Happy Birthday February 12

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury. His father, Robert Darwin, was a successful local doctor, but was stern and critical towards him. Darwin's mother, Susannah Wedgwood, was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter. His other grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, a naturalist, poet and philosopher who had put forward his own theory of evolution. As a boy he was so enamored with chemistry that his young friends nicknamed him "Gas".

Painting of seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816.

Alice Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's only child from his first marriage, was born on February 12, 1884. Alice Lee Roosevelt was the toast of Washington, D.C. When friends asked if he could rein in his daughter, Roosevelt said, "I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."  When she was 16, the song "Alice-Blue Gown" was written about Alice. As a result Alice Blue came to describe a light blueish green color.

For more February 12 anniversaries, including the founding of the state of Georgia, the premiere of George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” and the first spacecraft to orbit and soft land on an asteroid, check out OnThatDay