Trivia Of The Day February 12

The position of a Venetian gondolier is extremely exclusive and difficult to attain. Only 425 licenses are granted each year, and applicants must be Venetian by birth. Apprenticeships involve over 400 hours of training,

Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's tallest waterfall. The water there plunges 807 metres to the ground, and it has a total height of 979 metres. It is 17 times higher than Niagara Falls.

Ángel Falls, By Jsembergmanl

Ancient peoples actually slept in two periods, sometimes termed “first sleep” and “second sleep,” each lasting four hours with a two hour reprieve in between. Additionally, most people would take a mid-afternoon rest ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

For more Trivia Of The Days click here.

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

Today Is February 12

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 into an illiterate and wandering frontier family.

Lincoln's Birthday is a legal, public holiday in some U.S. states, observed on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on February 12, 1809. Connecticut,  Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, California, Missouri, and New York observe the holiday.

Charles Darwin was also born on the same day. He was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England.

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one roomed log cabin, on Sinking Spring farm at Hodgenville (Hodgensville, Hodgen's Mill), Kentucky, It is now a national historic site open to the public. He was the first president to be born outside of the original 13 colonies.

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, defeating a deeply divided Democratic Party. He was the first president from the Republican Party. Lincoln's victory on an anti slavery ticket was entirely due to the strength of his support in the North and West; he won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states.

Five days after General Lee's surrender, on April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to attend the play Our American Cousin by English playwright Tom Taylor with his wife at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. During the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland, entered the presidential box and fired a pistol at point-blank range into the back of Lincoln's head