On This Day February 12th

 OTD

February 12th is the Forty-third day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 322 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1404 – The Italian professor Galeazzo di Santa Sophie performed the first post-mortem autopsy for teaching and demonstration at Vienna's Heiligen–Geist Spital.

1733 – Georgia Day: Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, by settling at Savannah

1502 – Isabella I issue an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity.

1593 – Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by General Kwon Yul repelled more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.

1733 – Georgia Day: Englishman James Oglethorpe founded Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, by settling at Savannah.

1817 – After crossing the Andes, an Argentine/Chilean patriotic army defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco.

1912 – The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.

1924 – George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.

1947 – Christian Dior unveils a "New Look," helping Paris regain its position as the fashion world's capital.

1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.

 

Birthdays

1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer, poet, and physician (d. 1620)

1663 – Cotton Mather, English American minister and author (d. 1728)

1809 – Charles Darwin, English geologist and theorist (d. 1882)

1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and statesman, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)

1884 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American author (d. 1980)

1915 – Lorne Greene, Canadian American actor (d. 1987)

1926 – Joe Garagiola, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2016)

1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player and coach (d. 2022)

1939 – Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2013)

1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress and producer

 

Holiday Spotlight

Charles Darwin Day

Charles Darwin, the man who would come to be known as the father of natural selection, was born on February 12, 1809, the fifth of six children in a wealthy English family. His father was a doctor, and his grandfathers were naturalists who laid the groundwork for the discoveries that Charles would go on to make. In 1825, Charles, who had been helping his father to care for the poor and sick in Shropshire, left for medical school. He found it dull, and his studies needed more effort. It wasn’t long until his father sent him to Christ’s College in Cambridge to become an Anglican parson.

Though he was on a religious course of study, Darwin was drawn to natural sciences. A friend at the time got him interested in beetle collecting, and he became acquainted with other parson naturalists who spurred his interest even more. He positioned himself to join his professor on a trip to the tropics to study natural history.

After his return, Darwin received an offer to serve as a naturalist on an expedition that headed down the coast of South America. The ship was the HMS Beagle, of which the captain was Robert FitzRoy. Darwin embarked on his voyage in 1931 and spent five years aboard this ship. Across South America, Darwin was exposed to a wealth of new geology, anthropology, zoology, and botany. He carefully collected samples of fossils, rocks, plants, and bugs to bring back to England. Darwin and FitzRoy kept journals of the trip, which are impactful documents today.

Darwin’s theories of evolution were already percolating as the HMS Beagle returned to England. It was mainly the finches in the Galapagos Islands that illustrated his theories. He madly rewrote his journals from the trip to gain a better understanding, read the work of Malthus, and conducted experiments with plants to test his theories. During this time of overworking, he got married but also developed a chronic illness.

Finally, Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” a book that described the case for natural selection, in 1859. While the book was unexpectedly popular, there was pushback from the church, which taught divine creation as the source of life. He continued to work and publish on evolution and selection for the next 22 years. He would eventually die of heart disease in 1882, which likely originated from the chronic Chagas disease he suffered from.

 

Others Include.

Clean Out Your Computer Day

Darwin Day

Georgia Day

Hug Day

International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers

International Epilepsy Day

Lincoln's Birthday

Meal Monday

NAACP Day

National Football Hangover Day

National Freedom to Marry Day

National Lost Penny Day

National Plum Pudding Day

Oatmeal Monday

Oglethorpe Day

Paul Bunyan Day

Safety Pup Day

Shrove Monday