This Day in History

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July 12

Today is The Twelfth, in Northern Ireland.

1543 – King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.

1561 – Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is consecrated.

1776 – Captain James Cook begins his third voyage.

1789 – In response to the dismissal of the French finance minister Jacques Necker, the radical journalist Camille Desmoulins gives a speech which results in the storming of the Bastille two days later.

1804 – Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton dies a day after being shot in a duel.

1862 – The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress.

1962 – The Rolling Stones perform their first concert, at the Marquee Club in London.

1963 – Pauline Reade, who was 16 years old, disappears on her way to a dance at the British Railways Club in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders.

1973 – A fire destroys the entire sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States.

1989 – Lotte World Adventure opened in Seoul, South Korea.

2007 – U.S. Army Apache helicopters perform airstrikes in Baghdad, Iraq; footage from the cockpit is later leaked to the Internet.

2012 - Pollstar magazine announced that former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters had grossed $158.1 million in concert ticket sales worldwide so far this year with The Wall Live show.

Births

1730 – Josiah Wedgwood (Wedgwood china); 1817 – Henry David Thoreau; 1854 – George Eastman (founded Eastman Kodak); 1880 – Tod Browning; 1884 – Louis B. Mayer (co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer); 1895 – Buckminster Fuller, Oscar Hammerstein II; 1908 – Milton Berle; 1909 – Joe DeRita ('Curly Joe' (not to be confusede with 'Curly') from The Three Stooges); 1917 – Andrew Wyeth; 1929 – Monte Hellman (directed Two Lane Blacktop); 1933 – Donald E. Westlake; 1934 – Van Cliburn; 1937 – Bill Cosby; 1941 – Benny Parsons; 1943 – Christine McVie; 1948 – Walter Egan("Magnet And Steel"), Richard Simmons; 1949 – Rick Hendrick (NASCAR Team owner); 1950 – Eric Carr; 1951 – Cheryl Ladd; 1951 – Jamey Sheridan; 1952 – Philip Taylor Kramer; 1956 – Mel Harris, Sandi Patty; 1957 – Rick Husband; 1962 – Julio César Chávez; 1971 – Kristi Yamaguchi; 1977 – Brock Lesnar

Deaths

1804 – Alexander Hamilton; 1849 – Dolley Madison; 1892 – Alexander Cartwright (invented baseball); 1910 – Charles Rolls (co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited); 1934 – Ole Evinrude (invented the outboard motor); 1935 – Alfred Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair); 1944 – Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.; 1973 – Lon Chaney, Jr.; 1979 – Minnie Riperton; 1996 – John Chancellor; 1998 – Jimmy Driftwood; 2010 – Harvey Pekar; 2011 – Sherwood Schwartz; 2013 – Amar Bose (founded the Bose Corporation)