This day in history
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12 July
Events
- 1153: Anastasius IV is elected pope following the death of Eugenius III.
- 1174: King Henry II of England does penance at Canterbury for Archbishop Thomas Becket's murder in 1170.
- 1191: Four days after the arrival of King Richard I the Lionheart of England, the crusaders take the Muslim-held port of Acre (present-day Akko, Israel); it becomes the capital of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
- 1346: King Edward III of England, seeking to exploit Norman disaffection with King Philip VI of France, lands in northern Normandy at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.
- 1543: King Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Parr, widow of Lord Latimer; she is his sixth wife.
- 1645: On the death of his father Michael I Romanov, Alexis I becomes the second Romanov tsar of Russia.
- 1691: Pope Innocent XII is elected following the death of Pope Alexander VIII.
- 1790: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is established by the French National Constituent Assembly, reorganizing the church on national lines. It is to be state funded and its priests democratically elected. Jews in France are admitted to civil liberties.
- 1856: Natal, formerly part of the British Cape Colony in southern Africa, is established as a separate British crown colony with an elected assembly.
- 1906: Following a high profile campaign to release the French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, the guilty verdict returned against him in September 1899 for treason is formally annulled.
- 1946: Pius XII becomes the first pope to appear on television when the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) broadcasts a papal address from the Vatican.
- 1975: So Tom e Prncipe gains its independence from Portugal.
- 1977: US medical researcher Raymond Damadian produces the first images of human tissues using an NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) scanner; used to detect cancer and other diseases without the need for X-rays, the scanner is based on the fact that electromagnetic fields cause some atomic nuclei to align themselves. The scanners become commercially available in the USA in 1984.
- 1998: France wins the football World Cup defeating Brazil 30. The following day 500,000 people fill the Champs Elyses to celebrate the victory.
Births and Deaths
- Desiderius Erasmus
1536: Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist, considered the greatest scholar of the northern European Renaissance, dies in Basel, Swiss Confederation (66). - George Eastman
1854: George Eastman, US inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist who introduces the Kodak camera, born in Waterville, New York (1932).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
