THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― AUGUST 12

August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 141 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Monday or Tuesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Thursday or Saturday (56).

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

NATIONAL MIDDLE CHILD DAY


1099 – First Crusade ― Battle of Ascalon ― Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade. 

1914 – World War I: The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit. 

1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions. 

1950 – Korean War ― Bloody Gulch massacre ― American POWs are massacred by the North Korean Army. 

1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. 


1953 – The first testing of real thermonuclear weapon (not test devices): The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.


1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. 

1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released. 

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 largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.


2000 – The Russian Navy submarine Kursk explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew. 

2015 – At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China.

TODAY'S BIRTHS

1852 – Michael J. McGivney, American priest, founded the Knights of Columbus (d. 1890) 

1859 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet and author (d. 1929)

1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate, "Schrödinger's Cat" (d. 1961)

1907 – Gladys Bentley, American blues singer (d. 1960)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.