12 History Lessons + 4 Births & 6 Deaths for May 12, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1191 – Richard the Lionheart marries Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus during the Third Crusade.
- 1551 – The National University of San Marcos, the oldest in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.
- 1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed, providing governance for settlers in the frontier area of modern-day Tennessee.
- 1932 – Ten weeks after being kidnapped, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr. is found in Hopewell, New Jersey.
- 1941 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world’s first working programmable, fully automatic computer.
- 1949 – The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin, ending the Berlin Airlift.
- 1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon after a failed soft landing attempt.
- 1978 – The U.S. Commerce Department declares that hurricanes will no longer be exclusively named after women.
- 1982 – During a visit to Portugal, Pope John Paul II survives an attempted stabbing in Fatima.
- 1994 – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is established by the UN.
- 2002 – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits Cuba, the first sitting or former U.S. president to do so since Castro’s 1959 revolution.
- 2008 – A 7.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Sichuan Province in China, killing over 69,000 people.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1950 – Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor and producer (The Usual Suspects) (75)
- 1978 – Malin Åkerman, Swedish-American actress and singer (Watchmen) (47)
- 1983 – Domhnall Gleeson, Irish actor (Ex Machina, Star Wars) (42)
- 1993 – Kim Tae-hyung (V), South Korean singer, member of BTS (32)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1700 – John Dryden, English poet and playwright, former Poet Laureate (Age 68)
- 1884 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (Má vlast) (Age 60)
- 1965 – Roger Byrne, English footballer, captain of Manchester United (Age 28)
- 2001 – Perry Como, American singer and television personality (Age 88)
- 2008 – Robert Rauschenberg, influential American pop artist (Age 82)
- 2022 – Jack Kehler, American character actor (The Big Lebowski) (Age 75)
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