today.nukz.net: Almanac August 12

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), was an Austrian who as a physicist became one of the founders of quantum mechanics. His important contributions, especially the Schrödinger equation, resulted in his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933. Two years later he proposed the thought experiment known as Schrödinger's cat, famous among physicists. He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology.

Events

30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1121 – Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1323 – Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia), that regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.
1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
1624 – The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.
1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.
1793 – The Rhône and Loire (Lêre) départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.
1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.
1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1898 – An Armistice ends the Spanish–American War.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ?Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
1914 – World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
1914 – World War I: the Belgium Battle of Haelen a.k.a. (Battle of the Silver Helmets) last cavalry style attack from the German army on the city of Halen Belgium.
1944 – Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.
1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
1950 – Bloody Gulch massacre : American POWs were massacred by North Korean Army.
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
1953 – Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1977 – The 1977 riots in Sri Lanka, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed.
1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin American Integration Association, is signed.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1982 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
2007 – The bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
2012 – Sushil Kumar won India's first wrestling silver medal in Olympics?. He also became first Indian to win back-to-back medals at the Olympics (Bronze medal in Beijing Olympics 2008 and Silver medal in London Olympics 2012).

Births

1503 – King Christian III of Denmark and Norway (d. 1559)
1566 – Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia Spain (d. 1633)
1604 – Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)
1629 – Czar Alexis I of Russia (d. 1676)
1644 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)
1647 – Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
1686 – John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)
1696 – Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)
1720 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)
1762 – King George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)
1774 – Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)
1831 – Helena Blavatsky, Russian theosophist (d. 1891)
1856 – Diamond Jim Brady, American financier (d. 1917)
1859 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)
1860 – Klara Hitler, Austrian mother of dictator Adolf Hitler (d. 1907)
1866 – Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1954)
1866 – Henrik Sillem, Dutch sports shooter (d. 1907)
1867 – Edith Hamilton, German-born American classicist (d. 1963)
1872 – Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1956)
1876 – Mary Roberts Rinehart, American mystery writer (d. 1958)
1877 – Albert Bartha, Hungarian military officer and politician (d. 1960)
1880 – Radclyffe Hall, British poet, novelist and LGBT activist (d. 1943)
1880 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d. 1925)
1881 – Cecil B. DeMille, American film director (d. 1959)
1883 – Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938)
1883 – Martha Hedman, Swedish-American actress (d. 1974)
1883 – Marion Lorne, American actress (d. 1968)
1885 – Jean Cabannes, French physicist (d. 1959)
1886 – Sir Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist and newspaper owner (d. 1952)
1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1961)
1889 – Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (Dick and Jane) (d. 1981)
1891 – C. E. M. Joad, English philosopher and broadcaster (d. 1953)
1892 – Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977)
1897 – Maurice Fernandes, Guyanese West Indies cricketer (d. 1981)
1899 – Ben Sealey, Trinidadian West Indies cricketer (d. 1963)
1902 – Mohammad Hatta, first Vice President of Indonesia (d. 1980)
1904 – Tamás Lossonczy, Hungarian painter (d. 2009)
1906 – Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (d. 1985)
1906 – Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)
1907 – Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)
1907 – Benjamin Henry Sheares, second President of Singapore (d. 1981)
1909 – Bruce Matthews, Canadian Army officer and businessman (d. 1991)
1910 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)
1910 – Yusof bin Ishak, first President of Singapore (d. 1970)
1911 – Cantinflas, Mexican actor (d. 1993)
1912 – Samuel Fuller, American film director (d. 1997)
1913 – Richard Bare, American director
1914 – Gerd Buchdahl, German philosopher (d. 2001)
1914 – Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (d. 1981)
1915 – Sickan Carlsson, Swedish actress and singer (d. 2011)
1915 – Michael Kidd, American choreographer (d. 2007)
1916 – Ioan Dicezare, Romanian aviator, Order of the Crown and Order of Michael the Brave recipient (d. 2012)
1918 – Guy Gibson, British aviator, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1944)
1919 – Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)
1922 – Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor (d. 1987)
1923 – John Holt, Jamaican West Indies cricketer (d. 1997)
1924 – Derek Shackleton, English cricketer (d. 2007)
1924 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 6th President of Pakistan (d. 1988)
1925 – Dale Bumpers, American politician
1925 – Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
1925 – Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
1925 – George Wetherill, American physicist (d. 2006)
1925 – Guillermo Cano Isaza, Colombian journalist (d. 1986)
1926 – John Derek, American actor (d. 1998)
1926 – Joe Jones, American R&B singer (d. 2005)
1926 – Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)
1927 – Porter Wagoner, American singer (d. 2007)
1928 – Charles Blackman, Australian artist
1928 – Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
1928 – Dan Curtis, American film and television producer and director (d.2006)
1929 – Buck Owens, American singer (d. 2006)
1930 – George Soros Hungarian-born American financier and political activist
1930 – Jacques Tits, Belgian mathematician
1931 – William Goldman, American screenwriter
1932 – Dallin H. Oaks, American The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apostle and former Utah Supreme Court Justice
1932 – Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer (d. 2010)
1932 – Sirikit, Queen consort of Thailand, wife of Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX)
1933 – Parnelli Jones, American race car driver and team owner
1935 – John Cazale, American actor (d. 1978)
1937 – Walter Dean Myers, American novelist and poet
1938 – Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian politician, 38th Mayor of Quebec City
1939 – Michael D. Antonovich, American politician
1939 – Skip Caray, American TV and radio baseball announcer (Atlanta Braves) (d. 2008)
1939 – George Hamilton, American actor
1939 – Roy Romanow, Canadian politician
1940 – Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
1941 – Réjean Ducharme, Canadian novelist and playwright
1941 – Dana Ivey, American actress
1942 – Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, German physician
1943 – Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001)
1945 – Ron Mael, American keyboardist (Sparks)
1946 – Deborah Howe, American children's writer
1946 – Terry Nutkins, British TV presenter
1947 – Sam Rosen, American sportscaster
1948 – Sue Monk Kidd, American author
1949 – Panagiotis Chinofotis, Greek politician
1949 – Mark Knopfler, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (Dire Straits)
1949 – Rick Ridgeway, American mountaineer
1950 – Jim Beaver, American actor and writer
1951 – Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist
1952 – Chen Kaige, Chinese film director
1954 – Ibolya Dávid, Hungarian lawyer and politician
1954 – Sam J. Jones, American actor
1954 – Pat Metheny, American guitarist
1954 – François Hollande, 24th President of France
1955 – Ann M. Martin, American children's writer
1955 – Terry Taylor, American professional wrestler
1956 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
1956 – Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer
1957 – Friedhelm Schütte, German footballer
1958 – Jürgen Dehmel, German bass player and songwriter (Nena)
1959 – Amanda Redman, English actress
1960 – Laurent Fignon, French cyclist (d. 2010)
1960 – Greg Thomas, England cricketer
1960 – Eduardo Tokeshi, Peruvian artist
1961 – Roy Hay, British guitarist and keyboardist (Culture Club)
1961 – Lawrence Hayward, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Felt, Denim, Go Kart Mozart)
1961 – Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer
1963 – Koji Kitao (Futahaguro Koji), Japanese sumo wrestler (the 60th Yokozuna) and professional wrestler
1963 – Sir Mix-a-Lot, American rapper
1965 – Peter Krause, American actor
1967 – Andy Hui, Hong Kong actor and singer
1967 – Andrey Plotnikov, Russian race walker
1967 – Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer
1968 – Thorsten Boer, German footballer
1968 – Andras Jones, American actor
1969 – Aga Muhlach, Filipino actor
1969 – Tanita Tikaram, British singer
1969 – Stuart Williams, Nevisian West Indies cricketer
1970 – Charles Mesure, British actor
1970 – Jim Schlossnagle, American baseball coach
1970 – Anthony Swofford, American novelist
1971 – Michael Ian Black, American comedian
1971 – Yvette Nicole Brown, American actress
1971 – Rebecca Gayheart, American actress
1971 – Pete Sampras, American tennis player
1972 – Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer
1972 – Takanohana Koji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 65th Yokozuna
1972 – Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer
1972 – Del the Funky Homosapien, American hip hop artist
1973 – Joseba Beloki, Spanish cyclist
1973 – Jonathan Coachman, American professional wrestler and executive
1973 – Todd Marchant, American ice hockey player
1973 – Richard Reid, British terrorist (the "Shoe Bomber")
1973 – Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraqi theologian and political leader
1974 – Matt Clement, American baseball player
1975 – Casey Affleck, American actor
1976 – Pedro Collins, Barbadian cricketer
1976 – Mikko Lindström, Finnish guitarist (HIM)
1976 – Brad Lukowich, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Richard McCourt, English children's television presenter
1976 – Henry Tuilagi, Samoan rugby union footballer
1976 – Antoine Walker, American basketball player
1976 – Wednesday 13, American vocalist (Wednesday 13, Murderdolls)
1977 – Plaxico Burress, American football player
1977 – Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer
1977 – Park Yong-ha, South Korean actor and singer (d. 2010)
1978 – Chris Chambers, American football player
1978 – Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – D. J. Houlton, American baseball player
1979 – Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater
1979 – Austra Skujyte, Lithuanian athlete
1980 – Maggie Lawson, American actress
1980 – Dominique Swain, American actress
1980 – Matt Thiessen, Canadian singer-songwriter (Relient K)
1980 – Jade Villalon, American singer-songwriter
1981 – Tony Capaldi, Northern Irish footballer
1981 – Djibril Cissé, French footballer
1982 – Iza Calzado, Filipino TV actress
1982 – Alexandros Tzorvas, Greek footballer
1983 – Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer
1983 – Manoa Vosawai, Italian rugby player
1983 – Mark Webster, Welsh Dart player
1984 – Marian Rivera, Filipino actress
1985 – Franck Moutsinga, German rugby player
1987 – Sabrina Herft, Miss Sri Lanka 2012
1988 – Leah Pipes, American actress
1989 – Tom Cleverley, English footballer
1990 – Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer
1990 – Enzo Pineda, Filipino television actor
1990 – Marvin Zeegelaar, Dutch footballer
1990 – Martin Zurawsky, German footballer

Deaths

30 BC – Cleopatra VII (b. 69 BC)
875 – Louis II of Italy, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)
1424 – Yongle Emperor of China (b. 1360)
1484 – Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)
1484 – George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)
1512 – Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
1577 – Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)
1588 – Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder, Italian composer (b. 1543)
1612 – Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer
1633 – Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)
1638 – Johannes Althusius, German writer (b. 1557)
1648 – Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)
1674 – Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)
1689 – Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)
1778 – Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
1809 – Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)
1810 – Étienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)
1822 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, English politician and statesman (b. 1769)
1827 – William Blake, English poet and artist (b. 1757)
1829 – Charles Sapinaud de La Rairie, French royalist general and counterrevolutionary (b. 1760)
1848 – George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)
1849 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1761)
1851 – John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, British barrister and a pioneer in women's education in India (b. 1801)
1861 – Eliphalet Remington, American inventor (b. 1793)
1864 – Sakuma Shozan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)
1865 – William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)
1891 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
1896 – Thomas Chamberlain, American Civil War military figure (b. 1841)
1900 – Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)
1901 – Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-born Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
1904 – William Renshaw, British tennis player (b. 1861)
1914 – John Philip Holland, Irish submarine designer (b. 1840)
1918 – Anna Held, Polish-born American actress and singer (b. 1872)
1918 – William Thompson, American archer (b. 1848)
1922 – Arthur Griffith, Irish politician (b. 1871)
1924 – Sándor Bródy, Hungarian author and journalist (b. 1863)
1928 – Leoš Janácek, Czech composer (b. 1854)
1934 – Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)
1935 – Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)
1941 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)
1941 – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, 56th Governor General of Canada, 42nd Viceroy of India (b. 1866)
1943 – Vittorio Sella, Italian photographer (b. 1859)
1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., brother of President John F. Kennedy (b. 1915)
1948 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)
1952 – David Bergelson, Ukrainian-born Soviet Yiddish language writer (b. 1884)
1955 – Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1875)
1955 – James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)
1959 – Mike O'Neill, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1877)
1964 – Ian Fleming, English novelist, creator of James Bond (b. 1908)
1967 – Esther Forbes, American novelist (b. 1891)
1973 – Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)
1973 – Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1898)
1979 – Sir Ernst Boris Chain, British biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1906)
1982 – Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)
1982 – Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
1982 – Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)
1984 – Lenny Breau, American jazz guitarist (b. 1941)
1985 – Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (b. 1941)
1985 – Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)
1988 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American painter and graffiti artist (b. 1960)
1989 – William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1910)
1989 – Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian footballer (b. 1964)
1990 – B. Kliban, American cartoonist (b. 1935)
1990 – Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)
1992 – John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)
1996 – Robert Gravel, French-Canadian actor and theatrical director (b. 1945)
1996 – Mark Gruenwald, American comic book writer and editor (b. 1953)
1996 – Viktor Hambardzumyan, Soviet Armenian scientist (b. 1908)
1997 – Luther Allison, American blues guitarist (b. 1939)
1999 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian politician (b. 1916)
2000 – Gennady Lyachin, Commanding officer of the Russian submarine Kursk (b. 1955)
2000 – Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
2002 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916)
2004 – Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1919)
2004 – Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)
2005 – John Loder, English sound engineer and record producer (b. 1946)
2007 – Merv Griffin, American television host and game show creator (b. 1925)
2007 – Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (b. 1963)
2008 – Christie Allen, English-born Australian pop singer (b. 1954)
2010 – Isaac Bonewits, American writer and neopaganist (b. 1949)
2010 – Richie Hayward, American musician (Little Feat) (b. 1946)
2010 – André Kim, South Korean Fashion Designer (b. 1935)
2010 – Guido de Marco, Maltan politician and diplomat (b. 1931)
2011 – Robert Robinson, English television host (b. 1927)
2012 – Joe Kubert, American illustrator, founded The Kubert School (b. 1926)
2012 – Frank Martin, American attorney and politician (b. 1938)
2012 – Edgar Morales Pérez, Mexican politician