Today in History, July 12th
On July 12, 1862, Lincoln signed the law creating the Army Medal of Honor. Plus Geraldine Ferraro's selection and the Rolling Stones' first show.
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July 12 is best known for 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the law creating the U.S. Army Medal of Honor. The date also saw Walter Mondale name Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in 1984 and the Rolling Stones play their first show in 1962.
The big story: Lincoln creates the Army Medal of Honor (1862)
The sailors got theirs first. The previous December, Lincoln had approved a Navy medal for valor, and it became the model for the Army’s. On July 12, 1862, he signed a measure creating a matching Army Medal of Honor, presented in the name of Congress. At first it covered only noncommissioned officers and privates who distinguished themselves during what the law called the “present insurrection.” The first Army medals went to six men from a Union raiding party that had slipped deep into Confederate territory in 1862 to wreck bridges and railroad track between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. In 1863 the award became a permanent decoration open to every member of the U.S. military, officers included. It goes to those who distinguish themselves in actual combat, at risk of their lives, beyond the call of duty. Its first woman recipient was Mary Edwards Walker, whose fight for recognition went on long after the war.
More events on July 12
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1543 | Henry VIII married Catherine Parr, his sixth and last wife. |
| 1776 | Captain James Cook set out on his third and final voyage, hunting for a northern passage between the Atlantic and Pacific. |
| 1896 | Revere Beach in Massachusetts became the first public beach in the United States. |
| 1920 | Lithuania, having driven out invading Soviet troops, signed a peace treaty with Russia. |
| 1933 | The first Dymaxion car, a three-wheeled design by Buckminster Fuller, was built in Bridgeport, Connecticut. |
| 1943 | Soviet forces stopped the German offensive in a decisive clash at Kursk. |
| 1957 | Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to ride in a helicopter. |
| 1962 | The Rolling Stones, billed as the Rollin’ Stones, played their first show at a London club. |
| 1975 | São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence from Portugal. |
| 1979 | “Disco Demolition Night” at Chicago’s Comiskey Park ended with fans storming the field, and the White Sox forfeited the second game of a doubleheader to the Detroit Tigers. |
| 1984 | Walter Mondale named Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, making her the first woman on a major-party U.S. presidential ticket. |
| 2005 | Prince Albert II formally took the throne of Monaco. |
Born on July 12
- 1817: Henry David Thoreau, essayist and author of Walden, born in Concord, Massachusetts.
- 1854: George Eastman, inventor of the Kodak camera, born in Waterville, New York.
- 1904: Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, diplomat and Nobel Prize winner, born in Parral, Chile.
Sources
- Medal of Honor created, History.com
- This Day in History: July 12, History.com
- On This Day: July 12, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Henry David Thoreau, Biography.com
- George Eastman, Biography.com
- Pablo Neruda, Encyclopaedia Britannica
