Today in History, February 12th
On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born. Plus China's last emperor abdicates and Clinton's 1999 acquittal.
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February 12 is best known as the shared birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, both born on this day in 1809. The date also saw China’s last emperor give up the throne in 1912, the call that launched the NAACP in 1909, and the U.S. Senate’s acquittal of President Bill Clinton in 1999.
The big story: Lincoln and Darwin Are Born on the Same Day (1809)
On February 12, 1809, two baby boys arrived an ocean apart. One was born in a backwoods cabin about three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky, to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. The other was born in Shrewsbury, England, into a comfortable family. Charles Darwin’s father was a society doctor, and his mother was a daughter of the pottery maker Josiah Wedgwood. The two never met and lived in very different worlds. Even so, 1859 and the years right after it belonged to both of them. Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and changed how people understood life on Earth. The next year, Lincoln was elected the 16th president, and he went on to lead the Union through the Civil War and toward the end of slavery. It is hard to find another single day that gave the world two people who reshaped it so thoroughly.
More events on February 12
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1554 | Lady Jane Grey, who had been proclaimed queen of England and held the title for only days, was executed in London on the orders of Mary I. |
| 1818 | Chile formally declared its independence from Spain, a year after its decisive victory at the Battle of Chacabuco. |
| 1851 | Gold was found in New South Wales, setting off Australia’s first gold rush. |
| 1865 | Minister Henry Highland Garnet became the first Black man to preach a sermon in the U.S. Capitol. |
| 1909 | On the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and other activists issued the call that launched the NAACP. |
| 1912 | Puyi, the child emperor of China, abdicated, ending more than 2,000 years of imperial rule. |
| 1924 | George Gershwin played his new Rhapsody in Blue for the first time at Aeolian Hall in New York City. |
| 1973 | North Vietnam began releasing American prisoners of war at Hanoi’s Gia Lam Airport, the start of Operation Homecoming. |
| 1994 | Thieves stole Edvard Munch’s The Scream from Norway’s National Gallery in Oslo. It was recovered months later. |
| 1999 | The U.S. Senate acquitted President Bill Clinton on both articles of impeachment, perjury and obstruction of justice. |
| 2002 | Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević went on trial at The Hague on war crimes charges. |
| 2019 | The Republic of Macedonia formally changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia. |
Born on February 12
- 1775: Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams and the first U.S. first lady born abroad (in London).
- 1809: Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president.
- 1809: Charles Darwin, English naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection.
- 1938: Judy Blume, author of frank, funny books for children and teens such as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Keep reading
Sources
- Abraham Lincoln, Britannica
- Charles Darwin, Britannica
- What Happened on February 12, History.com
- February 12, Britannica On This Day
- Louisa Adams, Britannica
- Judy Blume, Britannica
