What important event happened on February 12th? My parents will tell you that the most important thing that happened in their world on this date was me. Yep. It’s my birthday.
This is me at 15 months. I don’t have a good quality newborn photo.
I was born in the wee hours of the morning to my wonderful parents, young and handsome, Ray, and younger and very pretty, Bette, in a small town in central Utah. My uncle Dean wanted them to name me Abby Lynn since it is also the birthdate of Abraham Lincoln, and he always called me that when I was young even though it’s not my name. In fact, he still calls me Abby Lynn when I see him.
When I was thinking about today, I started wondering what else happened on this date. I remember a long time ago I received a birthday card listing some eventful trivia that occurred, but I don’t remember any of them so I did a computer search and here is a bit of what I learned.
1541 – Santiago, Chili is founded by Pedro de Valdivia
1709 – Alexander Selkirk, Scottish seaman, is rescued after 4+ years from Fernandez Island {inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”}
1733 – The 13th U.S. colony of Georgia was founded by Englishman James Oglethorpe
1809 – Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky
1818 – Chili gains independence from Spain
1850 – George Washington’s original Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300
1855 – Michigan State University was established
1870 – Women residents of the Utah Territory are granted the right to vote
1874 – King David Kalakaua, of Sandwich Island Hawaii, is the first king to visit the United States
1876 – Al Spalding opens his sporting goods store
1877 – The first news dispatch by telephone, between Boston and Salem, Mass.
1878 – Frederick Thayer patents the catcher’s mask
1879 – Artificial ice is created at Madison Square Garden, the first artificial ice rink in North America
1892 – President Lincoln’s birthday is declared a national holiday
1909 – NAACP was formed
1912 – China becomes a republic, after centuries of rule by an emperor
1914 – In Washington D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place
1915 – The cornerstone was laid for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
1924 – George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” premieres at Carnegie Hall
1924 – Calvin Coolidge is the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio
1948 – 1st Lt Nancy Leftenant becomes the first black woman in the army nursing corps
1949 – “Annie Get Your Gun” closes at the Imperial Theater, NYC, after 1147 performances
1949 – Canadian ice hockey team beats Denmark 47-0
1950 – Senator Joe McCarthy claims to have a list a 205 communist government employees
1953 – USSR breaks relations with Israel
1955 – The McGuire Sisters’ “Sincerely” single goes to #1 and stays #1 for ten weeks
1955 – President Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam
1961 – The first spacecraft to the planet Venus was launched by the USSR
1964 – The Beatles had their first NYC concert at Carnegie Hall
1964 – U.S. figure skating championships were won by Peggy Fleming and Scott Allen
1970 – A three month old baby received Canada’s first successful liver transplant at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Hospital
1973 – The first American POWs in North Vietnam are released
1984 – Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean skate “Bolero” at the Olympics and receive all perfect scores for quality and the gold medal
1998 – A 250-car pile-up in Italy, due to fog
1998 – Intel unveils its first graphics chip i740
1999 – American Airlines pilots defy a federal court order and continue their sickout, causing the airline to cancel over a thousand flights
2000 – Dallas Cowboys coach, Tom Landry, dies at age 75 after battling leukemia for nine months
2000 – Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz dies of colon cancer at age 77
2006 – A powerful Nor’easter Blizzard blankets the Northeastern United States dumping 1-2 feet of snow from Washington D.C. up to Boston, Massachusetts. The storm dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow in NYC
Some pretty important things happened on this date ~ maybe not as well-remembered and/or earth shattering as what happened on my husband’s birthdate {April 14} ~ the Titanic hit the iceberg and Lincoln was shot, but still important and fun to know. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to remember some of them better now that I have read them and typed them!
Besides your birth, what happened on your day?
~ Lori
Have the best day ever.
[post_comments}
Happy Birthday Lori!
Thank you, Jeanie. Happy birthday wishes make getting older easier to embrace.
Happy Birthday, yesterday!! I hope it was absolutely wonderful.
And I love learning new facts about what happened on certain days. And yay for good ol’ James founding my home state of Georgia on Feb. 12th. I miss that place
Thank you, Rachel, for the happy birthday wish. My day was wonderful. I love your blog but couldn’t figure out how to leave a comment.
Love this! Thank you for sharing
I’d say February 12th was a pretty good day 
It was a good day, wasn’t it? Thanks for checking it out.
Happy belated birthday, Lori!!!
Thank you, Haley.
What a fun post, Lori! I hope you had a great birthday.
Thank you, Heidi, for the good birthday wish. My day was wonderful.