Geraldine Ferraro Speaking at Podium

1984

Geraldine Ferraro named vice presidential candidate

Born on This Day

George Eastman of Eastman Kodak Company

George Eastman

1854 - 1932

Founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, whose invention of roll film popularized amateur photography for the masses.

Los Angeles Premiere Of Apple Original Films' "Bread & Roses" - Arrivals

Malala Yousafzai

1997 -

Pakistani activist who survived an assassination attempt, championed girls' education and won the Nobel Peace Prize.

LITERATURE-NERUDA

Pablo Neruda

1904 - 1973

Chilean poet, diplomat and Nobel Prize winner whose best known work is "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair."

1543

JUL

12

After having his fifth wife beheaded, England's King Henry VIII marries Katherine (or Catherine) Parr, his sixth and final wife. She survives him in 1547, head still attached, and remarries later that year.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on July 12th

1389

Geoffrey Chaucer is named chief clerk by Richard II

King Richard II appoints Geoffrey Chaucer to the position of clerk of the king’s works in Westminster on July 12, 1389. Chaucer, the middle-class son of a wine merchant, served as a page in an aristocratic household during his teens and was associated with the aristocracy for the rest of his life. In 1359, he […]

1861

Confederacy signs treaties with Choctaw and Chickasaw nations

Special commissioner Albert Pike completes treaties with the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, giving the new Confederate States of America several allies in Indian Territory. Some members of the tribes also fought for the Confederacy. A Boston native, Pike went west in 1831 and traveled with fur trappers and traders. He settled in […]

1861

Wild Bill Hickok’s first gunfight

Wild Bill Hickok begins to establish his reputation as a gunfighter after he shoots three men during a shootout in Nebraska. Born in Homer (later called Troy Grove), Illinois, James Butler Hickok moved to Kansas in 1855 at the age of 18. There he filed a homestead claim, took odd jobs, and began calling himself […]

1862

Medal of Honor created

President Abraham Lincoln signs into law a measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal of Honor, in the name of Congress, “to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection.” The previous December, Lincoln had approved a […]

1933

First Dymaxion car produced

The first three-wheeled, multi-directional Dymaxion car—designed by the architect, engineer and philosopher Buckminster Fuller—is manufactured in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on July 12, 1933. Born in Massachusetts in 1895, Fuller set out to live his life as (in his own words) “an experiment to find what a single individual can contribute to changing the world and benefiting […]

1943

Russians halt German advance in a decisive battle at Kursk

On July 12, 1943, one of the greatest clashes of armor in military history takes place as the German offensive against the Russian fortification at Kursk, a Russian railway and industrial center, is stopped in a devastating battle, marking the turning point in the Eastern front in the Russians’ favor. The Germans had been driven […]

1957

Eisenhower takes first presidential ride in a helicopter

On July 12, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first president to ride in the newest advance in aviation technology: the helicopter. Although experimental military helicopters had been tested since 1947, it was not until 10 years later that a president considered using the new machine for short, official trips to and from the White […]

1963

The Moors Murderers begin their killing spree

Sixteen-year-old Pauline Reade is abducted while on her way to a dance near her home in Gorton, England, by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the so-called “Moors Murderers,” launching a crime spree that will last for over two years. Reade’s body was not discovered until 1987, after Brady confessed to the murder during an interview […]

1965

First Marine to receive posthumous Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam is killed

U.S.M.C. Lieutenant Frank S. Reasoner—who became the first Marine awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor posthumously for action in Vietnam—is killed by enemy fire on July 12, 1965. He was the second Marine overall to be awarded the nation’s highest award for valor during the Vietnam War. Reasoner and his battalion had been on a sweep of a suspected […]

1979

Disco is dealt death blow by fans of the Chicago White Sox

As the 1970s came to an end, the age of disco was also nearing its finale. But the public backlash to the genre reached its peak on July 12, 1979 with the infamous “Disco Demolition” night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. That incident, which led to at least nine injuries, 39 arrests and the cancellation and […]

1990

Boris Yeltsin resigns from Communist Party

Just two days after Mikhail Gorbachev was re-elected head of the Soviet Communist Party, Boris Yeltsin, president of the Republic of Russia, announces his resignation from the Party. Yeltsin’s action was a serious blow to Gorbachev’s efforts to keep the struggling Soviet Union together.  In July 1990, Soviet Communist Party leaders met in a congress […]

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