Today in History for Feb. 12, 2015

CSA General Robert Ransom Jr.

Feb. 12, 1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founded Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah.

Feb. 12, 1776 - British Major General Sir Henry Clinton departed New York en route to Cape Fear, N.C.

Feb. 12, 1778 - Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

Feb. 12, 1789 – Patriot Ethan Allen died of a stroke at the age of 52 on his farm near the Winooski River in Vermont. Allen is best remembered as the patriotic leader of the Green Mountain Boys, who took the British fort at Ticonderoga with Benedict Arnold in May 1775.

Feb. 12, 1809 - Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born in Sinking Spring Farm, Kentucky.

Feb. 12, 1825 – Creek Indians ceded the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government by the Treaty of Indian Springs and migrated west.

Feb. 12, 1828 - Confederate General Robert Ransom Jr. was born in Warren County, North Carolina.

Feb. 12, 1840 – American Revolutionary War soldier Patrick Norris passed away in Greene County, Ala. One of the founders of the Greensboro Presbyterian Church in Hale County, Norris served as a private in the South Carolina milita.

Feb. 12, 1850 – A bill passed the Alabama legislature incorporating the Conecuh Navigation Co., a final effort to secure steam navigation between Brooklyn, Ala. and Pensacola, Fla. The company was headed by J.W. Etheridge, H.L. Stearns, J.H. McCreary, C. Johns, Benjamin Hart, A. Perryman “and their associates.” The company was charged with the responsibility of providing the operation of steamboats between Montezuma on the Conecuh River and Brooklyn on the Sepulga.

Feb. 12, 1850 – Winston County was created by the Alabama legislature from lands formerly held by Walker County.

Feb. 12, 1864 – John McGee Parkman, a local banker, purchased Sturdivant Hall in Selma, Ala. from Edward Watts.

Feb. 12, 1865 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred at Waterloo in Lauderdale County, Ala.

Feb. 12, 1870 – Prominent Conecuh County, Ala. farmer, state senator, state representative, William Adam Ashley (b. 1822) died at his home at Hampden Ridge.

Feb. 12, 1876 – Future Evergreen Courant editor and publisher Lamar W. Matkin was born in Red River County, Texas. An 1894 graduate of the Marengo Military Academy in Demopolis, he bought the Marengo Democrat and the Linden Reporter and combined those two papers. He later worked for the Montgomery Reporter and bought The Evergreen Courant on June 9, 1924. He was also a member of Greening Lodge No. 53 in Evergreen, Ala.

Feb. 12, 1878 - Frederick W. Thayer patented the baseball catcher’s mask.

Feb. 12, 1885 – Six inches of snow fell in Monroeville, Ala.

Feb. 12, 1892 - In the U.S., President Abraham Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday.

Feb. 12, 1906 – Colin Falkenberry, who was believed to have been in his 90s, burned to death in a house fire at Tunnel Springs, Ala.

Feb. 12, 1908 - The Great Car Race from New York to Paris began.

Feb. 12, 1911 – The Elba United Methodist Church in Coffee County, Ala. officially opened.

Feb. 12, 1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C.

Feb. 12, 1917 – Major League Baseball center fielder Dom DiMaggio was born in San Francisco, Calif. The brother of baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, Dom played his entire 11-year career for the Boston Red Sox.

Feb. 12, 1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio.

Feb. 12, 1926 – Major League Baseball catcher Joe Garagiola was born in St. Louis, Mo. He went on to play for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants.

Feb. 12, 1940 - Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of the radio play "The Adventures of Superman."

Feb. 12, 1947 – The largest observed iron meteorite until that time created an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin in the Soviet Union.

Feb. 12, 1963 – Construction began on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo.

Feb. 12, 1970 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Evergreen High School basketball player John Earl Skipper was ranked fifth in the South Alabama Conference scoring standings. In 15 games, he had scored 308 total points, an average of 20.5 points per game.

Feb. 12, 1979 – Future college and NFL wide receiver and punt returner Antonio Chatman was born in Jackson, Ala. He attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, El Camino College and the University of Cincinnati. He later went on to play for the Green Bay Packers and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Feb. 12, 1994 - Art thieves stole the iconic painting “The Scream” from an Oslo museum.

Feb. 12, 1999 – The Thomasville (Ala.) Historic District added to the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district is centered on the old business district and is roughly bounded by U.S. Highway 43, West Front Street, Wilson Street, and West Third Street.

Feb. 12, 2001 - NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

Feb. 12, 2002 - Baseball owners approved the sale of the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos.