World's Largest Tyrannosaurus Rex Unveiled At The Dinosaur Expo 2005

Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex discovered

Born on This Day

Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille

1881 - 1959

Filmmaker and actor known as a pioneer of silent and early sound films like "The Ten Commandments" and "The Squaw Man."

Lee Strasberg 75th Birthday Party

John Cazale

1935 - 1978

Actor who starred in only five films, all of which were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Played Fredo Corleone in "The Godfather."

The Today Show Gallery of Olympians

Ilona Maher

1996 -

Rugby player who led the U.S. women's national team to its first Olympic medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Cecil B. DeMilleGetty Images

John CazalePenske Media via Getty Images

Ilona MaherGetty Images

1994

AUG12

Major League baseball players go on a strike that lasts for 232 days. The 1994 World Series had to be canceled, the first time that happened in 90 years.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on August 12th

King Philip’s War ends

In colonial New England, King Philip’s War effectively comes to an end when Philip, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, is assassinated by a Native American in the service of the English. In the early 1670s, 50 years of peace between the Plymouth colony and the local Wampanoag Indians began to deteriorate when the rapidly expanding […]

1:36m read read

General Washington anticipates British blockade of New York

On August 12, 1776, General George Washington writes to Major General Charles Lee that the Continental Army’s situation had deteriorated due to an outbreak of smallpox and problems with desertion. Washington feared that the superior British navy might blockade New York, thus isolating the city from communications with other states. Washington was correct that the […]

1:50m read read

Armistice ends the Spanish-American War

The brief and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty. The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in […]

2:58m read read

FDR and Churchill meet on ship, map out Atlantic Charter

On August 12, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet on board a ship at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to confer on issues ranging from support for Russia to threatening Japan to postwar peace. When Roosevelt and Churchill met for the first time as leaders of their respective nations, chief among the […]

1:22m read read

President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 1941, The Secret British Campaign to Persuade the U.S. to Enter WWII

James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies

On August 12, 1964, the British author and journalist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, the world’s most famous fictional spy, dies of a heart attack at age 56 in Kent, England. Fleming’s series of novels about the debonair Agent 007, based in part on their dashing author’s real-life experiences, spawned one of the most […]

1:46m read read

Ian Fleming

Great Train robber escapes from prison

On August 12, 1964, Charlie Wilson, part of the gang who pulled off the 1963 Great Train Robbery, one of the biggest heists of its kind, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England. Several men broke into the maximum-security facility to free Wilson, who remained on the loose until 1968. The so-called Great Train […]

2:02m read read

American golfer Jack Nicklaus sets title record

On August 12, 1973, American golfer Jack Nicklaus wins the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) championship for his 14th major title, surpassing Bobby Jones’ record of 13 major championships. Nicklaus shot a seven-under-par 277 at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, Ohio, to win $45,000 and his third PGA National championship. The “Golden Bear” went on to […]

2:10m read read

JAL flight 123 crashes into Mount Otsuka

At 6:50 p.m. local time, a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747SR crashes into Mount Otsuka, 70 miles northwest of Tokyo. There were 524 people aboard, and all but four were dead by the time rescuers reached the remote crash site 12 hours later. JAL flight 123 took off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport under the command […]

0:48m read read

Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, 27, dies of an overdose

His powerful work has since broken auction records.

Black-and-white photo portrait of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Andy Warhol

Russian sub, the “Kursk,” sinks with 118 onboard

A Russian nuclear submarine sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000; all 118 crew members are later found dead. The exact cause of the disaster remains unknown. Kursk left port on August 10 to take part in war games with the Russian military. Russian ships, planes and submarines met up […]

Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall dies

On August 12, 2014, smoky-voiced actress Lauren Bacall dies at her New York City home at age 89. Having shot to fame in her debut film To Have and Have Not (1944), in which she appeared opposite Humphrey Bogart, with whom she would have a legendary romance, Bacall forged a lasting career that spanned nearly […]

2:30m read read

Lauren Bacall

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