August 12

August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 141 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

Pre-1600

• 1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon, where the Crusaders decisively defeat the Fatimid army.
• 1121 – Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV decisively defeats the Seljuk Turkish army, leading to the recapture of Tbilisi.

1601–1900

• 1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, the second and outermost moon of Mars.

1901–present

• 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) is officially introduced to the market, setting a new standard for personal computing.
• 1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Mount Takamagahara in Japan, killing 520 people in the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in history.
• 2000 – The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea during a naval exercise, resulting in the deaths of all 118 personnel on board.
• 2005 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched from Cape Canaveral to study the Martian climate and geology.
• 2018 – NASA's Parker Solar Probe is launched, designed to study the outer corona of the Sun and become the closest spacecraft to the Sun in history.

Births

• 1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian-Irish physicist and Nobel laureate (d. 1961)
• 1939 – George Hamilton, American actor
• 1949 – Mark Knopfler, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontman of Dire Straits
• 1992 – Cara Delevingne, English model and actress

Deaths

• 1955 – Thomas Mann, German novelist, essayist, and Nobel laureate (b. 1875)
• 1982 – Henry Fonda, American stage and film actor (b. 1905)
• 2014 – Lauren Bacall, American actress and singer, known for her distinctive voice and on-screen chemistry with Humphrey Bogart (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances

• International Youth Day (United Nations)
• Mother's Day (Thailand), celebrated on the birthday of Queen Sirikit the Queen Mother
• Peak of the Perseid meteor shower, an annual astronomical event associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle
• Christian feast day: Saint Jane Frances de Chantal