July 12

It’s Different Colored Eyes Day and Pecan Pie Day

ON THIS DAY…
1389 King Richard II names Geoffrey Chaucer Chief Clerk of King’s Works at Westminster
1543 King Henry VIII of England married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr at Hampton Court Palace
1812 The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario
1844 Captain J.N. Taylor of the Royal Navy first demonstrated the fog horn; at the time, it was called a telephone – to mean far-signaling, thus an instrument like a fog-horn, used on ships, railway trains, etc., for signaling by loud sounds or notes
1859 The paper bag manufacturing machine was patented by William Goodale of MA
1862 The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress
1873 It rains frogs in Kansas City, MO
1892 A hidden lake bursts out of a glacier on the side of Mont Blanc, flooding the valley below and killing around 200 villagers and holidaymakers in Saint Gervais
1906 French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, found guilty of treason in a case that divided French society at the turn of the century, is cleared of the charges
1920 The Panama Canal was formally dedicated
1933 Congress passes the first federal minimum wage law in the United States: 33 cents per hour
1974 Former Nixon White House adviser John D. Ehrlichman is convicted of a charge connected with his supervision of the “plumbers,” a covert group aimed at stopping press leaks
1984 Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman on a major-party presidential ticket in the US when Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale chooses the New York congresswoman to be his running mate
1990 Boris Yeltsin, chairman of the Russian congress of deputies, announces to a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party that he is resigning from the party
2002 The Superior Court of Ontario orders Ontario to recognize same-sex marriages
2005 Prince Albert II is enthroned as ruler of the Principality of Monaco

BORN:
100BC Gaius Julius Caesar, military and political leader who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire
1817 Henry David Thoreau, author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher; he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state
1880 Tod Browning, actor, director and screenwriter whose career spanned the silent and talkie eras (Dracula, Freaks, The Unholy Three, London After Midnight)
1908 Milton Berle, comedian, actor, writer, producer and 2-time Emmy Award winner who was the first major star of television and as such became known as “Uncle Miltie” or “Mr. Television” to millions during TV’s golden age (Sun Valley Serenade, The Milton Berle Show, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Who’s Minding the Mint?, The Muppet Movie)
1933 Donald E. Westlake, writer and novelist, with over a hundred books to his credit. He specializes in crime fiction, especially comic capers with an occasional foray into science fiction; he is a three-time Edgar Award winner and has been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America
1937 Bill Cosby, actor, writer, producer, composer, director, comedian and 6-time Emmy Award winner (I, Spy, The Bill Cosby Special, The Bill Cosby Show, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Little Bill, The Electric Company, Mother, Jugs & Speed, A Piece of the Action, Uptown Saturday Night, California Suite)
1948 Ben Burtt, 2-time Academy Award winner for “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark)
1948 Jay Thomas, 2-time Emmy Award-winner actor (Murphy Brown, Mork & Mindy, Love & War, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Disney’s Hercules)
1948 Richard Simmons (Milton Teagle Simmons), flamboyant fitness personality who promotes weight-loss programs, most famously through a line of aerobics videos and television programs
1951 Cheryl Ladd, actress (Josie and the Pussycats, Satan’s School for Girls, Charlie’s Angels, Poison Ivy, Millennium)
1971 Kristi Yamaguchi, figure skater and the 1992 Olympic Champion in women’s singles; she also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992, a US Figure Skating Championships in 1992 and Dancing with the Stars in 2008
1978 Topher Grace, actor (That 70’s Show, Spider-Man 3, Traffic, In Good Company)
1978 Michelle Rodriguez, actress (Lost, S.W.A.T., Blue Crush, Control, Resident Evil)

DIED:
1804 Alexander Hamilton, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (1789-1795), a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher; died after being shot by Aaron Burr in a duel at 48
1849 Dolley Madison, 4th First Lady of the United States (1809-1817), she also occasionally acted as what is now described as First Lady of the United States during the administration of Thomas Jefferson, fulfilling the ceremonial functions more usually associated with the President’s wife, since Jefferson was a widower, dies at 81
1973 Lon Chaney, Jr. (Creighton Chaney), actor (The Wolf Man, Of Mice and Men, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, High Noon, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans), dies at 67
1996 John Chancellor, well-known journalist, who spent most of his career associated with NBC, anchoring the NBC Nightly News from 1970 to 1982; dies at 68