Today is Tuesday, February 12, the 43rd day of 2013. There are 322 days left in the year.
1818 ― Chile gains independence from Spain
1877 ― First news dispatch by telephone, between Boston and Salem, Mass.
1912 ― Last Ching (Manchu) Emperor of China, Henry Pui, abdicates
1921 ― Winston Churchill becomes British minister of colonies
1924 ― George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" premieres at Carnegie Hall (New York City)
1934 ― France hit by a general strike against fascists and royalists
1950 ― Senator Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees
1950 ― Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb
1955 ― President Eisenhower sends first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam
1991 ― South and North Korea form a joint team for table tennis competition