September 12 September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years). There are 110 days remaining. Events 400-1899 490 BC - Athens defeats Persia at the Battle of Marathon 1213 - Peter II of Aragon, the king of Aragon, died at the Battle of Muret. 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River 1683 - Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna - Several European armies joined forces to defeat the Ottoman Empire. 1846 - Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning. 1847 - Battle of Chapultepec 1890 - Salisbury, Rhodesia is founded. 1900-1999 1933 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction. 1938 - Adolf Hitler demands autonomy for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia 1940 - Cave paintings discovered in Lascaux, France 1940 - The Hercules Munitions Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people. 1942 - RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks. 1943 - Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest by German commando Otto Skorzeny 1947 - Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1953 - John F. Kennedy marries Jackie Bouvier 1957 - NORAD began operations. 1959 - Bonanza premiers. First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color 1962 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade 1974 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the Rastafarian 'Messiah', is deposed following a military coup by the Derg. 1980 - Military coup in Turkey 1983 - A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut was robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros 1990 - The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German re-unification. 1992 - Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African-American woman in space 1992 - Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, was captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well. 1994 - The Netscape web browser is released. 2000-2099 2001 - NATO Article V of the NATO agreement is invoked for the first time in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States of America. 2003 - During the Ontario general election, 2003, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party issued a press release that called the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party an "Evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet". 2003 - The United Nations lifted sanctions against Libya after Libya agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Births 1400-1899 1449 - Lorenzo de Medici, Italian politician (d. 1492) 1812 - Richard Hoe, inventor, industrialist (d. 1886) 1818 - Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun (d. 1903) 1880 - H. L. Mencken, journalist, author (d. 1956) 1888 - Maurice Chevalier, singer, actor (d. 1972) 1891 - Don Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate for Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965) 1892 - Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher (d. 1984) 1897 - Irene Joliot-Curie, scientist (d. 1956) 1900-1999 1901 - Ben Blue, vaudeville star (d. 1975) 1902 - Margaret Hamilton, actress (d. 1985) 1912 - Jacques Fath, French couturier (d. 1954) 1913 - Jesse Owens, athlete (d. 1980) 1914 - Desmond Llewelyn, actor (d. 1999) 1915 - Frank McGee, journalist (d. 1974) 1916 - Tony Bettenhausen, race car driver (d. 1961) 1921 - Stanislaw Lem, science fiction writer 1931 - Sir Ian Holm, actor 1931 - George Jones, country music singer 1934 - Glenn Davis, Olympic Games track and field gold medalist 1937 - George Chuvalo, Croatian - Canadian boxing champion 1940 - Mickey Lolich, baseball pitcher 1943 - Maria Muldaur, singer 1943 - Michael Ondaatje, author and poet 1944 - Barry White, singer (d. 2003) 1951 - Joe Pantoliano, actor (The Matrix, The Sopranos) 1952 - Neil Peart, musician 1954 - Peter Scolari, actor 1956 - Ricky Rudd, NASCAR race car driver 1957 - Rachel Ward, actress 1958 - Wilfredo Benitez, three time world champion boxer 1966 - Ben Folds, musician 1973 - Paul Walker, actor 1973 - Darren Campbell, British athlete 1978 - Ruben Studdard, winner of the second American Idol 1980 - Yao Ming, Chinese NBA star 1980 - Sean Burroughs, Major league baseball player Deaths 1200-1899 1213 - King Peter II of Aragon 1362 - Pope Innocent VI 1764 - Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer 1900-1999 1918 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia 1927 - Sarah Frances Whiting, physicist and astronomer (b. 1847) 1968 - Tommy Armour, golfer (b. 1894) 1972 - William Boyd, actor 1977 - Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist 1992 - Anthony Perkins, actor 1993 - Willie Mosconi, billiards champion 1993 - Raymond Burr, actor 1994 - Tom Ewell, actor 1994 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut 2000-2099 2003 - Johnny Cash, country music singer and guitarist 2003 - John Ritter, American actor Holidays and observances National Day in Cape Verde September 11 - September 13 - August 12 - October 12 -- listing of all days FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. 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