TODAY IN HISTORY - FEBRUARY 12TH

1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).

1775 – Louisa Adams, English-American wife of John Quincy Adams, 6th First Lady of the United States (d. 1852) is born.

1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865) is born.

1855 – Michigan State University is established.

1877 – Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (d. 1944) is born.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

1914 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.

1935 – USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks.

1946 – African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the Civil Rights Movement and partially inspires Orson Welles' film Touch of Evil.

1947 – Christian Dior unveils a "New Look", helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.

1954 – Lyons's LEO produces a payroll report. It is the first time in history a computer is used in business.

1963 – Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.

1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

2000 – Tom Landry, American football player and coach (b. 1924) dies.

2000 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, created Peanuts (b. 1922) dies.

2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.