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.

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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

On This Day January 23

In 1948 a young American just out of the army, Walter Frederick Morrison, applied for a patent for a plastic flying disc. It is said the idea originated when Morrison and his wife began flinging pie tins to one another on the beach. On January 23, 1957 Morrison sold the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, (inventors of the hula- hoop). Called at first the “Toy Flying Saucer”, they changed its name to the Frisbee disc.

Walter Frederick Morrison promoting his Pluto Platters, forerunner of the Frisbee.

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On This Day January 11

At Toronto's General Hospital, 14-year-old diabetic Leonard Thompson became on January 11, 1922 the first person to be treated with the insulin drug, using a fetal calf pancreas extract. However, the ox extract was so impure, Thompson suffered a severe allergic reaction, and further injections were canceled. A second dose was injected twelve days later with an improved extract. This was completely successful in completely eliminating the glycosuria sign of diabetes.

Insulin

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On This Day July 18

The Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky married his student Antonina Ivanovna Milivkova at the Church of Saint George in Moscow on July 18, 1877. The marriage was hasty, and Tchaikovsky quickly found he could not bear his wife.  Finding Antonina physically repulsive, Tchaikovsky sneaked away one night six weeks after their marriage and fled to his brother, Anatoly in St Petersburg. Antonia kept in touch with letters and they never divorced.

Tchaikovsky and Antonina on their honeymoon

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On This Day May 21

On May 21, 1809 the French made their first major effort to cross the Danube during the Napoleonic Wars, precipitating the Battle of Aspern-Essling. However, they were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles. The result was the first defeat Napoleon suffered personally in a major set-piece battle in over a decade. The French emperor's set back caused excitement throughout many parts of Europe because it proved that he could be beaten on the battlefield.

The Battle of Aspern-Essling by Fernand Cornon

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