. Read more
12 Feb 1994: Arman Hall, American sprinter Arman "Gino" Hall is an American sprinter specializing in the 400 m. He is a World and Olympic gold medalist as a member of USA's 2014 and 2016 4 × 400 m relay teams. Read more
12 Feb 1994: Paxton Lynch, American football player Paxton James Lynch is an American professional football quarterback for the Colorado Spartans of the National Arena League (NAL). He played college football for the Memphis Tigers, and was selected in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft by the Denver Broncos. Lynch played just two seasons in Denver and made four starts before being released prior to the 2018 season. Lynch was also a member of the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Michigan Panthers of the United States Football League (USFL), and the Orlando Guardians and San Antonio Brahmas of the XFL. Read more
12 Feb 1993: Bud Dupree, American football player Alvin "Bud" Dupree Jr. is an American professional football linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Kentucky Wildcats, and was selected in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has also played for the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons. Read more
12 Feb 1993: Rafinha, Brazilian footballer Rafael Alcântara do Nascimento, commonly known as Rafinha, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
12 Feb 1993: Jennifer Stone, American actress Jennifer Stone is an American podcaster, social media personality and former actress. As a child actor, she became known for playing Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). She also had roles in the comedy films Secondhand Lions (2003) and Mean Girls 2 (2011). Read more
12 Feb 1992: Magda Linette, Polish tennis player Magda Linette is a Polish professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 19, achieved in March 2023. She has reached eight finals on the WTA Tour, winning three titles, and the semifinals of the 2023 Australian Open, and the third round of the other majors. Read more
12 Feb 1991: Patrick Herrmann, German footballer Patrick Herrmann is a German former professional footballer who played as a right winger. He spent his entire professional career with Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach. Read more
12 Feb 1991: Kane Richardson, Australian cricketer Kane William Richardson is a former Australian international cricketer who played domestic cricket for South Australia and Queensland and played in the Big Bash League for the Adelaide Strikers, Melbourne Renegades, and Sydney Sixers. Read more
12 Feb 1990: Katherine Barrell, Canadian actress, director, writer, and producer Katherine Barrell is a Canadian actress, writer, producer, and director. She is best known for her role as Sheriff Nicole Haught in the Syfy supernatural weird West television series Wynonna Earp. In 2020, she joined the cast of the fantasy comedy-drama television series Good Witch as Joy Harper. Read more
12 Feb 1990: Robert Griffin III, American football player Robert Lee Griffin III, nicknamed RGIII or RG3, is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, most notably with the Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Baylor Bears, winning the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and was selected second overall by the Washington Redskins in the 2012 NFL draft. Read more
12 Feb 1989: Josh Harrellson, American basketball player Josh Douglas Harrellson is an American professional basketball player for Saga Ballooners of the Japanese B.League. Standing 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), he played center for the Kentucky Wildcats from 2008 to 2011. He was selected by the New Orleans Hornets as the 45th pick in the 2011 NBA draft, but was traded to the New York Knicks. He signed with the Miami Heat in 2012. In 2013, he joined the Brujos de Guayama in Puerto Rico, but he was released on May 18 so that he could join Chongqing Flying Dragons in the Chinese National Basketball League for a two-month period. In August 2013, Harrellson joined the Detroit Pistons. Read more
12 Feb 1988: DeMarco Murray, American football player DeMarco Murray is an American football coach and former professional player who is currently the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). A running back in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, Murray was a three-time Pro Bowl selection, one-time first-team All-Pro, and NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2014 after leading the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Read more
12 Feb 1988: Nicolás Otamendi, Argentine footballer Nicolás Hernán Gonzalo Otamendi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Primeira Liga club Benfica, whom he captains, and the Argentina national team. Read more
12 Feb 1988: Josh Phegley, American baseball player Joshua Aaron Phegley is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago Cubs. Read more
12 Feb 1988: Mike Posner, American singer-songwriter and producer Michael Robert Henrion Posner is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, poet, and record producer from Detroit. He signed with J Records in 2009 and released his debut single "Cooler Than Me" the following year. The song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and received septuple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His follow-up single, "Please Don't Go" peaked within the top 20 of the chart and received triple platinum certification; both songs preceded the release of his debut album, 31 Minutes to Takeoff (2010), which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and received mixed critical reception. In 2014, Posner parted ways with J Records in favor of Island Records. Read more
12 Feb 1987: Jérémy Chardy, French tennis player Jérémy Chardy is a French tennis coach and a former professional player. He has won one ATP Tour singles title, in Stuttgart in 2009. His best major performance in singles was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2013 Australian Open, and in doubles was reaching the final at the 2019 French Open partnering Fabrice Martin. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 25 on 28 January 2013 and No. 24 on 3 February 2020 in doubles. Read more
12 Feb 1987: Gabriela Mărginean, Romanian basketball player Gabriela Mărginean is a Romanian professional women's basketball player who plays for the Turkey club İzmit Belediyespor. Read more
12 Feb 1986: Todd Frazier, American baseball player Todd Brian Frazier, nicknamed "the Toddfather", is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, New York Mets, and Pittsburgh Pirates from 2011 to 2021. Frazier was an MLB All-Star in 2014 and 2015. Read more
12 Feb 1985: Konstantin Pushkaryov, Kazakhstani ice hockey player Konstantin Vladimirovich Pushkaryov is a Kazakhstani former ice hockey winger. He played 17 games in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. Most of his career, which lasted from 2001 to 2020, was spent with Barys Astana in the Kontinental Hockey League. Internationally, Puskharyov played for the Kazakhstani national team at multiple World Championships. In May 2022, he became a Parimatch expert. Read more
12 Feb 1984: Brad Keselowski, American race car driver Bradley Aaron Keselowski is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RFK Racing, a team he also co-owns. He was the owner of Brad Keselowski Racing, which fielded two full-time trucks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for 10 years. Read more
12 Feb 1984: Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer Andrei Sidorenkov is an Estonian former professional footballer who played as a left-back. Read more
12 Feb 1984: Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer Peter William Vanderkaay is an American former competition swimmer and four-time Olympic medalist who competed for the University of Michigan who specialized in middle and long distance freestyle events. He was a member of the United States Olympic team in 2004, 2008, and 2012, and won gold medals in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He won bronze medals in the 200-meter freestyle at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 400-meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Read more
12 Feb 1983: Carlton Brewster, American football player and coach Carlton Brewster is a former National Football League (NFL) wide receiver. He was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football at Ferris State University. Read more
12 Feb 1982: Jonas Hiller, Swiss ice hockey player Jonas Hiller is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender. Hiller played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Anaheim Ducks and the Calgary Flames. He began his NHL career with the Ducks in 2007 after going undrafted in any NHL Entry Draft. Hiller also played in the National League (NL) for HC Davos and EHC Biel. Read more
12 Feb 1982: Louis Tsatoumas, Greek long jumper Louis Tsatoumas is a Greek long jumper. Read more
12 Feb 1982: Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player Anthony Tuitavake is a New Zealand rugby union footballer. He plays as a centre or on the wing. Tuitavake, of Tongan descent, is a fast attacking centre. Read more
12 Feb 1981: Wade McKinnon, Australian rugby league player Wade McKinnon is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. His position of preference was as a fullback. Read more
12 Feb 1980: Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat is a Spanish former professional tennis player and current coach. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for a total of eight weeks. Ferrero won 16 singles titles on the ATP Tour, including the 2003 French Open and four Masters events. He was also runner-up at the 2002 French Open and 2003 US Open. He was nicknamed el Mosquito for his speed and slender physical build. Ferrero retired as a professional player in 2012. Read more
12 Feb 1980: Sarah Lancaster, American actress Sarah Lancaster [1] is an American actress and director. She is known for her long-running roles as Rachel Meyers in the series Saved by the Bell: The New Class and Ellie Bartowski in the comedy-spy series Chuck, as well as playing Chloe Grefe in Lovers Lane, Madison Kellner on Everwood, and Marjorie in the television drama What About Brian. In 2020, Lancaster starred as Elli Wise in the television film "Blue Ridge "., later reprising the role in the family crime drama series "Blue Ridge ". (2024), which premiered on INSP and was later released on Amazon Prime Video. Read more
12 Feb 1980: Gucci Mane, American rapper Radric Delantic Davis, known professionally as Gucci Mane, is an American rapper and music executive. He is credited, along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers T.I. and Jeezy, with pioneering the hip-hop subgenre trap music for mainstream audiences during the 2000s. His debut studio album, Trap House (2005), was released by the independent label Big Cat Records and entered the Billboard 200; it was followed by Hard to Kill (2006), which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100 entry with its single "Freaky Gurl". That same year, he released his third album, Trap-A-Thon, before signing with Atlantic Records to release his fourth album, Back to the Trap House (2007). Read more
12 Feb 1980: Christina Ricci, American actress and producer Christina Ricci is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but she has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Read more
12 Feb 1979: Jesse Spencer, Australian actor and violinist Jesse Gordon Spencer is an Australian actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Billy Kennedy on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, for which he was nominated for two Logie Awards, Dr. Robert Chase on the American medical drama House (2004–2012) and Captain Matthew Casey on the American drama Chicago Fire (2012–2024). Read more
12 Feb 1978: Paul Anderson, English actor Paul Anderson is an English film and television actor who came to prominence for portraying Arthur Shelby Jr. in Peaky Blinders, Mr Anderson in the 2015 film The Revenant, and Sebastian Moran in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Read more
12 Feb 1977: Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player and manager James Paul Conrad is an American former soccer player who played as a defender. During his 13-year MLS career, he was four-time MLS Best XI and the 2005 MLS Defender of the Year. He also earned 27 caps with the United States men's national soccer team and went to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Read more
12 Feb 1976: Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player Christian Mathias Cullen is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He played most of his rugby at fullback for New Zealand, for the Hurricanes in the Super 12, and for Manawatu, Wellington and later Munster at provincial level. He was nicknamed the Paekakariki Express and was considered to be one of the most potent running fullbacks rugby has ever seen. With 46 tries scored in 58 tests, Cullen is the equal-11th-highest try-scorer in international rugby. Read more
12 Feb 1975: Scot Pollard, American basketball player and actor Scot L. Pollard is an American former professional basketball player. In an 11-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for five teams, spending the bulk of his career with the Sacramento Kings and the Indiana Pacers. Read more
12 Feb 1974: Naseem Hamed, English boxer Naseem Hamed, nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002. He held multiple featherweight world championships between 1995 and 2000, and reigned as lineal champion from 1998 to 2001. In 2015, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The Ring magazine awarded Hamed an honorary featherweight title in 2019 to acknowledge his dominance of the division and the multiple champions he defeated; he is the only former world champion in any division thus far to receive this honour. Read more
12 Feb 1973: Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater Gianni Petrus Cornelis Romme is a Dutch marathoner and a former long track speed skater. He won two gold medals at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and was the World all-round champion in 2000 and 2003. Romme has been a coach since the 2006–07 speed skating season. Read more
12 Feb 1973: Tara Strong, Canadian-American voice actress and singer Tara Lyn Strong is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Teen Titans, Xiaolin Showdown, Ben 10, Drawn Together, The New Batman Adventures, Rugrats, The Proud Family, Chowder, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Unikitty!, and DC Super Hero Girls. She has also voiced characters in the video games Mortal Kombat X, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Jak and Daxter, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Blue Dragon, and Batman: Arkham. Strong has earned Annie Award and Daytime Emmy nominations and won an award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Read more
12 Feb 1972: Owen Nolan, Northern Irish-Canadian ice hockey player Owen Liam Nolan is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He was drafted first overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. During his 18-year NHL career, he played for the Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, as well as playing a season with the ZSC Lions of National League A. Born in Belfast, he was raised in Thorold, Ontario and played for Canada internationally. A five-time NHL All-Star, Nolan is widely known as a power forward. Read more
12 Feb 1971: Scott Menville, American voice actor, singer, actor and musician Scott David Menville is an American actor and musician who is known for his work in animated films, television series and video games. He voices Robin in Cartoon Network's Teen Titans (2003–2006) and Teen Titans Go! (2013–present). Read more
12 Feb 1970: Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician James Raymond Creeggan is the bassist for Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. Read more
12 Feb 1970: Bryan Roy, Dutch footballer and manager Bryan Eduard Steven Roy is a Dutch football manager and a former professional player. Read more
12 Feb 1970: Judd Winick, American author and illustrator Judd Winick is an American cartoonist, comic book writer and screenwriter, as well as a former reality television personality. He first gained fame for his stint on MTV's The Real World: San Francisco in 1994, before finding success as a comic book creator with Pedro and Me, an autobiographical graphic novel about his friendship with The Real World castmate and AIDS educator Pedro Zamora. Winick wrote lengthy runs on DC Comics' Green Lantern and Green Arrow series and created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee animated TV series for Cartoon Network, which ran for three seasons. Read more
12 Feb 1969: Darren Aronofsky, American director, producer, and screenwriter Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, dramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological realism. His accolades include a Golden Lion and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and the British Academy Film Award.
Aronofsky studied film and social anthropology at Harvard University before studying directing at the AFI Conservatory. He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, which became a National Student Academy Award finalist. In 1997, he founded the film and TV production company Protozoa Pictures. His feature film debut, the surrealist psychological thriller Pi (1998), earned him the award for Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Read more
12 Feb 1969: Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (died 2014) Alemayehu Atomsa was an Ethiopian politician who served as the president of the Oromia Region, the largest of the country's regions, from 2010 until his resignation due to illness in 2014, from which he died in Bangkok, Thailand, on 6 March 2014. Read more
12 Feb 1969: Steve Backley, English javelin thrower Stephen James Backley, OBE is an English retired track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He formerly held the world record, and his 91.46-metre (300.1 ft) throw from 1992 is the British record. During his career, he was a firm fixture in the British national athletics team. He won four gold medals at the European Championships, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, two silvers and a bronze at the Olympic Games, and two silvers at the World Championships. Currently, he is an occasional commentator for athletics competitions, especially the field events. Read more
12 Feb 1969: Anneli Drecker, Norwegian singer and actress Anneli Marian Drecker is a Norwegian singer and actress from the city of Tromsø. She is the frontwoman for the dream pop band Bel Canto. Read more
12 Feb 1969: Hong Myung-bo, South Korean footballer and manager Hong Myung-bo is a South Korean football manager and former footballer who played as a sweeper. He is currently the manager of the South Korea national team. Read more
12 Feb 1968: Josh Brolin, American actor Josh James Brolin is an American actor. A son of actor James Brolin, he gained fame in his youth for his role in the adventure film The Goonies (1985). After years of decline, Brolin had a resurgence with his starring role in the crime film No Country for Old Men (2007). Brolin received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Dan White in the biopic Milk (2008). Read more
12 Feb 1968: Chynna Phillips, American singer and actress Chynna Gilliam Phillips is an American singer and actress. She is a member of the pop vocal trio Wilson Phillips and is the daughter of the Mamas & the Papas band members John and Michelle Phillips and half-sister of Mackenzie and Bijou Phillips. Read more
12 Feb 1968: Nathan Rees, Australian politician, 41st Premier of New South Wales Nathan Rees is an Australian former politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and leader of the New South Wales Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Toongabbie for Labor from 2007 to 2015. Read more
12 Feb 1966: Greg Carberry, Australian rugby league player Greg Carberry is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. Carberry played for the Illawarra Steelers and Cronulla Sharks in the NSWRL competition. His position of choice was wing. Read more
12 Feb 1966: Paul Crook, American musician, songwriter, and producer Paul Crook is an American guitarist known for recording and performing with Meat Loaf. He has also recorded and toured with Anthrax, Sebastian Bach and Marya Roxx. Read more
12 Feb 1966: Lochlyn Munro, Canadian actor Lochlyn Munro is a Canadian actor. His most notable film roles include A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Scary Movie (2000), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), White Chicks (2004), The Predator (2018) and Cosmic Sin (2021). For television, he is perhaps best known for his roles in the Canadian series Northwood, supernatural drama Charmed, teen drama Riverdale, and the DC comics series Peacemaker (2022). Read more
12 Feb 1965: Rubén Amaro, Jr., American baseball player and manager Rubén Amaro Jr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder, coach and executive. Amaro played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1991 to 1998. He was named the GM of the Philadelphia Phillies on November 3, 2008, succeeding Pat Gillick and remained in that position until September 10, 2015. He was previously the first base coach for the Boston Red Sox (2016–2017) and New York Mets (2018). He is the son of former MLB infielder and coach, Rubén Amaro Sr. Amaro is currently a color commentator on Philadelphia Phillies television broadcasts and a contributor to the 94.1 WIP Morning Show in Philadelphia. He worked as an analyst for a 2024 AL Wild Card Series on ESPN Radio. Read more
12 Feb 1965: Christine Elise, American actress and producer Christine Elise McCarthy, professionally known as Christine Elise, is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles as Emily Valentine in Beverly Hills, 90210 and BH90210, and Kyle in the Child's Play franchise, first appearing in Child's Play 2 (1990) and reprising the role in Cult of Chucky (2017) and the Syfy series Chucky (2021–2024). Read more
12 Feb 1965: Brett Kavanaugh, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Brett Michael Kavanaugh is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since October 6, 2018. He was previously a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2006 to 2018. Read more
12 Feb 1965: David Westlake, English singer-songwriter and guitarist David Westlake is an English singer/songwriter. He led indie band The Servants from 1985 to 1991. Read more
12 Feb 1964: Omar Hakim, American drummer, producer, arranger, and composer Omar Hakim is an American drummer, producer, arranger and composer. His session work covers jazz, jazz fusion, and pop music. He has worked with Weather Report, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Chic, Sting, Madonna, Dire Straits, Bryan Ferry, Journey, Kate Bush, George Benson, Miles Davis, Daft Punk, Mariah Carey, the Pussycat Dolls, David Lee Roth, Celine Dion, and Thundercat. Read more
12 Feb 1964: Raphael Sbarge, American actor and director Raphael Sbarge is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka in The Guardian (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper in Once Upon a Time (2011–18) and Inspector David Molk in the TNT series Murder in the First (2014–16). He is also known for voicing Carth Onasi in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), RC-1262 / "Scorch" in Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005) and Kaidan Alenko in the Mass Effect trilogy (2007–12). Read more
12 Feb 1963: John Michael Higgins, American actor and comedian John Michael Higgins is an American actor, comedian and game show host whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, the role of David Letterman in HBO's The Late Shift, and a starring role in the American version of Kath & Kim. He portrayed Peter Lovett in the TV Land original sitcom Happily Divorced and provided the voice of Iknik Blackstone Varrick in The Legend of Korra and Mini-Max in Big Hero 6: The Series. He also starred in the NBC sitcom Great News as Chuck Pierce for two seasons. From 2018 to 2022, he hosted the game show America Says, which earned him a 2019 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host. Higgins attended Amherst College, graduating in 1985 and was a member of the a cappella group the Zumbyes. From 2023 to 2024, he hosted the new version of the game show Split Second on Game Show Network. Read more
12 Feb 1961: David Graeber, American anthropologist and activist (died 2020) David Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist social and political activist. His influential work in social and economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), The Utopia of Rules (2015), Bullshit Jobs (2018), and The Dawn of Everything (2021), and his leading role in the Occupy movement earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time. Read more
12 Feb 1961: Jim Harris, Canadian environmentalist and politician James R. M. Harris is a Canadian author, environmentalist, and politician. He was leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006, when he was succeeded by Elizabeth May. Read more
12 Feb 1961: Michel Martelly, Haitian singer and politician, 56th President of Haiti Michel Joseph Martelly is a Haitian musician and politician who served as the 47th president of Haiti from 2011 until his resignation in 2016. On 20 August 2024, the United States sanctioned him for trafficking drugs, in particular cocaine, into the United States, and for sponsoring several gangs based in Haiti. Read more
12 Feb 1959: Larry Nance, American basketball player Larry Donnell Nance Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward from Clemson University, Nance played 14 seasons (1981–1994) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers. He was a three-time NBA All-Star. Read more
12 Feb 1958: Bobby Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and executive Robert David Smith is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played for the Minnesota North Stars and Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL). In 184 Stanley Cup playoff games, he record 160 points, which is currently the 25th most in league history. He played in four Stanley Cup Finals and won the 1986 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens. Smith was the majority owner of the Halifax Mooseheads junior hockey team for twenty years until February 2023. Read more
12 Feb 1956: Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host Arsenio Hall is an American comedian, actor and talk show host. He hosted a late-night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show, from 1989 until 1994, and again from 2013 to 2014. Read more
12 Feb 1956: Ad Melkert, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (PvdA) who has served as a Member of the Council of State since 20 January 2016. Read more
12 Feb 1956: Brian Robertson, Scottish musician and songwriter Brian David Robertson is a Scottish rock guitarist, best known as a former member of Thin Lizzy from 1974 to 1978, and Motörhead from 1982 to 1983, replacing Fast Eddie Clarke. Read more
12 Feb 1955: Bill Laswell, American musician and producer William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub, and ambient styles. Read more
12 Feb 1955: Chet Lemon, American baseball player and coach Chester Earl Lemon was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), beginning with the Chicago White Sox in 1975, where he played for six years. He was then traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he played the rest of his career from 1982 to 1990. Read more
12 Feb 1954: Zach Grenier, American actor Zach Grenier is an American actor. He is known for his work with director David Fincher, and his roles as Andy Cramed on the television series Deadwood (2004–06) and David Lee on The Good Wife (2010–16) and its spinoff The Good Fight (2020–22). He has also starred in various Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for 33 Variations. Read more
12 Feb 1954: Joseph Jordania, Georgian-Australian musicologist and academic Joseph Jordania is an Australian–Georgian ethnomusicologist and evolutionary musicologist and professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne and the Head of the Foreign Department of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony at Tbilisi State Conservatory. Jordania is known for his model of the origins of human choral singing in the wide context of human evolution and was one of founders of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony in Georgia. Read more
12 Feb 1954: Tzimis Panousis, Greek comedian, singer, and author (died 2018) Tzimis Panousis was a Greek musician, stand-up comedian and occasional film and theater actor born in Athens, where he spent most of his life. He is often seen as the modern-day Aristophanes. His fans usually refer to him as “Tzimakos”. His first wife was Lili Achladioti with whom he had a son, Aris. He later married Athina Aidini and they had a daughter, Fotini. Read more
12 Feb 1954: Phil Zimmermann, American cryptographer and programmer Philip R. Zimmermann is an American computer scientist and cryptographer. He is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone. Zimmermann is co-founder and Chief Scientist of the global encrypted communications firm Silent Circle. Read more
12 Feb 1953: Joanna Kerns, American actress and director Joanna Kerns is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992. Read more
12 Feb 1952: Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (died 2010) Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale was a British actor, film director, writer, and producer from Ely, England. He spent much of his childhood moving around owing to his father's career as an officer with the Royal Air Force. Poor eyesight prevented him from following a similar career in the RAF, so he instead planned to become a theatre director. Training at Studio 68 of Theatre Arts in London, he started work as an actor, making his West End debut in 1974. He went on to appear in numerous roles in television, including the series I, Claudius and Jesus of Nazareth, before starring as Simon Doyle in the film Death on the Nile (1978). This proved to be a breakthrough role. He appeared in a variety of films and TV series including Quatermass (1979), The Riddle of the Sands (1979), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) and Jaws 3-D (1983). Read more
12 Feb 1952: Michael McDonald, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player Michael H. McDonald is an American singer, keyboardist, and songwriter. Known for his distinctive, soulful voice, he was a backing vocalist for Steely Dan from 1973 to 1980 and the lead vocalist of the Doobie Brothers across various stints. McDonald wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including "What a Fool Believes", "Minute by Minute", "Takin' It to the Streets", "Real Love" and "It Keeps You Runnin'". McDonald has also performed as a prominent backing vocalist on numerous recordings by artists including Steely Dan, Toto, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins. Read more
12 Feb 1950: Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist Angelo Branduardi is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece. Read more
12 Feb 1950: Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Stephen Richard Hackett is an English guitarist who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three live albums, seven singles and one EP before he left to pursue a solo career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. Read more
12 Feb 1950: Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter Frederick Reginald Ironside, known professionally as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor. A prominent character actor with over 270 film and television credits, he is known for playing villains and antiheroes, but has also portrayed sympathetic characters. He is best known for his roles in action and science fiction films, and had his breakthrough performance in the 1981 David Cronenberg film Scanners. Read more
12 Feb 1949: Lenny Randle, American baseball player Leonard Shenoff Randle was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Seattle Mariners from 1971 to 1982. He also played in the Italian Baseball League. The National Baseball Hall of Fame wrote that "Randle may have seen more memorable moments than any other player of his era." Read more
12 Feb 1949: Gundappa Viswanath, Indian cricketer Gundappa Ranganath Viswanath is a former Indian cricketer. Vishwanath is rated as one of India's finest batsmen throughout the 1970s. Viswanath played Test cricket for India from 1969 to 1983, making 91 appearances and scoring more than 6,000 runs. He also played in One Day Internationals from 1974 to 1982, including the World Cups of 1975 and 1979. Read more
12 Feb 1948: Ray Kurzweil, American computer scientist and engineer Raymond Kurzweil is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health technology, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is an advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology. Read more
12 Feb 1948: Nicholas Soames, English politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames, Baron Soames of Fletching, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Sussex from 1997 to 2019, having previously served as the MP for Crawley from 1983 to 1997. Read more
12 Feb 1946: Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Gabonese politician, Prime Minister of Gabon Jean Eyeghé Ndong is a Gabonese politician. He was the Prime Minister of Gabon from January 20, 2006 to July 17, 2009. He was also the First Vice-president of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) until 2009. Read more
12 Feb 1946: Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer-songwriter and actress Ayşe Ajda Pekkan is a Turkish singer. She is known by the title "superstar" in the Turkish media. Pekkan became a prominent figure of Turkish pop music with her songs, in which she tried to create a strong female figure. By keeping her works updated and getting influence from Western elements, she managed to become one of Turkey's modern and enduring icons in different periods. Her musical style has kept her popular for more than 50 years and has inspired many of her successors. Pekkan is highly respected in the music industry and her vocal techniques together with many of her albums were praised by music critics. Read more
12 Feb 1945: Maud Adams, Swedish model and actress Maud Solveig Christina Adams is a Swedish actress and model, best known for her roles as two different Bond girls, first in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and then as the title character in Octopussy (1983). Read more
12 Feb 1945: David D. Friedman, American economist, physicist, and scholar David Director Friedman is an American economist, physicist, and legal scholar. He is known for his textbook writings on microeconomics and the libertarian theory of anarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. Described by Walter Block as a "free-market anarchist" theorist, Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008). Read more
12 Feb 1942: Ehud Barak, Israeli general and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the prime minister and Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party between 1997 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2011. He was also Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2013. Read more
12 Feb 1942: Terry Bisson, American science fiction and fantasy author (died 2024) Terry Ballantine Bisson was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was best known for his short stories, including "Bears Discover Fire", which won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and "They're Made Out of Meat". Read more
12 Feb 1942: Pat Dobson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2006) Patrick Edward Dobson, Jr. was an American right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Detroit Tigers (1967–69), San Diego Padres (1970), Baltimore Orioles (1971–72), Atlanta Braves (1973), New York Yankees (1973–75) and Cleveland Indians (1976–77). He was best known for being one of four Orioles pitchers to win 20 games in their 1971 season. Read more
12 Feb 1941: Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (died 2013) José Domingos de Morais, better known as Dominguinhos, was a Brazilian composer, accordionist and singer. His principal musical influences were the music of Luiz Gonzaga, Forró and in general the music of the Sertão in the Brazilian Northeast. He further developed this typical Brazilian musical style, born out of the European, African and Indian influences in north-eastern Brazil, creating a unique style of Brazilian Popular Music. Read more
12 Feb 1941: Naomi Uemura, Japanese mountaineer and explorer (died 1984) Naomi Uemura was a Japanese adventurer who was known particularly for his solo exploits. For example, he was the first person to reach the North Pole solo, the first person to raft the Amazon River solo, and the first person to climb Denali solo. Read more
12 Feb 1939: Leon Kass, American physician, scientist, and educator Leon Richard Kass is an American physician, biochemist, educator, and public intellectual. Kass is best known as a proponent of liberal arts education via the "Great Books," as a critic of human cloning, life extension, euthanasia and embryo research, and for his tenure as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005. Although Kass is often referred to as a bioethicist, he eschews the term and refers to himself as "an old-fashioned humanist. A humanist is concerned broadly with all aspects of human life, not just the ethical." Read more
12 Feb 1939: Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (died 2013) Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the rock band the Doors, co-founding the group in 1965 with fellow UCLA Film School graduate Jim Morrison. Manzarek is credited for his innovative playing and abilities on organ-style keyboard instruments. Read more
12 Feb 1938: Judy Blume, American author and educator Judith Blume is an American writer of children's, young adult, and adult fiction. She began writing in 1959 and has published more than 26 novels. Among her best-known works are Superfudge (1980), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Deenie (1973), Blubber (1974) and Double Fudge (2002). Blume's books have significantly contributed to children's and young adult literature. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023. Read more
12 Feb 1936: Joe Don Baker, American actor (died 2025) Joe Don Baker was an American actor, known for playing "tough guy" characters on both sides of the law. He established himself as an action star with supporting roles in the Westerns Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and Wild Rovers (1971), before his breakthrough role as real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in the film Walking Tall (1973). Read more
12 Feb 1936: Alan Ebringer, Australian immunologist Alan Martin Ebringer is an Australian immunologist, professor at King's College London. He is also an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist in the Middlesex Hospital, now part of the UCH School of Medicine. He is known for his research in the field of autoimmune disease. Read more
12 Feb 1935: Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2011) Eugene Booker McDaniels was an American singer, producer and songwriter. He had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s, reaching number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and number five with "Tower of Strength", both hits in 1961. He had continued success as a songwriter with "Compared to What". Read more
12 Feb 1934: Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress Annette Crosbie is a Scottish actress. She is best known for her role as Margaret Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990–2000). She twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, for The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 1971 and in 1976 for Edward the Seventh. Read more
12 Feb 1934: Anne Osborn Krueger, American economist and academic Anne Osborn Krueger is an American economist. She was the World Bank Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001 to 2006. She is currently the senior research professor of international economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. She also is a senior fellow of Center for International Development and the Herald L. and Caroline Ritch Emeritus Professor of Sciences and Humanities' Economics Department at Stanford University. Read more
12 Feb 1934: Bill Russell, American basketball player and coach (died 2022) William Felton Russell was an American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that played for 12 NBA championships and won 11 during his 13-year career. Russell is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Read more
12 Feb 1933: Ivan Anikeyev, Soviet cosmonaut (died 1992) Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev was a Soviet cosmonaut who was dismissed from the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons. Read more
12 Feb 1933: Costa-Gavras, Greek-French director and producer Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras, known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thriller Z (1969), which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Missing (1982), for which he won the Palme d'Or and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Most of his films have been made in French, but six have been in English, including Hanna K.. Read more
12 Feb 1932: Axel Jensen, Norwegian author and poet (died 2003) Axel Buchardt Jensen was a Norwegian author. From 1957 until 2002, he published both fiction and non-fiction texts which include novels, poems, essays, a biography, and manuscripts for cartoons and animated films. Read more
12 Feb 1932: Julian Simon, American economist, author, and academic (died 1998) Julian Lincoln Simon was an American economist. He was a professor of economics and business administration at the University of Illinois from 1963 to 1983 before later moving to the University of Maryland, where he taught for the remainder of his academic career. Read more
12 Feb 1931: Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American author and translator (died 2008) Jan Willem Lincoln van de Wetering was the author of a number of works in English and Dutch. Read more
12 Feb 1930: John Doyle, Irish hurler and politician (died 2010) John Doyle was an Irish hurler who played as a left corner-back at senior level for the Tipperary county team. Read more
12 Feb 1930: Arlen Specter, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (died 2012) Arlen Specter was an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican from 1965 until 2009, when he switched back to the Democratic Party. First elected in 1980, he was the longest-serving senator from Pennsylvania, having represented the state for 30 years. Read more
12 Feb 1928: Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (died 2013) Vincent Montana Jr., known as Vince Montana, was an American composer, arranger, vibraphonist, and percussionist. He is best known as a member of MFSB and as the founder of the Salsoul Orchestra. He has been called "the Godfather of disco".
Montana was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016. Read more
12 Feb 1926: Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (died 2014) Rolf Brem was a Swiss sculptor, illustrator and graphic artist. He worked in Meggen close to Lake Lucerne. Read more
12 Feb 1926: Joe Garagiola, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2016) Joseph Henry Garagiola Sr. was an American professional baseball catcher, and later a radio and television personality with a varied career. Read more
12 Feb 1926: Charles Van Doren, American academic (died 2019) Charles Lincoln Van Doren was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the United States Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One. Terminated by NBC, he joined Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1959, becoming a vice-president and writing and editing many books before retiring in 1982. Read more
12 Feb 1925: Anthony Berry, English politician (died 1984) Sir Anthony George Berry was a British Conservative politician. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate and a Whip in Margaret Thatcher's government. Read more
12 Feb 1925: Joan Mitchell, American-French painter (died 1992) Joan Mitchell was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artists in the 1950s. A native of Chicago, she is associated with the American abstract expressionist movement, even though she lived in France for much of her career. Read more
12 Feb 1923: Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director, producer, and politician (died 2019) Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post–World War II era, gaining both acclaim and notoriety for his lavish stagings of classical works, as well as his film adaptations of the same. Read more
12 Feb 1922: Hussein Onn, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Malaysia (died 1990) Hussein bin Onn was a Malaysian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Malaysia from 1976 to 1981. Read more
12 Feb 1920: Raymond Mhlaba, South African anti-apartheid and ANC activist (died 2005) Raymond Mphakamisi Mhlaba OMSG was an anti-apartheid activist, Communist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) who became the first premier of the Eastern Cape. Mhlaba spent 25 years of his life in prison. Well-known for being sentenced with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and others in the Rivonia Trial, he was an active member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) all his adult life. His kindly manner brought him the nickname "Oom Ray”. Read more
12 Feb 1919: Forrest Tucker, American actor (died 1986) Forrest Meredith Tucker was an American actor in movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked in vaudeville as a straight man at the age of fifteen. While he was on a trip to California, party hostess Cobina Wright persuaded guest Wesley Ruggles to give Tucker a screen test because of Tucker's photogenic good looks, thick wavy hair and height of six feet, five inches. Read more
12 Feb 1918: Norman Farberow, American psychologist and academic (died 2015) Norman Louis Farberow was an American psychologist, and one of the founding fathers of modern suicidology. He was among the three founders in 1958 of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, which became a base of research into the causes and prevention of suicide. Read more
12 Feb 1918: Julian Schwinger, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) Julian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Richard Feynman and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". He developed a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and renormalized QED to one loop order. Schwinger was a physics professor at several universities. Read more
12 Feb 1917: Al Cervi, American basketball player and coach (died 2009) Alfred Nicholas Cervi was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). One of the strongest backcourt players of the 1940s and 1950s, he was always assigned to defend against the opposing team's best scoring threat. He earned the nickname "Digger" because of his hard-nosed style of defense. He won the National Basketball League championship in 1946 with the Rochester Royals while being an All-NBL First Team in three straight seasons. He stayed with the NBL with the Syracuse Nationals in 1948, where he became player-coach that same year, which was the last one prior to joining the NBA. In that first year in the NBA, the Nationals won 51 games and reached the Finals, where they lost to the Minneapolis Lakers in six games. Cervi led the team back to the Finals in 1954 and 1955, which each saw the Nationals play in a Game 7; denied in 1954 to Minneapolis, the Nationals won Game 7 in 1955 for their first NBA championship. After twelve games in 1956, Cervi was fired from the Nationals, having coached them to eight postseason appearances in nine seasons. He coached one season with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1958 but elected to leave coaching for more lucrative ventures. Cervi was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985. Read more
12 Feb 1917: Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (died 2009) Dominic Paul DiMaggio, nicknamed "the Little Professor", was an American Major League Baseball center fielder. He played his entire 11-year baseball career for the Boston Red Sox (1940–1953). DiMaggio was the youngest of three brothers who each became major league center fielders, the others being Joe and Vince. Read more
12 Feb 1916: Joseph Alioto, American lawyer and politician, 36th Mayor of San Francisco (died 1998) Joseph Lawrence Alioto was an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976. Read more
12 Feb 1915: Lorne Greene, Canadian-American actor (died 1987) Lorne Hyman Greene was a Canadian actor, singer, and radio personality. His notable television roles include Ben Cartwright on the Western Bonanza and Commander Adama in the original science-fiction television series Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980. He also worked on the Canadian television nature documentary series Lorne Greene's New Wilderness and in television commercials. Read more
12 Feb 1915: Olivia Hooker, American sailor (died 2018) Olivia Juliette Hooker was an American psychologist and professor. She was a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, and the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard. During World War II, she became a member of the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, earning the rank of Yeoman Third Class during her service. She served in the Coast Guard until her unit was disbanded in mid-1946. Hooker then used her G.I. Bill to obtain her master's degree in psychological services and went on earn her PhD in clinical psychology. In 1973, she helped form the American Psychological Association's Division 33: IDD/ASD, which is dedicated to "advancing psychological research, professional education, and clinical services that increase quality of life in individuals with IDD/ASD across the life course." Read more
12 Feb 1914: Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist, and bandleader (died 2000) Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. His band is also associated with the careers of Eydie Gormé, Henry Mancini, and Ronnie Deauville. Beneke also solos on the recording the Glenn Miller Orchestra made of their popular song "In the Mood" and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Jazz critic Will Friedwald considers Beneke to be one of the major blues singers who sang with the big bands of the early 1940s. Read more
12 Feb 1914: Hanna Neumann, German-Canadian mathematician (died 1971) Johanna (Hanna) Neumann was a German-born mathematician who worked on group theory. Read more
12 Feb 1912: R. F. Delderfield, English author and playwright (died 1972) Ronald Frederick Delderfield was an English novelist and dramatist, some of whose works have been adapted for television and film. Read more
12 Feb 1911: Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (died 1994) Charles Mathiesen was a speed skater who was active from 1930 to 1948. Read more
12 Feb 1909: Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter and illustrator (died 2005) Zoran Mušič, baptised as Anton Zoran Musič, was a Slovene painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris in the second half of the 20th century, where he lived for most of his later life. He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, as well as scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and vedute of Venice. Read more
12 Feb 1909: Sigmund Rascher, German physician (died 1945) Sigmund Rascher was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) doctor. He conducted deadly experiments on humans pertaining to high altitude, freezing and blood coagulation under the patronage of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, to whom his wife Karoline "Nini" Diehl had direct connections. When police investigations uncovered that the couple had defrauded the public with their supernatural fertility by 'hiring' and kidnapping babies, she and Rascher were arrested in April 1944. He was accused of financial irregularities, murder of his former lab assistant, and scientific fraud, and brought to Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps before being executed. After his death, the Nuremberg trials judged his experiments as inhumane and criminal. Read more
12 Feb 1908: Jean Effel, French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist (died 1982) Jean Effel, real name François Lejeune, was a French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist. Mostly he considered himself to be a journalist and political commentator. His pseudonym is created by his initials F. L. Read more
12 Feb 1908: Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician and philosopher (died 1931) Jacques Herbrand was a French mathematician. Although he died at age 23, he was already considered one of "the greatest mathematicians of the younger generation" by his professors Helmut Hasse and Richard Courant. Read more
12 Feb 1907: Joseph Kearns, American actor (died 1962) Joseph Sherrard Kearns was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as George Wilson on the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death in 1962. He was also a prolific radio actor, and provided the voice of the Doorknob in the 1951 animated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland. Read more
12 Feb 1904: Ted Mack, American radio and television host (died 1976) William Edward Maguiness was an American radio and television host and musician, best known for hosting Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour. Read more
12 Feb 1903: Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (died 1980) Jorge Alfredo Basadre Grohmann was a Peruvian historian known for his extensive publications about the independent history of his country. He served during two different administrations as Minister of Education and was also director of the Peruvian National Library. Read more
12 Feb 1903: Chick Hafey, American baseball player and manager (died 1973) Charles James "Chick" Hafey was an American player in Major League Baseball (MLB). Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals (1924–1931) and Cincinnati Reds, Hafey was a strong line-drive hitter who batted for a high average on a consistent basis. Read more
12 Feb 1902: William Collier, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 1987) William Collier Jr. was an American stage performer, producer, and a film actor who in the silent and sound eras was cast in no fewer than 89 motion pictures. Read more
12 Feb 1900: Roger J. Traynor, American lawyer and jurist, 23rd Chief Justice of California (died 1983) Roger John Traynor was an American lawyer who served as Chief Justice of California from 1964 to 1970 and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from 1940 to 1964. Traynor had served as a deputy attorney general of California under Earl Warren, and an acting dean and professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Read more
12 Feb 1898: Wallace Ford, English-American actor and singer (died 1966) Wallace Ford was an English–American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique. Read more
12 Feb 1897: Charles Groves Wright Anderson, South African-Australian colonel and politician (died 1988) Lieutenant Colonel Charles Groves Wright Anderson was a South African-born Australian soldier, farmer, and politician. He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross and a member of the Australian House of Representatives. Read more
12 Feb 1897: Lincoln LaPaz, American astronomer and academic (died 1985) Lincoln LaPaz was an American astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a pioneer in the study of meteors. Read more
12 Feb 1895: Kristian Djurhuus, Faroese lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (died 1984) Kristian Djurhuus was a Faroese politician. He was a member of the Union Party. Read more
12 Feb 1893: Omar Bradley, American general (died 1981) Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. He was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy-making in the Korean War. Read more
12 Feb 1889: Bhante Dharmawara, Cambodian monk, lawyer, and judge (died 1999) Samdach Vira Dharmawara Bellong Mahathera, also known simply as Bhante Dharmawara, was a Cambodian-born Theravada monk and teacher who died at the age of 110. Read more
12 Feb 1885: James Scott, American composer (died 1938) James Sylvester Scott was an American ragtime composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. Read more
12 Feb 1885: Julius Streicher, German publisher, founded Der Stürmer (died 1946) Julius Sebastian Streicher was a German publicist, politician and convicted war criminal. A member of the Nazi Party, he served as the Gauleiter of Franconia and a member of the Reichstag, the national legislature. He was the founder and publisher of the virulently antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. The publishing firm was financially very successful and made Streicher a multimillionaire. Read more
12 Feb 1884: Max Beckmann, German painter and sculptor (died 1950) Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s, he was associated with the New Objectivity, an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism. Even when dealing with light subject matter like circus performers, Beckmann often had an undercurrent of moodiness or unease in his works. By the 1930s, his work became more explicit in its horrifying imagery and distorted forms with combination of brutal realism and social criticism, coinciding with the rise of Nazism in Germany. Read more
12 Feb 1884: Johan Laidoner, Estonian-Russian general (died 1953) Johan Laidoner was an Estonian general and statesman. He served as Commander‑in‑Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces during the Estonian War of Independence and was among the most influential people in the Estonian politics between the world wars. Read more
12 Feb 1884: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American author (died 1980) Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and his only child with his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. Longworth led an unconventional and controversial life. Her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth III, a Republican Party leader and the 38th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was shaky, and her only child, Paulina, was from her affair with Senator William Borah. Read more
12 Feb 1884: Marie Vassilieff, Russian-French painter (died 1957) Mariya Ivanovna Vassilieva, gallicised and known in Western sources as Marie Vassilieff, was a Russian-born painter and set designer active in Paris. Read more
12 Feb 1882: Walter Nash, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1968) Sir Walter Nash was a New Zealand politician who served as the 27th prime minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. He is noted for his long period of political service, having been associated with the New Zealand Labour Party since its creation. Read more
12 Feb 1881: Anna Pavlova, Russian-English ballerina and actress (died 1931) Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, being the first ballerina to tour the world, including South America, India, Mexico and Australia. Read more
12 Feb 1880: George Preca, Maltese priest and saint (died 1962) George Franco Preca, T.OCarm was a Maltese Catholic priest, the founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine and a Third Order Carmelite. Pope John Paul II dubbed him "Malta’s second father in faith". Read more
12 Feb 1880: John L. Lewis, American miner and union leader (died 1969) John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as the ninth president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960 and the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which organized millions of industrial workers during the Great Depression, from 1935 to 1940. Lewis was a major figure in the history of coal mining and the American labor movement; his supporters credited him with high wages, pensions, and medical benefits in the mining industry. Throughout his career in the public eye, Lewis was frequently caricatured and came to represent the broader American labor movement. Read more
12 Feb 1877: Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (died 1944) Louis Renault was a French industrialist, one of the founders of Renault, and a pioneer of the automobile industry. Read more
12 Feb 1876: 13th Dalai Lama (died 1933) The 13th Dalai Lama was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet enthroned during a turbulent modern era. He presided during the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and is referred to as "the Great Thirteenth", responsible for redeclaring Tibet's national independence, and for his national reform and modernization initiatives. Read more
12 Feb 1870: Marie Lloyd, English actress and singer (died 1922) Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, professionally known as Marie Lloyd, was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery", "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way" and "Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do". She received both criticism and praise for her use of innuendo and double entendre during her performances, but enjoyed a long and prosperous career, during which she was affectionately called the "Queen of the Music Hall". Read more
12 Feb 1869: Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (died 1884) Kiến Phúc was a child emperor of Vietnam, who reigned for less than 8 months, 1883–1884, as the 7th emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. Read more
12 Feb 1866: Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (died 1938) Lev Isaakovich Shestov, born Yeguda Lev Shvartsman, was a Russian existentialist and religious philosopher. He is best known for his critiques of both philosophical rationalism and positivism. His work advocated a movement beyond reason and metaphysics, arguing that these are incapable of conclusively establishing truth about ultimate problems, including the nature of God or existence. Contemporary scholars have associated his work with the label "anti-philosophy." Read more
12 Feb 1861: Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (died 1937) Lou Andreas-Salomé was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Huguenot-German family. Her diverse intellectual interests led to friendships with a broad array of distinguished thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Paul Rée, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Read more
12 Feb 1857: Eugène Atget, French photographer (died 1927) Eugène Atget was a French flâneur and a pioneer of documentary photography, determined to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization. Most of his photographs were first published by Berenice Abbott after his death. Though he sold his work to artists and craftspeople, and became an inspiration for the surrealists, he did not live to see the wide acclaim his work would eventually receive. Read more
12 Feb 1857: Bobby Peel, English cricketer and coach (died 1943) Robert Peel was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897. Primarily a left-arm spin bowler, Peel was also an effective left-handed batsman who played in the middle order. Between 1884 and 1896, he was regularly selected to represent England, playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets. Over the course of his career, he scored 12,191 runs and took 1,775 wickets in first-class cricket. A match-winning bowler, particularly when conditions favoured his style, Peel generally opened the attack, an orthodox tactic for a spinner at the time, and was highly regarded by critics. Read more
12 Feb 1837: Thomas Moran, British-American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School (died 1926) Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West. Read more
12 Feb 1828: George Meredith, English novelist and poet (died 1909) George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) briefly scandalised Victorian literary circles. Of his later novels, the most enduring is The Egoist (1879), though in his lifetime his greatest success was Diana of the Crossways (1885). His novels were innovative in their attention to characters' psychology, and also portrayed social change. His style, in both poetry and prose, was noted for its syntactic complexity; Oscar Wilde likened it to "chaos illumined by brilliant flashes of lightning". Meredith was an encourager of other novelists, as well as an influence on them; among those to benefit were Robert Louis Stevenson and George Gissing. Meredith was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. Read more
12 Feb 1824: Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher, founded Arya Samaj (died 1883) Dayanand Saraswati born Mool Shankar Tiwari, was a Hindu philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of Hinduism. His book Satyarth Prakash has remained one of the influential texts on the philosophy of the Vedas and clarifications of various ideas and duties of human beings. He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as "India for Indians" in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship, he worked towards reviving Vedic religion. Subsequently, the philosopher and President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, called him one of the "makers of Modern India", as did Sri Aurobindo. Read more
12 Feb 1819: William Wetmore Story, American sculptor, architect, poet and editor (died 1895) William Wetmore Story was an American sculptor, art critic, poet, and editor. Read more
12 Feb 1809: Charles Darwin, English naturalist, geologist, biologist and theorist (died 1882) Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey. Read more
12 Feb 1809: Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and statesman, 16th President of the United States (died 1865) Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery. Read more
12 Feb 1804: Heinrich Lenz, German-Italian physicist and academic (died 1865) Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz, usually cited as Emil Lenz or Heinrich Lenz in some countries, was a Russian physicist of Baltic German descent who is most noted for formulating Lenz's law in electrodynamics in 1834. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 12 February in World History

12 Feb 2022: Ivan Reitman, Slovak-Canadian actor, director, and producer (born 1946) Ivan Reitman was a Canadian film director and producer. He was known for his comedy films, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Reitman was the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 1998. Read more
12 Feb 2020: Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster (born 1951) Christie Marie Blatchford was a Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster. She published four non-fiction books. Read more
12 Feb 2020: Geert Hofstede, Dutch social psychologist (born 1928) Gerard Hendrik (Geert) Hofstede was a Dutch social psychologist, IBM employee, and Professor Emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, well known for his pioneering research on cross-cultural groups and organizations. Read more
12 Feb 2019: Gordon Banks, English footballer (born 1937) Gordon Banks was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional career, and won 73 caps for England, highlighted by starting every game of the nation's 1966 World Cup victory. Read more
12 Feb 2019: Lyndon LaRouche, American political activist (born 1922) Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization, the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy theorist and perennial presidential candidate. He began in far-left politics in the 1940s and later supported the civil rights movement; however, in the 1970s, he moved to the far-right. His movement is sometimes described as, or likened to, a cult. Convicted of fraud, he served five years in prison from 1989 to 1994. Read more
12 Feb 2019: Pedro Morales, Puerto Rican professional wrestler and commentator (born 1942) Pedro Antonio Morales was a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the United States with Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA) and the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Read more
12 Feb 2018: Bill Crider, American author (born 1941) Bill Crider was an American author of crime fiction among other work. Read more
12 Feb 2017: Al Jarreau, American singer (born 1940) Alwin Lopez Jarreau was an American singer. His 1981 album Breakin' Away spent two years on the Billboard 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and R&B sound. The album won Jarreau the 1982 Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In all, he won ten Grammy Awards and was nominated 19 other times during his career. Read more
12 Feb 2017: Anna Marguerite McCann, first female American underwater archaeologist (born 1933) Anna Marguerite McCann was an American art historian and archaeologist. She is known for being an early influencer—and the first American woman—in the field of underwater archaeology, beginning in the 1960s. McCann authored works pertaining to Roman art and Classical archaeology, and taught both art history and archaeology at various universities in the United States. McCann was an active member of the Archaeological Institute of America, and received its Gold Medal Award in 1998. She also published under the name Anna McCann Taggart. Read more
12 Feb 2017: Ren Xinmin, Chinese rocket scientist (born 1915) Ren Xinmin was a Chinese aerospace engineer and a specialist in astronautics and liquid rocket engine technology. He was the technical director of the Long March 1 rocket, which launched the Dong Fang Hong I, China's first satellite, and the chief designer of Chinese storable propellant rocket engine. He was also the chief designer for the Long March 3 launch vehicle, Fengyun, and SJ (Shijian) series satellites. Read more
12 Feb 2016: Dominique D'Onofrio, Italian-Belgian footballer and coach (born 1953) Dominique Nicolas D'Onofrio was an Italian football coach, later chairman. He was born in Castelforte, Italy. Read more
12 Feb 2016: Yannis Kalaitzis, Greek cartoonist (born 1945) Giannis Kalaitzis was a Greek cartoonist known for his editorial cartoons in various Greek daily newspapers. Read more
12 Feb 2016: Yan Su, Chinese general and composer (born 1930) Yan Su was a Chinese playwright and lyricist who served as vice-president of China Theatre Association. He held the civilian rank equivalent to general in the PLA Air Force Political Department Song and Dance Troupe. He was a National Class-A Screenwriter. He was a member of China Writers Association and China Music Copyright Association. He was a visiting professor at Heibei Institute of Communications. Read more
12 Feb 2015: Movita Castaneda, American actress and singer (born 1916) Maria Luisa Castaneda was an American actress and the second wife of actor Marlon Brando. In films, she played exotic women and singers, such as in Flying Down to Rio (1933) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). She was the mother of Miko Castaneda Brando and Rebecca Brando Kotlizky. Read more
12 Feb 2015: Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian cleric and politician, 12th Menteri Besar of Kelantan (born 1931) Nik Abdul Aziz bin Nik Mat was a Malaysian politician and Muslim cleric. He was the Menteri Besar of Kelantan from 1990 to 2013 and the Mursyidul Am or Spiritual Leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) from 1991 until his death in 2015. Overall, his career as an elected politician lasted for some 48 years following his election to the Parliament of Malaysia in 1967. Read more
12 Feb 2015: Gary Owens, American radio host and voice actor (born 1934) Gary Owens was an American disc jockey, voice actor, announcer and radio personality. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Owens was equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and was frequently heard on television and radio as well as in commercials. Read more
12 Feb 2015: Steve Strange, Welsh singer (born 1959) Stephen John Harrington, known professionally as Steve Strange, was a Welsh singer and nightclub host and promoter. Strange began his career in several short-lived punk bands of the late 1970s. Quickly becoming disaffected by the British punk scene, he became one of the most influential figures behind the New Romantic subcultural movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which spawned the Blitz Kids. Read more
12 Feb 2014: Sid Caesar, American actor and comedian (born 1922) Isaac Sidney Caesar was an American comic actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: Your Show of Shows (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor, Caesar's Hour (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. Your Show of Shows and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in Grease (1978) and its sequel Grease 2 (1982) and appeared in the films It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1976), History of the World, Part I (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and Vegas Vacation (1997). Read more
12 Feb 2014: John Pickstone, English historian and author (born 1944) John Victor Pickstone was a British historian of science and the Wellcome Research Professor in the Centre for the History of science, Technology and Medicine, in the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Manchester. Read more
12 Feb 2013: Sattam bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (born 1941) Sattam bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was a Saudi royal and politician who served as the governor of Riyadh Province from November 2011 until his death in February 2013. Before that he was the deputy governor of the province. Read more
12 Feb 2013: Reginald Turnill, English journalist and author (born 1915) Reginald George Turnill was the BBC's aviation correspondent for twenty years during the beginnings of crewed space exploration and the early jet age in aviation, including the breakthrough in supersonic passenger flight represented by Concorde. He covered NASA's space missions and all the Apollo program Moon missions for the BBC. Turnill's connection with the BBC, as a freelance, continued for some years after his official retirement. Read more
12 Feb 2013: Hennadiy Udovenko, Ukrainian politician and diplomat, 2nd Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ukraine (born 1931) Hennadiy Yosypovych Udovenko was a Ukrainian politician and diplomat. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, was the 52nd President of the United Nations General Assembly (1997–1998) and a People's Deputy of Ukraine (1998–2007). He was from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. He studied international relations at Kyiv University, having graduated in 1954. He also did graduate studies in agricultural economics at the Ukrainian Research and the Development Institute for Agricultural Economy and Organization from 1956 to 1959. Read more
12 Feb 2012: Zina Bethune, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (born 1945) Zina Bianca Bethune was an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. She was the daughter of actress Ivy Bethune. Read more
12 Feb 2012: Denis Flannery, Australian rugby player and coach (born 1928) Denis Flannery, also known by the nickname of "Flag Pole", was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An Australian international and Queensland interstate representative winger, he played his club football in the Ipswich Rugby League for the Brothers club. He has been recognised as one of Queensland's greatest ever players Read more
12 Feb 2012: David Kelly, Irish actor (born 1929) David Kelly was an Irish actor who had regular roles in several film and television works from the 1950s onwards. One of the most recognisable voices and faces of Irish stage and screen, Kelly was known for his roles as Rashers Tierney in Strumpet City, Cousin Enda in Me Mammy, the builder Mr O'Reilly in Fawlty Towers, Albert Riddle in Robin's Nest, and Grandpa Joe in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Another notable role was as Michael O'Sullivan in Waking Ned. Read more
12 Feb 2012: John Severin, American illustrator (born 1921) John Powers Severin was an American comics artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, especially its war and Western comics; and for his 45-year stint with the satiric magazine Cracked. He was one of the founding cartoonists of Mad in 1952. Read more
12 Feb 2011: Peter Alexander, Austrian singer and actor (born 1926) Peter Alexander Ferdinand Maximilian Neumayer, commonly known as Peter Alexander, was an Austrian actor, singer and one of the most popular entertainers in the German-language world between the 1950s and his retirement. His fame emerged in the 1950s and 1960s through popular film comedies and successful recordings, predominantly of Schlager and operetta repertory. Later, Alexander established himself as the acclaimed host of television shows. His career as a live singer touring the German language countries lasted until 1991, while he continued his television work until 1996. Read more
12 Feb 2011: Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1919) Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared in several musical films, then returned to Broadway and made guest appearances on several television series. Read more
12 Feb 2011: Kenneth Mars, American actor and comedian (born 1935) Kenneth Mars was an American actor. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also co-starred in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972) as well as appearing in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987) and Shadows and Fog (1991). Read more
12 Feb 2010: Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (born 1988) Nodar Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luge athlete who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony. He became the fourth athlete to die during preparations for a Winter Olympics, and the eighth athlete to die as a result of Olympic competition or during practice at their sport's venue at an Olympic Games. Read more
12 Feb 2009: Colgan Air Flight 3407 victims: Alison Des Forges was an American historian and human rights activist who specialized in the African Great Lakes region, particularly the 1994 Rwandan genocide. At the time of her death, she was a senior advisor for the African continent at Human Rights Watch. She died in a plane crash on 12 February 2009. Read more
12 Feb 2009: Colgan Air Flight 3407 victims: Beverly Eckert was an American activist and advocate for the creation of the 9/11 Commission. She was one of the members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission. Eckert's husband, Sean Rooney, died at age 50 in the attacks of September 11, 2001. She pushed for a commission to investigate 9/11 and to establish a memorial. Read more
12 Feb 2009: Colgan Air Flight 3407 victims: Mat Mathews, born Mathieu Hubert Wijnandts Schwarts, was a Dutch jazz accordionist. Read more
12 Feb 2009: Colgan Air Flight 3407 victims: Coleman Mellett was an American jazz guitarist in Chuck Mangione's band. He had been scheduled to play with Mangione and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on February 13, 2009, but was killed the night before in the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 with band member Gerry Niewood. Read more
12 Feb 2009: Colgan Air Flight 3407 victims: Gerry Niewood, born Gerard Joseph Nevidosky, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist who worked often with Chuck Mangione. Like Mangione, Niewood was born in Rochester, New York, and graduated from the Eastman School of Music. Read more
12 Feb 2008: David Groh, American actor (born 1939) David Lawrence Groh was an American actor best known for his portrayal of Joe Gerard in the 1970s television series Rhoda, opposite Valerie Harper. Read more
12 Feb 2007: Ann Barzel, American writer and dance critic (born 1905) Ann Barzel was an American writer, critic and lecturer on dance. Read more
12 Feb 2007: Peggy Gilbert, American saxophonist and bandleader (born 1905) Peggy Gilbert, born Margaret Fern Knechtges, was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader. Read more
12 Feb 2005: Dorothy Stang, American-Brazilian nun and missionary (born 1931) Dorothy Mae Stang, SNDdeN, was an American-born Brazilian Catholic Religious Sister and missionary. She was murdered in Anapu, Pará, in the Amazon Basin in 2005. Stang had been outspoken in her efforts on behalf of the poor and the environment and had previously received death threats from loggers and landowners. Read more
12 Feb 2002: John Eriksen, Danish footballer (born 1957) John Hartmann Eriksen was a Danish professional footballer who played as a striker. He scored 319 league goals over the course of 15 seasons. He played in four countries, namely his native Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. Eriksen was a Danish international in the 1980s, appearing in the 1986 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1988. Read more
12 Feb 2001: Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-German actress and producer (born 1912) Beata Margareta Kristina Söderbaum was a Swedish-German film actress, film producer, and photographer. She performed in Nazi-era films made by a German state-controlled production company, several of them directed by her husband Veit Harlan. Read more
12 Feb 2000: Tom Landry, American football player and coach (born 1924) Thomas Wade Landry was an American professional football coach, player, and World War II bomber pilot. Regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time, he was the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL), a position he held for 29 seasons. During his coaching career, he created many new formations and methods, such as the now default 4–3 defense that is used by a majority of teams in the NFL, and the "flex defense" system made famous by the "Doomsday Defense" squads he built during his tenure with the Cowboys. His 29 consecutive years from 1960 to 1988 as the coach of one team is an NFL record, along with his 20 consecutive winning seasons, which is considered to be his most impressive professional accomplishment. Read more
12 Feb 2000: Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, created Peanuts (born 1922) Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip Peanuts, featuring the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Read more
12 Feb 1998: Gardner Ackley, American economist and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Italy (born 1915) Hugh Gardner Ackley was an American economist and diplomat. Read more
12 Feb 1995: Philip Taylor Kramer, American bass player (born 1952) Philip Taylor Kramer was an American bass guitar player for the rock group Iron Butterfly and associated groups between 1974 and 1980. He later became a computer engineering executive and inventor. He disappeared in February 1995 and was found dead in May 1999. Read more
12 Feb 1994: Donald Judd, American painter and sculptor (born 1928) Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy. He is generally considered the leading international exponent of "minimalism", and its most important theoretician through such writings as "Specific Objects" (1964). Judd voiced his unorthodox perception of minimalism in Arts Yearbook 8, where he says, "The new three dimensional work doesn't constitute a movement, school, or style. The common aspects are too general and too little common to define a movement. The differences are greater than the similarities." Read more
12 Feb 1992: Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (born 1907) Lambertus "Bep" van Klaveren was a Dutch boxer, who won the gold medal in the featherweight division at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Van Klaveren remains the only Dutch boxer to have won an Olympic gold medal. His younger brother Piet competed as a boxer at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
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12 Feb 1991: Roger Patterson, American bass player (born 1968) Roger Patterson was an American bass player known for his work in the Florida technical death metal band Atheist. His playing style is characterized by its speed and complexity. Alex Webster, bassist with Cannibal Corpse, has acknowledged Patterson as "a big influence", describing his playing on the album Piece of Time as "phenomenal". Read more
12 Feb 1989: Thomas Bernhard, Austrian playwright and author (born 1931) Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian novelist, playwright, poet and polemicist who is considered one of the most important German-language authors of the postwar era. He explored themes of death, isolation, obsession and illness in controversial literature that was pessimistic about the human condition and highly critical of post-war Austrian and European culture. He developed a distinctive prose style often featuring multiple perspectives on characters and events, idiosyncratic vocabulary and punctuation, and long monologues by protagonists on the verge of insanity. Read more
12 Feb 1985: Nicholas Colasanto, American actor and director (born 1924) Nicholas Colasanto was an American actor and television director. He is best known for his role as Ernie Pantusso in the American television sitcom Cheers (1982–1985). Read more
12 Feb 1984: Anna Anderson, Polish-American woman, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (born 1896) Anna Anderson was an impostor who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and Alexandra, was murdered along with her parents and siblings on 17 July 1918 by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg, Russia, but the location of her body was unknown until 2007. Read more
12 Feb 1984: Julio Cortázar, Belgian-Argentinian author and poet (born 1914) Julio Florencio Cortázar was an Argentine and naturalised French novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in America and Europe. Read more
12 Feb 1983: Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (born 1887) James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. Blake began his career in 1912, and during World War I he worked in partnership with the singer, drummer, and comedian Broadway Jones. After the war he began a collaboration with Noble Sissle with whom he wrote Shuffle Along (1921), one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans. When his collaboration with Sissle ended in 1927, he resumed a partnership with Jones which lasted until either 1932 or 1933. He reunited with Sissle briefly for Shuffle Along of 1933, and later the pair worked together in the United Service Organizations during World War II. Blake's compositions included such hits as "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The 1978 Broadway musical Eubie! showcased his works, and in 1981, President Ronald Reagan awarded Blake the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Read more
12 Feb 1982: Victor Jory, Canadian-American actor (born 1902) Victor Jory was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and carpetbagger Jonas Wilkerson in Gone with the Wind (1939). From 1959 to 1961, he had a lead role in the 78-episode television police drama Manhunt. He also recorded numerous stories for Peter Pan Records and was a guest star in dozens of television series as well as a supporting player in dozens of theatrical films, occasionally appearing as the leading man. Read more
12 Feb 1980: Muriel Rukeyser, American poet and activist (born 1913) Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet, essayist, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, and political activist. She wrote across genres and forms, addressing issues related to racial, gender, and class justice, war and war crimes, Jewish culture and diaspora, and American history, politics, and culture. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation." Anne Sexton famously described her as "beautiful Muriel, mother of everyone"; Adrienne Rich wrote that she was “our twentieth-century Coleridge; our Neruda." Read more
12 Feb 1979: Jean Renoir, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1894) Jean Renoir was a French filmmaker, actor, producer and author. His La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. In 2002, he was ranked fourth on the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of the greatest directors. Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the uncle of the cinematographer Claude Renoir. With Claude, he made The River (1951), the first color film shot in India. A lifelong lover of theater, Renoir turned to the stage for The Golden Coach (1952) and French Cancan (1955). He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur; the critic Penelope Gilliatt said a Renoir shot could be identified "in a thousand miles of film." Read more
12 Feb 1977: Herman Dooyeweerd, Dutch philosopher and scholar (born 1894) Herman Dooyeweerd, also spelled Herman Dooijeweerd, was a professor of law and jurisprudence at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam from 1926 to 1965. He was also a philosopher and principal founder of Reformational philosophy, a significant development within the Neo-Calvinist school of thought. Dooyeweerd made several contributions to philosophy and other academic disciplines concerning: the nature of diversity and coherence in everyday experience; the transcendental conditions for theoretical thought; the relationship between religion, philosophy, and scientific theory; and an understanding of meaning, being, time and self. Read more
12 Feb 1976: Frank Stagg, Irish Republican died on hunger strike (born 1941) Frank Stagg was an Irish militant and Republican activist. He was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker from County Mayo, Ireland who died in 1976 in Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, England after 62 days on hunger strike. Stagg was one of 22 Irish republicans to die on hunger strike in the twentieth century. Read more
12 Feb 1976: Sal Mineo, American actor (born 1939) Salvatore Mineo Jr. was an American actor. He was best known for his role as John "Plato" Crawford in the drama film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at age 17, making him the fifth-youngest nominee in the category. Read more
12 Feb 1975: Carl Lutz, Swiss vice-consul to Hungary during WWII, credited with saving over 62,000 Jews (born 1895) Carl Lutz was a Swiss diplomat. He served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the end of World War II. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews during the Second World War in possibly the largest rescue operation of the Holocaust. Read more
12 Feb 1971: James Cash Penney, American businessman and philanthropist, founded J. C. Penney (born 1875) James Cash Penney Jr. was an American businessman and entrepreneur who founded the JCPenney stores in 1902. Read more
12 Feb 1970: Clare Turlay Newberry, American author and illustrator (born 1903) Clare Turlay Newberry was an American writer and illustrator of 17 published children's books, who achieved fame for her drawings of cats, the subject of all but three of her books. Four of her works were named Caldecott Honor Books. Read more
12 Feb 1960: Oskar Anderson, Bulgarian-German mathematician and academic (born 1887) Oskar Johann Viktor Anderson was a Russian-German mathematician of Baltic German descent. He is best known for his work on mathematical statistics and econometrics. Read more
12 Feb 1958: Douglas Hartree, English mathematician and physicist (born 1897) Douglas Rayner Hartree was an English mathematician and physicist most famous for the development of numerical analysis and its application to the Hartree–Fock equations of atomic physics and the construction of a differential analyser using Meccano. Read more
12 Feb 1954: Dziga Vertov, Polish-Russian director and screenwriter (born 1896) Denis Arkadyevich Vertov, better known as Dziga Vertov, was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary movie-making and the Dziga Vertov Group, a radical film-making cooperative which was active from 1968 to 1972. He was a member of the Kinoks collective, with Elizaveta Svilova and Mikhail Kaufman. Read more
12 Feb 1949: Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian educator, founded the Muslim Brotherhood (born 1906) Hassan Ahmed Abd al-Rahman Muhammed al-Banna, known as Hassan al-Banna, was an Egyptian schoolteacher and Imam, best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential global Islamist movements, and for his death at the hands of the Egyptian government. Read more
12 Feb 1947: Moses Gomberg, Ukrainian-American chemist and academic (born 1866) Moses Gomberg was a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and served as president of the American Chemical Society. Read more
12 Feb 1942: Eugene Esmonde, Irish-English lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1909) Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, was a distinguished Irish pilot in the Fleet Air Arm who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awarded to members of Commonwealth forces. Esmonde earned this award while in command of a torpedo bomber squadron in the Second World War – in an action known as Operation Fuller, the 'Channel Dash’. Read more
12 Feb 1942: Avraham Stern, Polish-Israeli militant leader (born 1907) Avraham Stern, alias Yair, was one of the leaders of the Jewish paramilitary organization Irgun. In September 1940, he founded a breakaway militant Zionist group named Lehi, called the "Stern Gang" by the British authorities and by the mainstream in the Yishuv Jewish establishment. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks. Read more
12 Feb 1942: Grant Wood, American painter and academic (born 1891) Grant DeVolson Wood was an American artist and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for American Gothic (1930), which has become an iconic example of early 20th-century American art. Read more
12 Feb 1935: Auguste Escoffier, French chef and author (born 1846) Georges Auguste Escoffier was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoine Carême, one of the codifiers of French haute cuisine; Escoffier's achievement was to simplify and modernise Carême's elaborate and ornate style. In particular, he codified the recipes for the five mother sauces. Referred to by the French press as roi des cuisiniers et cuisinier des rois, Escoffier was a preeminent figure in London and Paris during the 1890s and the early part of the 20th century. Read more
12 Feb 1931: Samad bey Mehmandarov, Azerbaijani-Russian general and politician, 3rd Azerbaijani Minister of Defense (born 1855) Samad bey Sadykh bey oghlu Mehmandarov was an Azerbaijani General of the Artillery in the Russian Imperial Army, a member of the Independence faction of the Parliament of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the Minister of Defense of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and a military figure of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union. Read more
12 Feb 1929: Lillie Langtry, English singer and actress (born 1853) Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe, known as Lillie Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer. Read more
12 Feb 1916: Richard Dedekind, German mathematician, philosopher, and academic (born 1831) Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind was a German mathematician who made important contributions to number theory, abstract algebra, and the axiomatic foundations of arithmetic. His best known contribution is the definition of real numbers through the notion of Dedekind cut. He is also considered a pioneer in the development of modern set theory and of the philosophy of mathematics known as logicism. Read more
12 Feb 1915: Émile Waldteufel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1837) Charles Émile Waldteufel was a French composer, pianist, and conductor known for his numerous popular salon pieces. Among his best known works is "Les Patineurs" (1882), known as "The Skater's Waltz". Read more
12 Feb 1912: Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian physician (born 1841) Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen was a Norwegian physician, remembered for his identification of the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae in 1873 as the etiologic agent of leprosy. His distinguished work was recognized at the International Leprosy Congress held at Bergen in 1909. Read more
12 Feb 1896: Ambroise Thomas, French composer and academic (born 1811) Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868). Read more
12 Feb 1894: Hans von Bülow, German pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1830) Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States. Read more
12 Feb 1886: Randolph Caldecott, English-American painter and illustrator (born 1846) Randolph Caldecott was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honour. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognised by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced illustration of children's books during the nineteenth century. Two books illustrated by him, priced at a shilling each, were published every Christmas for eight years. Read more
12 Feb 1834: Friedrich Schleiermacher, German philosopher and scholar (born 1768) Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was a German Reformed theologian, pastor, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity. He also became influential in the evolution of higher criticism, and his work forms part of the foundation of the modern field of hermeneutics. Because of his profound effect on subsequent Christian thought, he is often called the "Father of Modern Liberal Theology" and is considered an early leader in liberal Christianity. The neo-orthodoxy movement of the twentieth century, typically seen to be spearheaded by Karl Barth, was in many ways an attempt to challenge his influence. As a philosopher he was a leader of German Romanticism. Read more
12 Feb 1804: Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (born 1724) Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher. Born in Königsberg in the Kingdom of Prussia, he is considered one of the central thinkers of the Enlightenment. His comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential and highly discussed figures in modern Western philosophy. Read more

Why is 12 February Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 12 February, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 12 February in World history?

On 12 February, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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