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Updated August 11, 2012, 2:28 pm
On Aug. 12, 1898, the peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed.
On Aug. 12, 1881, Cecil B. DeMille, a leading American movie producer and director for over 40 years, was born. Following his death on Jan. 21, 1959, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1851 Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine. 1880 Baseball Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson was born in Factoryville, Pa. 1898 The peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed. 1898 Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States. 1944 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed when an explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England during World War II. 1953 The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb. 1960 The first balloon satellite, Echo 1, was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral, Fla. 1966 John Lennon apologized at a news conference in Chicago for saying “the Beatles are more popular than Jesus.” 1977 The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California’s Mojave Desert. 1981 IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150. 1998 Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Holocaust survivors to settle claims for their assets. 2000 The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. 2004 New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation and proclaimed himself “a gay American.” 2004 The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year. 2008 Russia halted its devastating five-day assault on Georgia that left homes in smoldering ruins and uprooted 100,000 people. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress Rebecca Gayheart turns 40 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Actor Casey Affleck turns 37 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
1925 Dale Bumpers, Former U.S. senator, D-Ark., turns 87 1939 George Hamilton, Actor, turns 73 1941 Dana Ivey, Actress, turns 71 1949 Mark Knopfler, Rock singer, musician (Dire Straits), turns 63 1950 Kid Creole, Singer, turns 62 1954 Pat Metheny, Jazz guitarist, turns 58 1956 Bruce Greenwood, Actor, turns 56 1963 Sir Mix-A-Lot, Rapper, turns 49 1965 Peter Krause, Actor (“Six Feet Under”), turns 47 1971 Michael Ian Black, Actor, comedian (“Ed”), turns 41 1971 Yvette Nicole Brown, Actress (“Community”), turns 41 1971 Pete Sampras, Tennis player, turns 41 1977 Plaxico Burress, Football player, turns 35 1980 Maggie Lawson, Actress, turns 32 1980 Dominique Swain, Actress, turns 32
Historic Birthdays
Cecil B. DeMille 8/12/1881 – 1/21/1959 American motion-picture producer and director.Go to obituary »
73 Robert Mills 8/12/1781 – 3/3/1855
American architect80 Lillie Devereux Blake 8/12/1833 – 12/30/1913
American novelist and activist for women’s suffrage60 James Brady 8/12/1856 – 4/13/1917
American financier and philanthropist; known as “Diamond Jim”69 Katherine Lee Bates 8/12/1859 – 3/28/1929
American author and educator; wrote “America the Beautiful”87 Jacinto Benavente y Martinez 8/12/1866 – 7/14/1954
Spanish Nobel Prize-winning dramatist (1922)82 Mary Roberts Rinehart 8/12/1876 – 9/22/1958
American novelist and playwright45 Christy Mathewson 8/12/1880 – 10/7/1925
American professional baseball pitcher62 Vincent Bendix 8/12/1882 – 3/27/1945
American inventor and industrialist42 George Bellows 8/12/1882 – 1/8/1925
American painter and lithographer79 Oscar Homolka 8/12/1898 – 1/27/1978
Austrian-born American stage and screen actor13 Alexis 8/12/1904 – 7/?16/1918
Russian son of Tsar Nicholas ll; killed by the Bolsheviks81 Cantinflas 8/12/1911 – 4/20/1993
Mexican clown, acrobat, musician and satirist
