On This Day - What Happened On August 12 | Britannica

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1877 Phonograph invented by Thomas Alva Edison On this day in 1877, American inventor Thomas Alva Edison made perhaps his most original discovery, the phonograph, and his early recordings were indentations embossed into a sheet of tinfoil by a vibrating stylus. Take our quiz about inventors and their inventions Brady-Handy Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-cwpbh-04044)

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William Blake British writer and artist bornNovember 28, 1757London, EnglanddiedAugust 12, 1827 (aged 69)London, EnglandUniversal History Archive/Universal Images Group/REX/Shutterstock.com 1954 François Hollande president of France 1930 George Soros American financier 1907 Boy Charlton Australian swimmer 1887 Erwin Schrödinger Austrian physicist 1881 Cecil B. DeMille American film director See All Biographies On This Day

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2014 American actress Lauren Bacall—who was known for her portrayals of provocative women who hid their soft core underneath a layer of hard-edged pragmatism—died at age 89. Test your knowledge of women in classic cinema© Photo 12/Alamy 1990 The most complete and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex was found on South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, and it was nicknamed Sue, after Susan Hendrickson, the paleontologist who discovered the dinosaur fossil. Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about dinosaursCourtesy of The Field Museum, Chicago; photo, John Weinstein 1970 The Paris Saint-Germain men's team was founded through the merger of the football (soccer) clubs Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain. Find out how many times PSG players have won the Ballon d'Or© Justin Setterfield/Getty Images 1966 During a press conference, John Lennon of the Beatles apologized for saying that his band was “more popular than Jesus now”; the comment had sparked protests and album burnings. Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Beatles© Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images 1961 The East German state began construction of the Berlin Wall, which eventually surrounded West Berlin, preventing access to it from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany. It served as a potent symbol of the Cold War until it was opened in 1989. Read about five famous walls, including the Berlin WallAP Images 1955 German author and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann, who was considered the greatest German novelist of the 20th century, died near Zürich, Switzerland. Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literatureLeague of Nations Archives, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2021670579). 1944 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.—U.S. naval pilot, son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and brother of President John F. Kennedy—died in a plane crash while flying on a secret mission during World War II. Explore the Kennedy family treeJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library 1887 Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics for his contributions to the wave theory of matter and to other fundamentals of quantum mechanics, was born in Vienna. How much do you know about physics?Historia/REX/Shutterstock.com 1883 The last known quagga, a type of zebra native to South Africa, died in the Amsterdam zoo.Image courtesy of the Internet Archive (at archive.org) in association with Biodiversity Heritage Library, Harvard University Museum of Comparitive Zoology (CC BY SA-3.0) 1881 American filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille—who was a cinema legend known for using spectacle in such movies as The Ten Commandments (1956)—was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts. Test your knowledge of cinemaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1851 Isaac Merrit Singer patented his sewing machine and formed I.M. Singer & Company to market the product. Take our quiz about inventors and their inventionsLibrary of Congress, Washington, D.C. 1676 Metacom, intertribal chief of the Wampanoag, was killed, ending the conflict between Native peoples and English settlers known as King Philip's War.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. cph 3c00678) SIGN UP FOR History's Biggest Headlines Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors. SIGN UP Thanks for signing up for Today in History. Your first newsletter will arrive soon! SIGN UP By clicking "Sign Up" you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.