What happened on February 12 ?

1354 - Treaty of Stralsund settles border disputes between the duchies of Mecklenburg and Pomerania.

1429 - English Forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orleans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and John Stuart in the Battle of Rouvray (also known as the Battle of the Herrings).

1541 - Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.

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

1689 - The Convention Parliament convenes and declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.

1719 - The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded.

1733 - Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13th and final American colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah.

1737 - The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated.

1771 - Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden when his father Adolf Frederick "[eats] himself to death".

1817 - Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeat Spanish troops on the battle of Chacabuco.

1818 - Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción.

1825 - The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.

1832 - Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.

1870 - Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.

1879 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.

1892 - Former President Abraham Lincoln's birthday is declared a national holiday in the United States.

1894 - Anarchist Emile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.

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

1912 - Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.

1912 - China adopts the Gregorian calendar.

1915 - In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.

1924 - Premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman's Palais Royal Orchestra in Aeolian Hall in New York City

1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.

1934 - The Austrian Civil War begins.

1934 - The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.

1934 - In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista is inaugurated. The council decides to merge the movement with the Falange Española.

1946 - Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.

1951 - Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari marries the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi at Golestan Palace in Teheran at the age of 17.

1966 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, announced famous Six Points in Karachi as election manifesto of Awami League that later led to formation of Bangladesh.

1973 - Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in SI units on signs.

1973 - Vietnam War: The first American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.

1997 - Hwang Jang-yop, a secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and a prime architect of North Korea's Juche doctrine, defects at the South Korean embassy in Beijing.

1998 - The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by United States federal judge.

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

2001 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

2002 - The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milo?evi? begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Milo?evi? eventually dies before its conclusion.

2002 - Nuclear waste: US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.

2002 - An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119.

2004 - On National Freedom to Marry Day, two days after Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, California, issued a directive to the county clerk, the City and County of San Franciso begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

2006 - A powerful Nor'easter Winter Storm blankets the Northeast United States dumping 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington DC up to Boston, Massachusetts. The storm dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow in New York City.

2006 - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots friend Harry Whittington in the face during a hunting trip in Kenedy County, Texas, becoming the first Vice President to shoot a man since Aaron Burr assassinated Alexander Hamilton