Today in History February 12

881 – Pope John VIII crowns Charles the Fat, the King of Italy: Holy Roman Emperor

1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, on his second voyage to India.

1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.

1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galбpagos Islands.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) is founded.

1912 – The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.

1924 – George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music”, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.

1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.

1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.

1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch’s iconic painting The Scream.

1999 – President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

AD 41 – Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (d. 55)

1218 – Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shogun (d. 1256)

1606 – John Winthrop the Younger, English-American lawyer and politician, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)

1791 – Peter Cooper, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union (d. 1883)

Charles Darwin

1809 – Charles Darwin, English geologist and theorist (d. 1882)

1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)

1857 – Eugene Atget, French photographer (d. 1927)

1877 – Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (d. 1944)

1904 – Ted Mack, American radio and television host (d. 1976)

1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director, producer, and politician

1938 – Judy Blume, Jewish-American author and educator

1554 – Lady Jane Grey, de facto monarch of England and Ireland for nine days (b. 1537)

1804 – Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1724)

1942 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (b. 1891)

1971 – James Cash Penney, American businessman and philanthropist, founded J. C. Penney (b. 1875)

1994 – Donald Judd, American painter and sculptor (b. 1928)

2000 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, created Peanuts (b. 1922)

2014 – Sid Caesar, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)