July 12

Today in History
• 1109 - Crusaders capture Syria's harbor city of Tripoli
• 1191 - English King Richard I the Lionheart and Crusaders defeat Saracens in Palestine
• 1561 - "Trinity Church" (now Saint Basil's Cathedral) is consecrated in Moscow, Russia
• 1580 - Ostrog Bible, the first printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published
• 1630 - New Amsterdam's governor buys Gull Island from Indians, renames it Oyster Island
• 1700 - Gelderland accepts Gregorian calendar
• 1774 - Citizens of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, pass a symbolic declaration of independence
• 1785 - 1st manned flight by gas balloon in Netherlands


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Battle of the Boyne
• Kiribati National Day
• Mexico: Lawyer's Day
• National Eat Your Jello Day
• National Pecan Pie Day
• National Simplicity Day
• Night of Nights
• Pulse Night of Remembrance

Birthdays
• 1394 - Ashikaga Yoshinori, Japanese shogun (1429-41)
• 1730 - Josiah Wedgwood, pottery designer and manufacturer (Wedgwood)
• 1803 - Peter Chanel, French priest and saint
• 1813 - Claude Bernard, French physiologist involved in the founding of modern physiology
• 1849 - William Osler, Canadian physician and author (circulatory system)
• 1852 - Hipólito YrigoyenHipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina
• 1854 - George Eastman, born in Waterville, New York, inventor, Kodak camera
• 1864 - George Washington Carver, African-American agricultural scientist