January 12 facts for kids

January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 353 days remain until the end of the year (354 in leap years).

January 12th is a special day in history, filled with many important events, births, and deaths that have shaped our world. From ancient empires to modern space missions, this day has seen a lot of action! Let's explore some of the cool things that happened on January 12th.

Events that Changed History

Early Times (Before 1600)

• 475 – The Byzantine Emperor Zeno had to leave his capital city, Constantinople. His general, Basiliscus, then took control of the empire.
• 1528 – Gustav I of Sweden was crowned King of Sweden. He had already been ruling since 1523.
• 1554 – Bayinnaung became the King of Burma. He later built the largest empire in Southeast Asian history.

From 1601 to 1900

• 1616 – The city of Belém in Brazil was founded by a Portuguese captain. It's located on the huge Amazon River delta.
• 1792 – Thomas Pinckney became the first U.S. minister (like an ambassador) to Britain.
• 1848 – A revolt started in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This was known as the Palermo rising.
• 1866 – The Royal Aeronautical Society was created in London. This group focuses on the science and engineering of flight.
• 1872 – Yohannes IV was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum. This was the first time an emperor was crowned there in over 200 years.
• 1895 – The National Trust was founded in the United Kingdom. This organization works to protect historic places and natural beauty.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• 1911 – The University of the Philippines College of Law officially opened. Three future presidents of the Philippines were among its first students!
• 1915 – The United States House of Representatives voted against giving women the right to vote across all states.
• 1916 – German pilots Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann received a high military award called the Pour le Mérite. They were the first German aviators to earn it.
• 1918 – The Minnie Pit Disaster happened in a coal mine in England. Sadly, 155 men and boys lost their lives.
• 1932 – Hattie Caraway made history by becoming the first woman ever elected to the United States Senate.
• 1942 – During World War II, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board. This group helped manage labor issues during the war.
• 1945 – In World War II, the Red Army began a major attack called the Vistula–Oder Offensive.
• 1962 – The Vietnam War saw its first American combat mission, called Operation Chopper.
• 1964 – A revolt began in Zanzibar, known as the Zanzibar Revolution. The rebels then declared Zanzibar a republic.
• 1966 – President Lyndon B. Johnson said the United States would stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression ended.
• 1967 – Dr. James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically preserved. This means his body was frozen with the hope of being brought back to life in the future.
• 1969 – The New York Jets won Super Bowl III against the Baltimore Colts. This was a huge surprise and is still considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history!
• 1970 – The Nigerian Civil War ended when Biafra surrendered.
• 1976 – The United Nations Security Council voted to let the Palestine Liberation Organization join a debate, but without voting rights.
• 1986 – Congressman Bill Nelson flew into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-61-C. He was a payload specialist.
• 1991 – During the Persian Gulf War, the U.S. Congress allowed American military force to remove Iraq from Kuwait.
• 1997 – The space shuttle Atlantis launched on mission STS-81 to the Russian space station Mir. Astronaut Jerry M. Linenger went to stay on the station for four months.
• 1998 – Nineteen European countries agreed to ban human cloning.
• 2001 – Downtown Disney opened at the Disneyland Resort in California.
• 2004 – The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, made its first journey.
• 2005 – The Deep Impact spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral. It was designed to hit a comet!
• 2007 – Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), one of the brightest comets ever seen, was visible even during the day.
• 2010 – A terrible earthquake hit Haiti. It killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed much of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.
• 2015 – Government raids in Kolofata, Cameroon killed 143 Boko Haram fighters.
• 2020 – Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupted, causing 39 deaths.

Famous Birthdays

Born Before 1600

• 1483 – Henry III of Nassau-Breda
• 1562 – Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy
• 1576 – Petrus Scriverius, a Dutch historian and scholar.
• 1577 – Jan Baptist van Helmont, a Flemish chemist and doctor.
• 1588 – John Winthrop, an English lawyer and politician who became the second Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1591 – Jusepe de Ribera, a Spanish painter.
• 1597 – François Duquesnoy, a Flemish sculptor.
• 1598 – Jijabai Shahaji Bhosale, the mother of the famous Indian king Shivaji.

Born Between 1601 and 1900

• 1628 – Charles Perrault, a French author famous for writing fairy tales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
• 1673 – Rosalba Carriera, an Italian painter.
• 1729 – Edmund Burke, an Irish philosopher and politician.
• 1746 – Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, a Swiss philosopher and educator.
• 1751 – Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, a king.
• 1792 – Johan August Arfwedson, a Swedish chemist.
• 1822 – Étienne Lenoir, a Belgian engineer who designed the internal combustion engine.
• 1856 – John Singer Sargent, a famous American painter.
• 1863 – Swami Vivekananda, an Indian monk and philosopher.
• 1873 – Spyridon Louis, a Greek runner who won the first Olympic marathon.
• 1876 – Jack London, a well-known American novelist and journalist who wrote The Call of the Wild.
• 1879 – Ray Harroun, an American race car driver and engineer.
• 1892 – Mikhail Gurevich, a Russian engineer who co-founded the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, famous for MiG aircraft.
• 1894 – Georges Carpentier, a French boxer and actor.
• 1899 – Paul Hermann Müller, a Swiss chemist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the insecticide DDT.

Born After 1901

• 1903 – Igor Kurchatov, a Russian physicist.
• 1907 – Sergei Korolev, a Russian engineer who was a key figure in the Soviet space program.
• 1910 – Luise Rainer, a German-English actress who won two Academy Awards.
• 1916 – P. W. Botha, a South African politician who served as Prime Minister.
• 1920 – James Farmer, an American activist who co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality.
• 1923 – Ira Hayes, an American marine famous for helping raise the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima during World War II.
• 1926 – Ray Price, an American country music singer.
• 1928 – Ruth Brown, an American R&B singer and actress.
• 1930 – Tim Horton, a Canadian ice hockey player and businessman who founded the popular Tim Hortons coffee chain.
• 1932 – Des O'Connor, a popular English entertainer, singer, and TV presenter.
• 1937 – Shirley Eaton, an English actress.
• 1944 – Joe Frazier, a legendary American boxer and Olympic gold medalist.
• 1949 – Haruki Murakami, a famous Japanese novelist and short-story writer.
• 1950 – Sheila Jackson Lee, an American lawyer and politician.
• 1951 – Kirstie Alley, an American actress.
• 1951 – Rush Limbaugh, an American talk show host.
• 1954 – Howard Stern, an American radio host and author.
• 1957 – John Lasseter, an American animator and director, known for his work at Pixar.
• 1958 – Christiane Amanpour, a well-known English-Iranian journalist.
• 1959 – Per Gessle, a Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist, famous from the band Roxette.
• 1960 – Oliver Platt, a Canadian-American actor.
• 1960 – Dominique Wilkins, a French-American basketball player, known as "The Human Highlight Film."
• 1964 – Jeff Bezos, the American computer scientist and businessman who founded Amazon.
• 1965 – Rob Zombie, an American singer-songwriter, producer, and director.
• 1968 – Rachael Harris, an American actress and comedian.
• 1968 – Junichi Masuda, a Japanese director and composer, known for his work on the Pokémon video games.
• 1970 – Zack de la Rocha, an American singer-songwriter, known for the band Rage Against the Machine.
• 1974 – Melanie C, an English singer-songwriter, known as Sporty Spice from the Spice Girls.
• 1979 – Marián Hossa, a Slovak ice hockey player.
• 1991 – Pixie Lott, an English singer-songwriter and dancer.
• 1993 – Zayn Malik, an English singer, formerly of the band One Direction.
• 1994 – Emre Can, a German footballer.
• 1995 – Allisha Gray, an American basketball player.
• 1996 – Ella Henderson, an English singer and songwriter.
• 1998 – Juan Foyth, an Argentinian footballer.

Notable People Who Passed Away

Before 1600

• 690 – Benedict Biscop, an English scholar and saint.
• 1167 – Aelred of Rievaulx, an English monk and saint.
• 1519 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Between 1601 and 1900

• 1665 – Pierre de Fermat, a French mathematician and lawyer, famous for Fermat's Last Theorem.
• 1674 – Giacomo Carissimi, an Italian composer.
• 1700 – Marguerite Bourgeoys, a French-Canadian nun and saint.
• 1777 – Hugh Mercer, a Scottish-American general and doctor.
• 1833 – Marie-Antoine Carême, a famous French chef.
• 1834 – William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, an English politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1856 – Ľudovít Štúr, a Slovak philologist and politician.
• 1899 – Hiram Walker, an American businessman who founded Canadian Club whiskey.

After 1901

• 1909 – Hermann Minkowski, a Lithuanian-German mathematician.
• 1926 – Austin Chapman, an Australian politician.
• 1940 – Edward Smith, an English lieutenant who received the Victoria Cross for bravery.
• 1960 – Nevil Shute, an English engineer and author.
• 1965 – Lorraine Hansberry, an American author and playwright, known for A Raisin in the Sun.
• 1976 – Agatha Christie, the famous English crime novelist, known for her detective stories.
• 1977 – Henri-Georges Clouzot, a French director and screenwriter.
• 1997 – Charles Brenton Huggins, a Canadian-American physician who won the Nobel Prize for his cancer research.
• 2001 – William Redington Hewlett, an American engineer and businessman who co-founded Hewlett-Packard.
• 2002 – Cyrus Vance, an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of State.
• 2003 – Maurice Gibb, a Manx-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist, famous from the Bee Gees.
• 2005 – Amrish Puri, a well-known Indian actor.
• 2007 – Alice Coltrane, an American pianist and composer.
• 2009 – Claude Berri, a French actor, director, and screenwriter.
• 2017 – William Peter Blatty, an American writer and filmmaker, known for The Exorcist.
• 2018 – Keith Jackson, a famous American sports commentator.
• 2022 – Ronnie Spector, an American singer, known for her work with The Ronettes.
• 2023 – Lisa Marie Presley, an American singer-songwriter, and daughter of Elvis Presley.

Holidays and Observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Aelred of Rievaulx
  • Benedict Biscop
  • Bernard of Corleone
  • Marguerite Bourgeoys
  • Tatiana
  • January 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Memorial Day (Turkmenistan)
• National Youth Day (India)
• Prosecutor General's Day (Russia)
• Zanzibar Revolution Day (Tanzania)
• Yennayer (Algeria)

See also

In Spanish: 12 de enero para niños