http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Aug 12, 1990: Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex discovered
On this day in 1990, fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovers three huge bones jutting out of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. They turn out to be part of the largest-ever Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, a 65 million-year-old specimen dubbed Sue, after its discoverer.
Amazingly, Sue's skeleton was over 90 percent complete, and the bones were extremely well-preserved. Hendrickson's employer, the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, paid $5,000 to the land owner, Maurice Williams, for the right to excavate the dinosaur skeleton, which was cleaned and transported to the company headquarters in Hill City. The institute's president, Peter Larson, announced plans to build a non-profit museum to display Sue along with other fossils of the Cretaceous period.
In 1992, a long legal battle began over Sue. The U.S. Attorney's Office claimed Sue's bones had been seized from federal land and were therefore government property. It was eventually found that Williams, a part-Native American and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, had traded his land to the tribe two decades earlier to avoid paying property taxes, and thus his sale of excavation rights to Black Hills had been invalid. In October 1997, Chicago's Field Museum purchased Sue at public auction at Sotheby's in New York City for $8.36 million, financed in part by the McDonald's and Disney corporations.
Sue's skeleton went on display at the Field Museum in May 2000. The tremendous T.rex skeleton--13 feet high at the hips and 42 feet long from head to toe--is displayed in one of the museum's main halls. Another exhibit gives viewers a close-up view of Sue's five foot-long, 2,000-pound skull with its 58 teeth, some as long as a human forearm.
Sue's extraordinarily well-preserved bones have allowed scientists to determine many things about the life of T.rex. They have determined that the carnivorous dinosaur had an incredible sense of smell, as the olfactory bulbs were each bigger than the cerebrum, the thinking part of the brain. In addition, Sue was the first T.rex skeleton to be discovered with a wishbone, a crucial discovery that provided support for scientists’ theory that birds are a type of living dinosaur. One thing that remains unknown is Sue's actual gender; to determine this, scientists would have to compare many more T.rex skeletons than the 22 that have been found so far.
This was a day when several American wars ended. King Philip's War ended on this date, with the killing of King Philip. When I was younger, I always wondered about the name of the war, which makes it sound like it was a European affair. King Philip just does not sound like a Native American. Also, by naming it after him, it would suggest that he has been assigned all of the responsibility for that war. the Spanish-American War ended on this date as well. Finally, the last American combat troops left Vietnam on this date in 1972.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
3 - Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem
1071 - Alp Arslan beat Byzantines, emperor Romanos IV
Diogenes
1099 - Battle at Ascalon: Godfried of Broth leading the
Crusaders beats Egyptians Fatimid army
1121 - Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David
the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 - Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din defeats the Crusader
armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod
(Russia) regulates the border for the first time.
1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle
1336 - English King Edward III endswool export to Flanders
1480 - Battle of Otranto - Ottoman troops behead 800
Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
1492 - Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on
his first voyage to the New World
1499 - First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between
Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
1508 - Juan Ponce de Leon arrives in Puerto Rico
1530 - Florence surrenders for emperor Karel I
1549 - French troops occupy Ambleteuse England
1553 - Pope Julius III orders confiscation & burning of
Jewish Talmud
1588 - Medemblik surrenders to Spanish army
1658 - 1st US police corps forms (New Amsterdam)
1665 - English fleet beat Dutch fleet
1676 - 1st war between American colonists & Indians ends
in New England
Explorer of the New World Christopher ColumbusExplorer of
the New World Christopher Columbus 1687 - Charles of Lotharingen defeats
Turkish leaders
1687 - Battle of Mohacs: Ottoman invaders of Hungary routed
by forces of Holy Roman Emperor under Charles of Lorraine
1759 - Battle of Kunersdorf - Russian-Austrian army
overpowers Prussians
1793 - The Rhône départment is created when the former
département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two: Rhône and Loire (Lêre).
1812 - Duke of Wellington's troops enter Madrid
1831 - Dutch troops conquer Leuven
1831 - Netherlands & Belgium sign peace treaty
1833 - Chicago is founded.
1851 - 1st America's Cup-US schooner America beats British
yacht Aurora
1851 - Isaac Singer patents sewing machine
1856 - Anthony Fass patents accordion
1861 - Skirmish at Texas - rebels are attacked by Apache
Indians
1862 - Gen John Hunt Morgan & his raiders capture
Gallatin, TX
1863 - 1st cargo of lumber leaves Burrard Inlet (Vancouver,
BC area)
1865 - Joseph Lister performs 1st antiseptic surgery
1867 - Pres A Johnson defies Congress suspending Sec of War
Edwin Stanton
1876 - Madeline (US) beats Countess Dufferin (Canada) in 4th
America's Cup
Inventor Thomas EdisonInventor Thomas Edison 1877 - Thomas
Edison invents Edisonphone, a sound recording device
1879 - 1st National Archery Association tournament (Chicago)
1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in
Amsterdam.
1884 - Bill Murdoch scores 1st Test Cricket double-century,
211 at The Oval
1886 - W G Grace made his highest Test Cricket score, v
Aust, The Oval
1888 - Bertha, wife of inventor Karl Benz, makes 1st motor
tour
1896 - Gold discovered at Klondike River at Dawson
1896 - Willem II soccer team forms in Tilburg
1898 - Hawaii formally annexed to US
1898 - Peace protocol ends Spanish-American War, signed
1901 - Boer general Kritzinger driven out of Cape colony
1905 - King Leopold II opens Central Station Antwerp
1908 - Ford builds the first Model T.
1914 - Cavalery battle at Halen, Belgium ("Battle der
Zilveren Helmen")
1914 - German 16.5"/12" guns fires on forts round
Luik
1914 - Great Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary
1914 - Russian troops take East-Prussia & occupy
Marggrabowa
1915 - "Of Human Bondage," by William Somerset
Maugham, published
Artist/Cubist Co-founder Pablo PicassoArtist/Cubist
Co-founder Pablo Picasso 1916 - Picasso, Max Jacob, Kisling, Ortiz &
Paquerette photographed in Paris
1920 - Battle of Warsaw (Vistula) between Poland and Russia
begins
1922 - Dedication of Frederick Douglas' home in Wash DC as
national shrine
1923 - Dutch AR-leader Coair replaces De Geer as minister of
finances
1923 - Enrico Tiraboschi is 1st to swim English Channel westward
1925 - KMA-AM in Shenandoah IA begins radio transmissions
1925 - The first cast of Alpha Psi Omega, drawn from The
Masquers of Fairmont College, West Virginia, is initiated.
1927 - "Wings," the only silent film to win an
Oscar for best picture, opens
1928 - 9th Olympic Games close in Amsterdam
1931 - Yangtzee River floods after heavy rain crumbles dikes
in China
1933 - Cuban dictator Machado y Morales flees after military
coup
1935 - Babe Ruth's final game at Fenway Park, 41,766 on hand
1936 - 120°F (49°C), Seymour, Texas (state record)
1936 - Demo baseball game at 1936 Olympics in Berlin, world
beats US, 6-5
1936 - Diver Marjorie Gestring is youngest Olympic gold
medalist (13y 268d)
1940 -
Luftwaffe bombs British radar stations, loses 31 aircrafts
1940 - Netherlands starts rationing textile
1941 - French Marshal Henri Petain gave full support to Nazi
Germany
1942 - British premier Churchill arrives in Moscow, meets
Stalin
1942 - German 1st tank leader captures Elista,
Kalmukkensteppe
1942 - Lt-gen Montgomery arrives in Cairo
1943 - Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment
test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
1944 - Churchill & Tito meet in Naples
1944 - Pipeline under ocean (Pluto) begins operating
1944 - Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di
Stazzema.
1948 - Cleveland Indians get 29 hits in a 9 inning game
1948 - Court of justice sentences Gen Fr Christiansen to 12
years
1949 - 16th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Philadelphia 38,
All-Stars 0 (93,780)
1950 - NY Giants (NFL) beat Ottawa Roughriders (CFL) 20-6 in
Ottawa
1950 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Humani generis
1951 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA World Golf Championship
1952 - Hussain ibn Talal proclaimed King of Jordan
1953 - Ann Davison arrives in Miami, becoming the 1st woman
to sail solo across the Atlantic
1953 - Heavy earthquake strikes the Ionian islands, 435
killed
1953 - Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen
bomb
1954 - Senator Eddie Yost draws his 100th walk for 5th year
in a row
1955 - 22nd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 30,
Cleveland 27 (75,000)
1955 - Pres Eisenhower raises minimum wage from 75 cents to
$1 an hour
1955 - WPBT TV channel 2 in Miami, FL (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1956 - KOTI TV channel 2 in Klamath Falls, OR (NBC/CBS)
begins broadcasting
1956 - Marlene Bauer Hagge wins LPGA World Golf Championship
1959 - 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation
Island
1959 - Progressive Party under John Steytler forms in South
Africa
1960 - 27th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Baltimore 32,
All-Stars 7 (70,000)
1960 - Echo 1, 1st communications satellite, is launched
1960 - Ralph Boston of US, sets then long jump record at
8.21m
1960 - USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 41,600 m
1962 - 1st time 2 people in space
1962 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Heart of America Golf
Tournament
1962 - Russia launches Vostok 4, Pavel Popovich, who lands
safely Aug 15
1963 - Portuguese dictator Salazar firm on African
colonization
1963 - Stan Musial announces he will retire at end of year
1964 - 10th time Mantle switch-hits HR in a game, one goes
502 feet
1964 - Mickey Mantle switch-hits HR record 10th & final
time in a game
1964 - Race riot in Elizabeth NJ
1965 - Elizabeth Lane becomes 1st female British supreme
court justice
1965 - Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc applies for a NL
franchise
1965 - Race riot in West Side of Chicago
1967 - New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season victory, beat St
Louis 23-14
1969 - Boston Celtics sold for an NBA record $6 million
1970 - Curt Flood loses his $41 million antitrust suit
against baseball
1971 - Syriam Pres Assad drops diplomatic relations with
Jordan
1972 - "Funny Thing Happened..." closes at
Lunt-Fontanne NYC after 156 perfs
1972 - "Oh! Calcutta!" closes at Belasco Theater
NYC after 1316 performances
1972 - Ian & Greg Chappell both scores centuries in same
Test Cricket innings
1972 - Last American combat ground troops leave Vietnam
1973 - 55th PGA Championship: Jack Nicklaus shoots a 277 at
Canterbury Cleve
1973 - Betty Burfeindt wins LPGA Child & Family Service
Golf Opens
1973 - WPBA National Championship won by Betty Morris
1974 - Nolan Ryan strikes out 19 & walks only 2 as
Angels top Red Sox, 4-2
1974 - Yankees Mickey Mantle & Whitey Ford become 1st
teammates elected to hall of fame on same day
1976 - 1st approach & lands test (ALT) of orbiter
Enterprise
1976 - Christian militia conquer Palestinian camp Tell
al-Za'tar, 2000 killed
1977 - For 2nd straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen
foils a no-hit bid
1977 - High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 launched into
Earth orbit
1977 - Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric flight
1978 - Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
1978 - China & Japan sign peace treaty
1978 - ICE is launched
1979 - "Whoopee!" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after
204 performances
1979 - Iran press censors start massive book burnings
1979 - Judy wins LPGA WUI Golf Classic Rankin
1980 - Signature of the Montevideo Treaty establishing the
Latin American Integration Association.
1981 - IBM introduces PC & PC-DOS version 1.0
1981 - Jon Erikson (US) becomes 1st to triple cross English
Channel (38:27)
1981 - The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1983 - General Manuel A Noriega becomes commander of
Panamanian army
1984 - 23rd Olympic games close at Los Angeles, Calif
1984 - Braves beat Padres 5-3, features 2 brawls & 19
ejections
1984 - Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Pee Wee
Reese, & Luis Aparicio inducted into Hall of Fame
1984 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Henredon Golf Classic
1985 - 7th Emmy Sports Award presentation
1985 - Balt Orioles W Gross & L Sheets are 6th to hit
consecutive pinch HRs
1985 - Japanese Boeing 747SR crashes, 520 die (worst
in-flight toll)
1986 - Don Baylor gets hits by a pitch for a record 25th
time in a season
1986 - Red Sox pitcher Tim Lollar gets a pinch-hit single
1987 - Charles Cole climbs 870'Tyrolean Traverse from top of
Elephant Rock
1988 - Boston Red Sox set AL consecutive home victories at
23
1988 - Movie "Last Temptation of Christ" is
released
Anti-apartheid activist/South African President Nelson
MandelaAnti-apartheid activist/South African President Nelson Mandela 1988 -
Nelson Mandela is treated for tuberculosis at hospital
1988 - Red Sox beat Tigers 9-4 for AL record 23rd
consecutive win at home
1988 - Richard Thornburgh becomes US Attorney General
1990 - 12th annual Macy's Tap-o-mania
1990 - 72nd PGA Championship: Wayne Grady shoots a 282 at
Shoal Creek Ala
1990 - Cathy Gerring wins Stratton Mountain LPGA Golf
Classic
1990 - Iraq President Saddam Hussein says he is ready to
resolve Gulf crisis if Israel withdraws from occupied territories
1991 - Creditors vote to support Greyhound Bus
reorganization plan
1991 - Last day in Test Cricket for Viv Richards, Dujon
& Marshall
1992 - Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce
completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1993 - Pope John Paul II begins visit of US
1994 - 1st NFL game on Fox network (exhibition - SF vs
Denver)
1994 - Members of the Major League Baseball Players
Association strike
1994 - Panic in church of Brazzaville: 142 killed
1994 - Stephen G Breyer, sworn in as Supreme Court Justice
1995 - Lara completes 6th Test Cricket century, 152 at Trent Bridge
2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian
Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2004 - New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey comes out publicly as
a gay man.
2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is
fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
2005 - An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright,
Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.
2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives
2005 - An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare
event on Long Island
2007 - Bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with oil tanker
Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially
submerged.
2012 - The 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony completes
the games
1676 - "King Phillip's War" came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years. 1851 - Isaac Singer was issued a patent on the double-headed sewing machine. 1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister. 1867 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. 1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording. 1879 - The first National Archery Association tournament took place in Chicago, IL. 1898 - Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. Hawaii was later given territorial status and was given Statehood in 1959. 1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed. 1915 - "Of Human Bondage", by William Somerset Maugham, was first published. 1918 - Regular airmail service began between Washington, DC, and New York City. 1937 - Red Skelton appeared on network radio for the first time on the "Rudy Vallee Show" on NBC. 1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th. 1944 - In France, Pierre Laval released Edouard Herriot. 1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb. 1960 - The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite. 1962 - The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August 15. 1964 - Mickey Mantle set a major league baseball record when he hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game. 1969 - The Boston Celtics were sold for $6 million. At the time it was the highest price paid for a pro basketball team. 1973 - Jack Nicklaus won his 14th major golf title. The win broke the record that had been held by Bobby Jones for 50 years. 1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test. 1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC. 1985 - A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain killing 520 people. 1986 - It was announced by NASA that they had selected a new rocket design for the space shuttle. The move was made in an effort at correcting the flaws that were believed to have been responsible for the Challenger disaster. 1986 - Rod Carew became the first player in the history of the California Angels franchise to have his uniform (#29) retired. 1988 - "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened. 1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations. 1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981. 1994 - Major league baseball players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries. The strike lasted for 232 days. As a result, the World Series was wiped out for the first time in 90 years. 1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims. 1999 - Hang Thu Thi Ngyuen shot an arrow from a bow with her feet on "Guinness World Records: Primetime" and hit a target that was 16 feet and 5 inches away.
1624 Cardinal Richelieu was named chief minister of France by king Louis XIII. 1851 Issac Singer patented the sewing machine. 1865 British surgeon Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use an antiseptic during surgery. 1898 A peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed. 1898 Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States. 1972 The last American combat troops left Vietnam. 1985 In the world's worst single-aircraft disaster, a Japan Air Lines 747 crashed into Mount Osutaka, killing 520 of the 524 aboard. 1998 Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. The banks had kept millions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims before and during World War II. 2000 The Russian military submarine, Kursk, and its crew were lost in the Barents Sea. 2004 N.J. governor James McGreevey announced his resignation.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug12.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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