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Events on February 12

• 1541 The Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago del Nuevo Extremo, today's Santiago de Chile, the first city on Chilean soil.
• 1776 On the Ettersberg in Weimar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe writes his first poem titled Wandrers Nachtlied and includes it in a letter to Charlotte von Stein.
• 1797 Joseph Haydn's Emperor's Hymn, with text by Lorenz Leopold Haschka, is performed in all Viennese theaters on the occasion of Emperor Franz II's birthday, at the Burgtheater in the Emperor's own presence. The people's hymn is a deliberate counter-design to the French revolutionary Marseillaise.
• 1924 George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres at Aeolian Hall in Manhattan, New York, with the composer at the piano. The Experiment in Modern Music, an attempt to combine jazz and classical music, receives very mixed reviews.
• 1941 In Oxford, a police officer is treated as the first patient with penicillin.
• 1947 In the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, the first edition of the newspaper Junge Welt appears as the organ of the Free German Youth (FDJ).
• 1990 The two adventurers Arved Fuchs and Reinhold Messner complete their trans-Antarctic crossing via the South Pole upon reaching Scott Base after 92 days and 2,800 kilometers on foot.
• 1994 King Harald V of Norway opens the XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, with his son Haakon lighting the Olympic flame. Cross-country skier Vegard Ulvang speaks the Olympic oath.
• 1999 In the US Senate, the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton following his Lewinsky affair end. No required two-thirds majority is reached for a conviction on perjury or obstruction of justice.
• 2005 In Central Park in New York, Christo and Jeanne-Claude open the art installation The Gates.
• 2012 Duisburg's Lord Mayor Adolf Sauerland, who came under criticism in connection with the Love Parade disaster, is voted out in a citizens' initiative.
• 2017 Frank-Walter Steinmeier is elected as the 12th Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany in the 16th Federal Assembly in the first ballot.

Born on February 12

• 1861 Lou Andreas-Salomé, German writer, narrator, and essayist
• 1870 Hugo Stinnes, German industrialist and politician
• 1881 Anna Pavlova, Russian ballet dancer
• 1922 Gustl Bayrhammer, German actor
• 1930 Gerhard Rühm, Austrian writer, composer, and visual artist
• 1950 Angelo Branduardi, Italian musician
• 1971 Benjamin Sadler, German actor
• 1980 Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player
• 1980 Christina Ricci, American actress
• 1991 Patrick Herrmann, German footballer

Is your birthday on February 12?

Then there is a newspaper that tells only the story of your day: what was going on in the world on February 12 of your birth year, which song was at the top, what the weather was like at your birthplace, plus birthday twins and a personal greeting.

• For every birth year from 1946
• 4 to 10 pages, always €14.90, as a PDF to print
• With a greeting page for voice and video messages

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Source of events and birthdays: German Wikipedia article „12. Februar“, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, selected, shortened and translated by Birthday Paper.

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