It is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. It is also known as the "Glorious Twelfth" in the UK, as it marks the traditional start of the grouse shooting season.

Events

• 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
• 1121 - Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
• 1164 - Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
• 1281 - The fleet of Qubilai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
• 1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time.
• 1332 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar are routed by Edward Balliol.
• 1480 - Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
• 1499 - First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
• 1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
• 1687 - Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottomans at the Battle of Mohács.
• 1793 - The Rhône départment is created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre).
• 1806 - Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion.
• 1833 - Chicago is founded.
• 1851 - Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
• 1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos.
• 1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• 1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War.
• 1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.
• 1908 - Ford builds the first Model T.
• 1914 - World War I - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; countries of the British Empire are also included.
• 1925 - The first cast of Alpha Psi Omega, drawn from The Masquers of Fairmont College, West Virginia, is initiated.
• 1943 - Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
• 1944 - Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
• 1944 - Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
• 1952 - The Night of the Murdered Poets - thirteen most prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow.
• 1953 - Nuclear testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
• 1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched.
• 1964 - South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
• 1964 - Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England.
• 1969 - Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
• 1977 - The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
• 1978 - Japan and the People's Republic of China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China.
• 1980 - Signature of the Montevideo Treaty establishing the Latin American Integration Association.
• 1981 - The IBM Personal Computer is released.
• 1982 - Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
• 1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
• 1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, is discovered near Faith, South Dakota.
• 1992 - Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
• 1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage forces the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
• 2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
• 2004 - New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey comes out publicly as a gay man.
• 2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
• 2005 - An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.
• 2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives
• 2005 - An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island
• 2007 - Bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.

Births

• 1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (d. 1559)
• 1566 - Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)
• 1604 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
• 1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia (d. 1676)
• 1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
• 1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)
• 1647 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
• 1686 - John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
• 1696 - Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)
• 1720 - Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)
• 1762 - King George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)
• 1774 - Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)
• 1856 - "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
• 1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)
• 1866 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1954)
• 1867 - Edith Hamilton, German classicist (d. 1963)
• 1872 - Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1956)
• 1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author (d. 1958)
• 1880 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (d. 1943)
• 1880 - Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d. 1925)
• 1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (d. 1959)
• 1883 - Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938)
• 1885 - Jean Cabannes, French physicist (d. 1959)
• 1885 - Marion Lorne, American actress (d. 1968)
• 1886 - Sir Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist and newspaper owner (d. 1952)
• 1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1961)
• 1889 - Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (Dick and Jane) (d. 1981)
• 1892 - Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977)
• 1897 - Maurice Fernandes, West Indian cricketer (d. 1981)
• 1899 - Ben Sealey, West Indian cricketer (d. 1963)
• 1902 - Mohammad Hatta, Vice President of Indonesia 1945-1956 (d. 1980)
• 1904 - Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia, only son of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
• 1906 - Harry Hopman, Australian-born tennis player and coach (d. 1985)
• 1906 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)
• 1907 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)
• 1909 - Richard Bare, American director
• 1910 - Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)
• 1910 - Yusof bin Ishak, first President of Singapore (d. 1970)
• 1911 - Cantinflas, Mexican actor (d. 1993)
• 1912 - Samuel Fuller, American film director (d. 1997)
• 1914 - Gerd Buchdahl, German philosopher (d. 2001)
• 1914 - Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (d. 1981)
• 1915 - Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007)
• 1918 - Guy Gibson, British aviator, awarded Victoria Cross (d. 1944)
• 1919 - Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)
• 1923 - John Holt, West Indian cricketer (d. 1997)
• 1924 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer (d. 2007)
• 1924 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
• 1925 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
• 1925 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
• 1925 - George Wetherill, American scientist (d. 2006)
• 1926 - John Derek, American actor (d. 1998)
• 1926 - Joe Jones, American R&B singer (d. 2005)
• 1926 - Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)
• 1927 - Porter Wagoner, American singer (d. 2007)
• 1928 - Charles Blackman, Australian artist
• 1928 - Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
• 1928 - Dan Curtis, film and television producer and director
• 1929 - Buck Owens, American singer (d. 2006)
• 1930 - George Soros Hungarian-American financier and political activist
• 1930 - Jacques Tits, Belgian mathematician
• 1931 - William Goldman, American screenwriter
• 1932 - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS apostle and former Utah Supreme Court Justice
• 1932 - Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer
• 1932 - Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat, Queen of Thailand
• 1933 - Parnelli Jones, American race car driver and team owner
• 1935 - John Cazale, Italian-American actor (d. 1978)
• 1937 - Walter Dean Myers, African-American author
• 1938 - Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian Mayor of Quebec
• 1939 - Skip Caray, American TV/radio baseball announcer (Atlanta Braves) (d. 2008)
• 1939 - George Hamilton, American actor
• 1939 - Roy Romanow, Canadian politician
• 1939 - Michael D. Antonovich, American politician
• 1940 - Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
• 1941 - Réjean Ducharme, Quebec novelist and playwright
• 1943 - Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1944 - Peter Hofmann, German tenor
• 1947 - Ron Mael, American musician (Sparks)
• 1947 - Sam Rosen, American sportscaster
• 1949 - Panagiotis Chinofotis, Greek politician
• 1949 - Mark Knopfler OBE, Scottish guitarist (Dire Straits)
• 1950 - Jim Beaver, American actor and writer
• 1951 - Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist
• 1952 - Chen Kaige, Chinese film director
• 1954 - Sam J. Jones, American actor
• 1954 - Pat Metheny, American guitarist
• 1955 - Ann M. Martin, American author
• 1955 - Terry Taylor, American retired professional wrestler
• 1956 - Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
• 1956 - Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1959 - Amanda Redman, English actress
• 1960 - Laurent Fignon, French cyclist
• 1960 - Greg Thomas, England cricketer
• 1961 - Roy Hay, British guitarist and keyboardist (Culture Club)
• 1961 - Lawrence Hayward, English musician (Felt, Denim, Go Kart Mozart)
• 1961 - Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer
• 1962 - Miss Cleo, American psychic
• 1963 - Sir Mix A Lot, American rapper
• 1965 - Peter Krause, American actor
• 1966 - Les Ferdinand, English footballer
• 1967 - Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer
• 1967 - Andrey Plotnikov, Russian race walker
• 1967 - Andy Hui, Hong Kong actor and singer
• 1968 - Andras Jones, American actor
• 1969 - Aga Muhlach, Filipino actor
• 1969 - Stuart Williams, West Indian cricketer
• 1970 - Anthony Swofford, American novelist
• 1970 - Jim Schlossnagle, baseball coach
• 1970 - Charles Mesure, British actor
• 1971 - Michael Ian Black, American comedian
• 1971 - Rebecca Gayheart, American actress
• 1971 - Pete Sampras, American tennis player
• 1972 - Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer
• 1972 - Takanohana, Sumo yokozuna
• 1972 - Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer
• 1973 - Joseba Beloki, Spanish cyclist
• 1973 - Jonathan Coachman, American professional wrestler and executive
• 1973 - Todd Marchant, American ice hockey player
• 1973 - Richard Reid, British terrorist, referred to as the "shoe bomber".
• 1973 - Yvette Nicole Brown, American actress
• 1973 - Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr - son of Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr
• 1973 - Grey DeLisle, American voice actress
• 1974 - Matt Clement, American baseball player
• 1975 - Casey Affleck, American actor
• 1975 - David Filmore, American actor
• 1976 - Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindström, Finnish guitarist
• 1976 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player
• 1976 - Wednesday 13, American musician (Wednesday 13, Murderdolls)
• 1976 - Brad Lukowich, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1976 - Richard McCourt, English children's television presenter
• 1976 - Henry Tuilagi, Samoan rugby player
• 1976 - Pedro Collins, West Indian cricketer
• 1977 - Plaxico Burress, American football player
• 1977 - Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer
• 1977 - Park Yong-ha, South Korean actor and singer
• 1978 - Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1978 - Chris Chambers, American football player
• 1979 - D.J. Houlton, American baseball player
• 1979 - Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater
• 1980 - Maggie Lawson, American actress
• 1980 - Dominique Swain, American actress
• 1980 - Matt Thiessen, Canadian/American musician (Relient K)
• 1980 - Jade Villalon, American singer/songwriter
• 1981 - Tony Capaldi, Northern Ireland footballer
• 1981 - Djibril Cissé, French footballer
• 1982 - Alexandros Tzorvas, Greek footballer
• 1983 - Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer
• 1984 - Marian Rivera, Philippine actress
• 1990 - Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer

Deaths

• 30 BC - Cleopatra (b. 69 BC)
• 875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)
• 1424 - Yongle, Emperor of China (b. 1360)
• 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)
• 1638 - Johannes Althusius, German writer (b. 1557)
• 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)
• 1822 - Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, English politician and statesman (b. 1769)
• 1827 - William Blake, English poet and artist (b. 1757)
• 1848 - George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)
• 1861 - Eliphalet Remington, American inventor, designer of the Remington rifle (b. 1793)
• 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)
• 1896 - Thomas Chamberlain, officer of the 20th Maine at the Battle of Gettysburg
• 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 - Leo? Janá?ek, Czech composer (b. 1854)
• 1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)
• 1935 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)
• 1941 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
• 1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., brother of President John F. Kennedy (b. 1915)
• 1948 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)
• 1952 - David Bergelson, Yiddish language writer (b. 1884)
• 1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1875)
• 1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)
• 1959 - Mike O'Neill, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1877)
• 1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (James Bond) (b. 1908)
• 1968 - Esther Forbes, American novelist (b. 1891)
• 1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)
• 1973 - Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1898)
• 1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)
• 1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
• 1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)
• 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 (b. 1960)
• 1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1910)
• 1989 - Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (b. 1964)
• 1990 - B. Kliban, American cartoonist (b. 1935)
• 1990 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)
• 1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)
• 1996 - Robert Gravel, French Canadian actor and theatrical director (b. 1945)
• 1996 - Mark Gruenwald, American comic book writer and editor (b. 1953)
• 1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)
• 1999 - Jean Drapeau, Quebec politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1916)
• 2000 - Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
• 2002 - Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916)
• 2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1919)
• 2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)
• 2005 - John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)
• 2007 - Merv Griffin, American television host and game show creator (b. 1925)
• 2007 - Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (b. 1963)
• 2008 - Christie Allen, British-Australian pop singer (b. 1954)

Holidays and observances

• United Nations - International Youth Day (since 1999)
• Glorious Twelfth at the Yorkshire Dales
• Thailand - The Queen's Birthday, Mother's Day
• RC Saints

• Saint Euplus, deacon, martyr [Cologne, Paderborn, Trier]

• Saint Herculanus of Brescia

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

af:12 Augustus ar:12 ????? an:12 d'agosto frp:12 oût ast:12 d'agostu az:12 avqust bn:????? ?? be:12 ?????? be-x-old:12 ?????? bs:12. august br:12 Eost bg:12 ?????? ca:12 d'agost cv:Ç????, 12 ceb:Agosto 12 cs:12. srpen co:12 d'aostu cy:12 Awst da:12. august de:12. August et:12. august el:12 ????????? es:12 de agosto eo:12-a de a?gusto eu:Abuztuaren 12 fa:?? ??? fo:12. august fr:12 août fy:12 augustus fur:12 di Avost ga:12 Lúnasa gan:8?12? gv:12 Luanistyn gd:12 an Lùnasdal gl:12 de agosto ko:8? 12? hy:???????? 12 hr:12. kolovoza io:12 di agosto ilo:Agosto 12 bpy:????? ?? id:12 Agustus ia:12 de augusto ie:12 august is:12. ágúst it:12 agosto he:12 ??????? jv:12 Agustus pam:Agostu 12 kn:?????? ?? ka:12 ??????? csb:12 zélnika kk:???????? 12 sw:12 Agosti ht:12 out ku:12'ê gelawêjê la:12 Augusti lv:12. augusts lb:12. August lt:Rugpj??io 12 li:12 augustus lmo:12 08 hu:Augusztus 12. mk:12 ?????? mg:12 Aogositra ml:???????? 12 mr:????? ?? ms:12 Ogos nah:Tlachicu?iti 12 nl:12 augustus nds-nl:12 augustus new:????? ?? ja:8?12? nap:12 'e aùsto no:12. august nn:12. august nrm:12 Août nov:12 de auguste oc:12 d'agost uz:12-avgust pag:August 12 nds:12. August pl:12 sierpnia pt:12 de Agosto ksh:12. Aujußß ro:12 august ru:12 ??????? se:Borgemánu 12. sco:12 August sq:12 Gusht scn:12 di austu simple:August 12 sk:12. august sl:12. avgust sr:12. ?????? sh:12.8. su:12 Agustus fi:12. elokuuta sv:12 augusti tl:Agosto 12 ta:?????? 12 tt:12. August te:?????? 12 th:12 ??????? vi:12 tháng 8 tg:12 ?????? tr:12 A?ustos uk:12 ?????? vec:12 de agosto vo:Gustul 12 fiu-vro:12. põimukuu päiv wa:12 d' awousse vls:12 ogustus war:Agosto 12 yi:?????? 12 yo:12 August zh-yue:8?12? bat-smg:Rogpj?t? 12 zh:8?12?