August 12 in Pop Culture History
30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, by means of an asp bite.
1851 – Isaac Singer was granted a patent (#8,294) for his sewing machine.
1877 – Asaph Hall discovered the Mars moon Deimos.
1883 – The last quagga, a kind of zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 1984, the quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analyzed.
1901 – the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened.
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, was launched.
1960- First published today, Green Eggs and Ham consists of just 50 words and the letters J, P, Q, V, and Z don’t appear anywhere in the book.
1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1978 – #1 Hit August 12, 1978 – August 25, 1978: Commodores – Three Times a Lady
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer was released.
1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, becoming the worst single-plane air disaster.
1989 – #1 Hit August 12, 1989 – September 1, 1989: Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, was discovered by paleontologist Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
1994 – Major League Baseball players went on strike, forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
2000 – #1 Hit August 12, 2000 – August 25, 2000: Sisqo – Incomplete