what happened on february 12 in history

February 13, 2026

Here’s a curated Quick Scoop on what happened on February 12 in history , mixing major world events, U.S. milestones, culture, and a bit of forum- style flavor.

Big Historical Events on February 12

1429 – English forces protected a crucial supply convoy to the army besieging Orléans in the Battle of the Herrings , an episode in the Hundred Years’ War that helped set the stage for Joan of Arc’s later actions.

1502 – Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon with 15 ships and about 800 men on his second voyage to India, reinforcing Portugal’s push into the Indian Ocean trade routes.

1502 – Queen Isabella I of Castile issued an edict banning Islam in her realms, forcing remaining Muslim subjects in Castile to convert to Christianity, part of a broader campaign of religious uniformity after the Reconquista.

1541 – Santiago, Chile was founded by conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, becoming one of the most important cities in Spanish South America.

1593 – In the Siege of Haengju , roughly 3,000 Korean defenders under General Kwŏn Yul repelled more than 30,000 Japanese troops during the Japanese invasions of Korea, a famous underdog victory in Korean history.

1689 – The English Convention Parliament declared that James II’s flight to France in 1688 counted as abdication, paving the way for William and Mary and the constitutional shift known as the Glorious Revolution.

1733 – James Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia at Savannah, creating the thirteenth of the original Thirteen Colonies in what became the United States.

1817 – A combined Argentine‑Chilean patriot army defeated Spanish royalist forces at the Battle of Chacabuco , a key step in Chile’s independence struggle.

1818 – Bernardo O’Higgins formally approved the Chilean Declaration of Independence , solidifying Chile’s break from Spanish rule.

1825 – The Creek Nation ceded its remaining lands in Georgia to the U.S. in the Treaty of Indian Springs , with removal westward to follow, an event now seen as part of a broader pattern of dispossession of Native nations.

1832 – Ecuador annexed the Galápagos Islands , later famous as the setting where Darwin made observations that fed into his theory of evolution.

Politics, Rights, and Conflict

1889 – Antonín Dvořák’s opera Jakobín premiered at the National Theater in Prague, reflecting Czech national and cultural themes.

1894 – An anarchist, Émile Henry, bombed Café Terminus in Paris; this attack became one of the emblematic incidents of the so‑called “era of attacks” that influenced modern views of terrorism.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded, becoming one of the most enduring and influential U.S. civil‑rights organizations.

1912 – China’s last emperor, the Xuantong Emperor (Puyi) , abdicated , formally ending the Qing dynasty and imperial rule in China.

1919 – The Second Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents met at Huliaipole, associated with the anarchist Makhnovshchina movement in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War.

1921 – Bolsheviks launched a revolt in Georgia that preceded the Red Army’s full invasion and eventual Sovietization of the country.

1946 – Operation Deadlight concluded, after the Allies scuttled 121 of 154 captured German U‑boats, removing them from post‑war naval calculations.

1946 – African American veteran Isaac Woodard was brutally beaten and blinded by a police officer in South Carolina shortly after his honorable discharge; the outrage helped galvanize later civil‑rights reforms and influenced cultural works like Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.

Disasters, Weather, and the Unexpected

1909 – The inter‑island ferry SS Penguin sank and exploded near the entrance to Wellington Harbour, in what is described as New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster of the 20th century.

1935 – The U.S. Navy airship USS Macon , one of the largest helium‑filled airships ever built, crashed into the Pacific Ocean off California and sank, effectively ending the U.S. experiment with rigid airships as long‑range scouts.

1945 – A severe tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama killed 45 people and injured 427, a stark reminder of how vulnerable the U.S. Southeast is to winter and early‑spring tornadoes.

1947 – The Sikhote‑Alin meteorite , one of the largest observed iron meteorites in modern times, exploded and struck in the Soviet Union, leaving a major crater field and a trove of meteorite fragments for scientists.

Culture, Music, and Ideas

1924 – In New York, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered, becoming one of the defining works of symphonic jazz and a signature American concert piece.

1909 (again, but from a cultural lens) – The NAACP’s founding also signaled a new phase in organized activism, legal strategy, and public messaging around racial equality in the United States.

Notable Births and Other Highlights (Forum / Trivia Flavor)

Even though the detailed list isn’t fully quoted here, February 12 is widely associated in public trivia and news segments with:

The shared birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin , often featured together on “this day in history” segments and trivia quizzes.

The founding of the NAACP (again a frequent trivia question), plus various pop‑culture notes like cartoonist Charles Schulz’s death being highlighted in “Today in History” videos for this date.

Online communities such as a daily trivia thread for February 12, where users test themselves on historical events from this date and compare scores in the comments.

A typical forum thread for this date will mix questions about the NAACP, Lincoln, Darwin, and major 20th‑century events, with users posting their scores, small jokes, and corrections to each other’s historical details.

Mini HTML Table of Key Events

Below is a compact HTML table with a few standout February 12 moments:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Year</th>
      <th>Event</th>
      <th>Why It Matters</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>1502</td>
      <td>Vasco da Gama departs Lisbon on his second voyage to India.[web:5]</td>
      <td>Strengthens Portuguese control over Indian Ocean trade routes.[web:5]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1541</td>
      <td>Founding of Santiago, Chile, by Pedro de Valdivia.[web:5]</td>
      <td>Creates a major colonial (and later national) capital in South America.[web:5]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1733</td>
      <td>James Oglethorpe founds the colony of Georgia at Savannah.[web:5]</td>
      <td>Establishes the thirteenth British colony in North America.[web:5]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1818</td>
      <td>Bernardo O’Higgins approves the Chilean Declaration of Independence.[web:5]</td>
      <td>Consolidates Chile’s independence from Spain.[web:5]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1909</td>
      <td>Founding of the NAACP.[web:5][web:9]</td>
      <td>Becomes a central organization in the U.S. civil-rights movement.[web:5][web:9]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1912</td>
      <td>Abdication of the Xuantong Emperor, last emperor of China.[web:1][web:3][web:5][web:7]</td>
      <td>Formally ends the Qing dynasty and imperial China.[web:1][web:3][web:5][web:7]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1924</td>
      <td>Premiere of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.[web:7]</td>
      <td>Becomes one of the best-known works of symphonic jazz.[web:7]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1947</td>
      <td>Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite fall in the Soviet Union.[web:5]</td>
      <td>One of the largest observed iron meteorite impacts, important for science.[web:5]</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Today’s “Trending Topic” Angle

If you looked at social media, trivia subs, or “Today in History” clips on February 12 right now, you’d likely see:

Posts pairing Lincoln and Darwin as “born on the same day” with debates about coincidence versus deeper meaning.

Educational threads on the end of imperial China and how Puyi’s abdication reshaped East Asian politics.

Civil‑rights timelines that use the NAACP’s founding and Isaac Woodard’s case to trace the road toward the mid‑20th‑century rights revolution.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.