History of 12 July
1912 – The first foreign-made film to premiere in America, “Queen Elizabeth”, was shown.
1931 – A major league baseball record for doubles was set as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs combined for a total of 23.
1933 – A minimum wage of 40 cents an hour was established in the U.S.
1941 – Moscow was bombed by the German Luftwaffe for the first time.
1946 – “The Adventures of Sam Spade” was heard on ABC radio for the first time.
1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a highway modernization program, with costs to be shared by federal and state governments.
1954 – The Major League Baseball Players Association was organized in Cleveland, OH.
1957 – The U.S. surgeon general, Leroy E. Burney, reported that there was a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
1960 – Manufacturing began for the Etch A Sketch®.
1974 – John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Nixon, and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg’s former psychiatrist.
1982 – “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” broke all box-office records by surpassing the $100-million mark of ticket sales in the first 31 days of its opening.
1982 – The last of the distinctive-looking Checker taxicabs rolled off the assembly line in Kalamazoo, MI.
1984 – Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate. Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.
1990 – Russian republic president Boris N. Yeltsin announced his resignation from the Soviet Communist Party.
1998 – 1.7 billion people watched soccer’s World Cup finals between France and Brazil. France won 3-0.
1999 – Walt Disney Co. announced that it was merging all of its Internet operations together with Infoseek into Go.com.
Disney movies, music, and books
2000 – Russia launched the Zvezda after two years of delays. The module was built to be the living quarters for the International Space Station (ISS.)
2000 – The movie “X-Men” premiered in New York.
2006 – The 2006 Lebanon War begins.
2007 – U.S. Army Apache helicopters perform airstrikes in Baghdad, Iraq; footage from the cockpit is later leaked to the Internet.
2012 – Syrian Civil War: Government forces target the homes of rebels and activists in Tremseh and kill anywhere between 68 and 150 people.
2012 – A tank truck explosion kills more than 100 people in Okobie, Nigeria.
2013 – Six people are killed and 200 injured in a French passenger train derailment in Brétigny-Sur-Orge.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Adrienne Camp, South African singer-songwriter
- 1981 – Pradeepan Raveendran, Sri Lankan director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1982 – Antonio Cassano, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Gareth Gates, English singer-songwriter
- 1984 – Jonathan Lewis, American football player
- 1984 – Natalie Martinez, American actress
- 1984 – Michael McGovern, Irish footballer
- 1984 – Sami Zayn, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1985 – Paulo Vitor Barreto, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Gianluca Curci, Italian footballer
- 1985 – Keven Lacombe, Canadian cyclist
- 1985 – Ismael Londt, Surinamese-Dutch kickboxer
- 1986 – 360, Australian rapper
- 1986 – Didier Digard, French footballer
- 1986 – Hannaliis Jaadla, Estonian footballer
- 1986 – JP Pietersen, South African rugby player
- 1986 – Simone Laudehr, German footballer
- 1988 – LeSean McCoy, American football player
- 1988 – Inbee Park, South Korean golfer
- 1989 – Nick Palmieri, American ice hockey player
- 1990 – Bebé, Portuguese footballer
- 1990 – Chasen Shreve, American baseball player
- 1991 – Salih Dursun, Turkish footballer
- 1991 – James Rodríguez, Colombian footballer
- 1992 – Bartosz Bereszyński, Polish footballer
- 1993 – Kurt Capewell, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – Kanako Momota, Japanese singer-songwriter
- 1995 – Luke Shaw, English footballer
- 1995 – Jordyn Wieber, American gymnast
- 1996 – Moussa Dembélé, French footballer
- 1996 – Jordan Romero, American mountaineer
- 1997 – Daniel Lawrence, English cricketer
- 1997 – Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani-English activist, Nobel Prize laureate