August 12
1676 - "King Phillip's War" came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.
1851 - Isaac Singer was issued a patent on the double-headed sewing machine.
1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.
1867 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.
1879 - The first National Archery Association tournament took place in Chicago, IL.
1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.
1915 - "Of Human Bondage" by William Somerset Maugham was first published.
1918 - Regular airmail service began between Washington, DC, and New York City.
1937 - Red Skelton appeared on network radio for the first time on the "Rudy Vallee Show" on NBC.
1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th.
1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.
1960 - The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite.
1962 - The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August 15.
1964 - Mickey Mantle set a major league baseball record when he hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game.
1969 - The Boston Celtics were sold for $6 million. At the time it was the highest price paid for a pro basketball team.
1973 - Jack Nicklaus won his 14th major golf title. The win broke the record that had been held by Bobby Jones for 50 years.
1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test.
1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC.
1986 - It was announced by NASA that they had selected a new rocket design for the space shuttle. The move was made in an effort at correcting the flaws that were believed to have been responsible for the Challenger disaster.
1986 - Rod Carew became the first player in the history of the California Angels franchise to have his uniform (#29) retired.
1988 - The movie "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened.
1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.
1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.
1994 - Major league baseball players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries. The strike lasted for 232 days. As a result, the World Series was wiped out for the first time in 90 years.
1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims.
1999 - Hang Thu Thi Ngyuen shot an arrow from a bow with her feet on "Guinness World Records: Primetime" and hit a target that was 16 feet and 5 inches away.
2000 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.
2004 - The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages that had been sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year.
2008 - Russia halted its five-day assault on Georgia.
