HISTORY FOR JULY 12

Today is Saturday, July 12, the 194th day of 2008 with 172 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Neptune, Mercury and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn.

This Day in History, July 12
On July 12th, 1534, King Henry the VIII married his final wife, Catherine Parr.

Other Notable Events, July 12
In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized a new award, the Medal of Honor highest military award for valor against an enemy.

In 1933, a U.S. industrial code was established to fix a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour.

In 1962, the Rolling Stones gave their first public performance, at the Marquee Club in London.

In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale named Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., as his running mate. She was the first woman to share a major U.S. political party's presidential ticket. They lost in November, however, to incumbent Ronald Reagan.

In 1990, Boris Yeltsin quit the Soviet Communist Party, saying he wanted to concentrate on his duties as president of the Russian republic.

In 1991, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused the former ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, of misleading them about prewar meetings with Saddam Hussein.

In 1994, PLO chief Yasser Arafat and his wife took up permanent residence in the Gaza Strip.

In 1995, at least 800 people died in the Midwest and Northeast as the result of a heat wave that lasted five days.

In 1996, as part of her divorce settlement from British Prince Charles, Princess Diana kept the princess title and received about $25 million in a lump sum followed by an income of $600,000 a year.

In 2000, the United States and Vietnam reached a trade agreement that would allow unfettered commerce between the two nations for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War.

In 2004, Saudi Arabia said it had rounded up hundreds of terror suspects but denied the existence of al-Qaida in that country.

In 2005, AIDS activists said South Africa may have the world's largest number of HIV cases, with possibly more than 6 million of the nation's 40 million people infected.

In 2007, a White House report indicated that the Iraqi government had satisfactorily met eight of 18 benchmarks, including troop deployment in and around Baghdad and in training of troops.




Notable Birthdays for July 12
Those born on this date include:
- Roman leader Julius Caesar in 100 B.C.
- American writer Henry David Thoreau in 1817
- Photography pioneer George Eastman in 1854
- Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani in 1884
- Composer Oscar Hammerstein II in 1895
- Author-architect R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome in 1895
- Comedian Milton Berle in 1908
- Bandleader Will Bradley in 1912
- Painter Andrew Wyeth in 1917 (age 91)
- Former General Motors Chairman Roger B. Smith in 1925 (age 83)
- Pianist Van Cliburn in 1934 (age 74)
- Comedian/actor Bill Cosby in 1937 (age 71)
- Exercise and diet guru Richard Simmons in 1948 (age 60)
- Actress Denise Nicholas in 1944 (age 64)
- Actress Cheryl Ladd in 1951 (age 57)
- Actress Mel Harris in 1957 (age 51)
- Talk-show host Rolanda Watts in 1959 (age 49)
- Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi in 1971 (age 37)


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