What happened on August 12 ?

30 BC - Cleopatra (b. 69 BC)

875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)

1424 - Yongle, Emperor of China (b. 1460)

1484 - George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)

1484 - Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)

1512 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)

1577 - Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)

1588 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (b. 1543)

1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer

1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)

1648 - Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)

1674 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)

1689 - Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)

1778 - Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)

1809 - Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)

1810 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)

1848 - George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)

1864 - Sakuma Sh?zan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)

1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)

1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)

1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)

1901 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)

1914 - John Philip Holland, Irish submarine designer (b. 1840)

1918 - Anna Held, Polish-born actress and singer (b. 1872)

1922 - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (b. 1871)

1928 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (b. 1854)

1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)

1935 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)

1943 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)

1948 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)

1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)

1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (b. 1908)

1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)

1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)

1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)

1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)

1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)

1982 - Joe Tex, American singer (b. 1933)

1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (plane crash) (b. 1941)

1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)

1988 - Jean-Michel Basquiat, Haitian-American artist

1988 - Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Gosvami Maharaja, religious Guru from India (b. 1895)

1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)

1990 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)

1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)

1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)

2000 - Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)

2002 - Enos Slaughter, baseball player (b. 1916)

2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1919)

2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)

2005 - John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)

United Nations - International Youth Day (since 1999)

Glorious Twelfth at the Yorkshire Dales

Thailand - The Queen's Birthday, Mother's Day

Zaraday (Discordianism)

Zimbabwe - Defence Force Day

International Ponce de Leon day

Roman Catholicism - the feasts of at least ? saints: St. Clare

St. Euplius

St. Muredach

BBC: On This Day

The New York Times: On This Day

On This Day in Canada