On September 12th...

Links will open in a new window.

1635 Sweden and Poland signed the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf.

1733 Polish landowners selected Stanislaw Lesczynski as their king.

1813 Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney General of the United States, died.

1818 Inventor Richard Jordan Gatling was born.

1847 U.S. forces led by General Winfield Scott defeated the Mexican army of General Antonio L. de Santa Anna at Chapultepec.

1848 Switzerland became a federal state.

1857 The Central America sank off Cape Romain, South Carolina, killing 423 persons.

1858 Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the New York Times, was born.

1869 Thesaurus publisher Peter Mark Roget died.

1880 Journalist Henry Louis Mencken was born.

1890 Cecil Rhodes' colonists founded Fort Salisbury.

1892 Publisher Alfred A. Knopf was born.

1895 The U.S. yacht Defender defeated the English yacht Valkyrie III for the America's Cup.

1897 Chemist Irène Joliot-Curie was born.

1902 Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, President of Brazil, was born.

1910 Alice Stebbins Wells became the first female police officer in the United States, in Los Angeles, California.

1913 Jesse Owens, Olympic track star, was born.

1923 The British government took control of Southern Rhodesia from the British South Africa Company.

1940 The Lascaux Cave Paintings were discovered.

1944 Singer Barry White was born.

1949 Theodor Heuss was elected the first President of the German Federal Republic.

1953 John Fitzgerald Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

1956 Auto racer Ricky Rudd was born.

1958 The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Little Rock (Arkansas) High School to integrate.
1958 Jack Kilby demonstrated his integrated circuit at Texas Instruments.
1958 Virginia Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., closed the Warren County High School to prevent its integration.
1958 Sixty-nine blacks were enrolled at Louisiana State University's New Orleans branch.
1958 The Liberian tanker Melika collided with the French tanker Fernand-Gilabert in the Gulf of Oman; killing 22 seamen.

1959 The Soviet Union launched Lunik II on a collision course for the Moon.
1959 "Bonanza" premiered on NBC-TV.

1962 President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.

1964 Canyonlands National Park was established.
1964 The New York Jets defeated the Denver Broncos 30-6 in the first ever football game at Shea Stadium.

1966 Gemini 11 was launched.
1966 "Monkees" premiered on NBC-TV.

1970 Palestinian terrorists blew up three hijacked airliners in Jordan.
1970 Phyllis Ann George, Miss Texas, was crowned Miss America.

1974 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was overthrown in a coup.

1977 Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died in police custody.

1978 "Taxi" premiered on ABC-TV.
1978 Singer Ruben Studdard was born.

1979 Hurricane Frederick struck Mobile, Alabama, killing 5 persons and causing $23 million in damage.

1981 Elizabeth Ward, Miss Arkansas, was crowned Miss America.

1980 Basketball player Yao Ming was born.

1984 Ethiopia formed a socialist republic.
1984 Country singer Barbara Mandrell was seriously injured in a car accident.

1986 U.S. professor Joseph Cicippio was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon.

1987 Ethiopia adopted a new constitution.

1988 Hurricane Gilbert struck Jamaica.

1990 The United States, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union, and East and West Germany signed agreements allowing the two Germanys to reunite.

1992 Hurricane Inuki struck Hawaii.
1992 Mae Jemison became the first black American woman to go into space, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor.
1992 Actor Anthony Perkins died.

1993 Actor Raymond Burr died.

1994 Frank Eugene Corder crashed a Cessna plane into the south lawn of the White House.

2003 Singer Johnny Cash died.

2005 Disneyland Hong Kong opened.

Questions or comments about this page?

This page was last updated on October 06, 2018.