August 12th
Today in America's Present Past
1658 | The first American police force forms (New Amsterdam, now New York City, New York).
1781 | Architect Robert Mills was born.
1795 | SCOTUS: Justice John Rutledge was sworn in.
1816 | Printer Mary Katharine Goddard died.
1849 | Painter Abbott Handerson Thayer was born.
1851 | Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine.
1852 | Cleric Fr. Michael J. McGivney was born.
1856 | Entrepreneur Diamond Jim Brady was born.
1861 | Entrepreneur Eliphalet Remington died.
1862 | Buffalo dock riots start.
1867 | Classicist Edith Hamilton was born.
1877 | Thomas Edison creates the Phonograph
1881 | Director Cecil B. DeMille was born.
1885 | Author Helen Hunt Jackson died.
1889 | Author Zerna Sharp was born.
1891 | Novelist James Russell Lowell died.
1900 | Astronomer James Edward Keeler died.
1908 | Henry Ford produces his first Model T.
1922 | The home of Frederick Douglass was made a national monument.
1937 | Author Walter Dean Myers was born.
1955 | POTUS: Republican President Eisenhower raised the minimum wage.
1955 | Chemist James B. Sumner died.
1963 | Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot was born.
1971 | Tennis pro Pete Sampras was born.
1973 | Pro wrestler Jonathan Coachman was born.
1975 | Actor Casey Affleck was born.
1982 | Actor Henry Fonda died.
1988 | Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat died.
1998 | Actor Rudy Pankow was born.
2007 | TV personality Merv Griffin died.
2014 | Actress Lauren Bacall died.
2022 | Author Salman Rushdie was attacked and repeatedly stabbed on stage before giving a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.