On this day: August 12th

On this day: August 12th

There are many and several events on this day in history. Read and discover what happened on this day: On this day: August 12th

On this day: August 12th

Events  On this day: August 12th

• 1676: King Philip’s War ended with the assassination of Metacom, leader of the Pokanokets, a tribe within the Wampanoag Indian Federation. Nicknamed ‘King Philip’ by colonists, he led a Native American uprising against white settlers that resulted in a war that raged for nearly two years, now known as King Philip’s War.
• 1851: The sewing machine is patented by Isaac Singer.
• 1877: Mars’ moon Deimos is discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. The discovery took place at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Deimos is one of two natural satellites of Mars. The other moon, Phobos, was also discovered by Hall and is the bigger satellite of the two. Phobos is also closer to Mars than Deimos is.
• 1883: The last quagga dies in captivity at the Natura Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam. A native of South Africa, quaggas were a kind of zebra that had stripes only on the front part of their bodies. They were driven into extinction through human activity and excessive hunting for their skin and meat.
• 1898: The Spanish-American War comes to an end.
• 1908: The First Model T Ford comes off the assembly line.
• 1960: The first communications satellite, Echo I, is launched into space.
• 1976: About 3,000 refugees are killed during a massacre at a Palestinian refugee camp. The UN-run Tel al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp in the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, had been sieged by members of a right-wing extremist group called the Phalange during the Lebanese civil war.
• 1981: The IBM Personal Computer is stocked in stores for the first time. Known as the IBM PC or the IBM 5150, the computer had no disk drives and sold for about $1500.
• 1990: The most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever found is discovered in South Dakota.

Birthdays On this day: August 12th

• 1503: Christian III (King of Denmark and Norway)
• 1762: George IV (King of England)
• 1881: Cecil B. DeMille (Director)
• 1924: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Pakistani politician, 6th President of Pakistan)
• 1930: George Soros (Hungarian/American businessman, financier, philanthropist)
• 1939: George Hamilton (Actor)
• 1949: Mark Knopfler (English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, composer)
• 1971: Rebecca Gayheart (Actress)
• 1971: Pete Sampras (Tennis Player)
• 1983: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Dutch footballer)
• 1990: Mario Balotelli (Italian footballer)

Deaths On this day: August 12th

• 1827: William Blake (English poet, painter)
• 1900: Wilhelm Steinitz (Austrian/American chess player)
• 1964: Ian Fleming (English journalist, author)
• 1982: Henry Fonda (American actor, singer, producer)
• 1992: John Cage (American composer)

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