July 12 History, Fun Facts, and Trivia

July 12 Observances

July 12 is Etch A Sketch Day, Simplicity Day (honoring Henry David Thoreau’s birthday), National Pecan Pie Day, National Eat Your Jell-O Day, Paper Bag Day, Different Colored Eyes Day, New Conversations Day, and Orangemen’s Day, a public holiday in Northern Ireland commemorating the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. Simplicity Day and Pecan Pie Day on the same calendar square is either a contradiction or a philosophy, depending on how you feel about pie.

What Happened on July 12?

July 12 is the day Julius Caesar was born, the day the Medal of Honor was authorized, the day the Rolling Stones played their first concert, the day the Etch A Sketch went on sale, and the day Beyonce and Jay-Z’s “Crazy in Love” took over the radio. It is also Henry David Thoreau’s birthday, which is either a coincidence or the universe’s idea of a joke, given how many people celebrated July 12 by buying things.

If you were born on July 12, you were likely conceived the week of October 19 of the prior year.

July 12 History Highlights

927 — Athelstan, King of England, secured a pledge from Constantine II of Scotland not to ally with Viking kings, beginning the process that would eventually unify Great Britain. Most historians consider this the closest thing England has to an official founding date, though England itself has never officially celebrated it, because England is not big on official celebrations of itself.

1543 — King Henry VIII of England married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace. Catherine was his most intellectually accomplished wife, outlived him, and is credited with convincing Henry to restore his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession. She is also the only one of the six who did not get divorced or executed, which set a fairly low bar but she cleared it comfortably.

1862 — The Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress as the highest military decoration a person can receive. It is awarded in the name of Congress to members of the armed forces who distinguish themselves through acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. Congress designated March 25 as National Medal of Honor Day in 1990. As of 2024, fewer than 3,500 medals have been awarded in the decoration’s entire history.

1870 — John Wesley Hyatt received the U.S. patent for an improved process to produce celluloid, the first practical synthetic plastic. Celluloid transformed manufacturing, dentistry, and the film industry, where it became the standard base for motion picture film stock for decades. It was also extremely flammable, which caused problems.

1894 — President Grover Cleveland signed an Act of Congress formally defining and establishing the units of electrical measure in U.S. law, including the ohm, ampere, volt, coulomb, farad, joule, watt, and henry. Eight units in one piece of legislation. Electrical engineers consider this a landmark moment. Everyone else uses the appliances without thinking about it.

1914 — The Panama Canal opened to traffic on August 15, 1914, but formal dedication ceremonies were postponed because of World War I. A celebration was held in 1920 to mark the occasion officially. The canal took ten years to build, cost approximately 5,600 workers’ lives, and remains one of the most significant engineering achievements in history. A second, wider set of locks opened in 2016.

1930 — Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur golf championship, completing what was then called the Grand Slam of Golf: the U.S. Open, British Open, British Amateur, and U.S. Amateur all in the same calendar year. No one has done it before or since. Jones retired from competitive golf at age 28 and later co-founded Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament.

1960 — The Etch A Sketch went on sale for $2.99, selling 600,000 units in its first year. See the full section below.

1962 — The Rolling Stones performed together live for the first time at the Marquee Club in London. The lineup that night included Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ian Stewart, Dick Taylor, and Mick Avory. Charlie Watts was not yet in the band. Bill Wyman joined later that year. The band has since played over 2,000 concerts and generated an estimated $2 billion in touring revenue, which would have seemed implausible to anyone in the Marquee Club that night.

1969 — Zager and Evans reached No. 1 with “In the Year 2525,” a song about the eventual extinction of the human race. It stayed at No. 1 for six weeks in the summer of 1969, which was apparently exactly what people wanted to hear that summer. Zager and Evans never had another top-40 hit.

1976 — Family Feud debuted on ABC, hosted by Richard Dawson, who kissed every female contestant on the lips. This was considered charming at the time. The show has been in continuous or near-continuous production ever since and is currently hosted by Steve Harvey.

1997 — Oz premiered on HBO, becoming the first one-hour drama series the network had ever produced. Its unflinching depiction of life inside a maximum-security prison set a template for prestige cable television that shows like The Sopranos and The Wire would follow.

2003 — Beyonce featuring Jay-Z, “Crazy in Love,” reached No. 1, where it stayed for eight weeks. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest pop songs of the 2000s. The horn sample is from The Chi-Lites’ 1970 recording “Are You My Woman.” Beyonce won five Grammy Awards for the song.

The Etch A Sketch: 100 Million Units of Aluminum Dust

The Etch A Sketch was invented by French electrician Andre Cassagnes, who noticed that the translucent decals he was using left marks when he drew on them. He developed the concept into a toy he called L’Ecran Magique (The Magic Screen) and presented it at the 1959 International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, where the Ohio Art Company purchased the rights.

The toy works through a remarkably simple mechanism: the flat gray screen is coated on the inside with a mixture of aluminum powder and plastic beads. Two knobs control a stylus on a system of horizontal and vertical rods. Moving the stylus displaces the aluminum powder, leaving a dark line. Turning it upside down and shaking recoats the screen, erasing everything. The left knob moves horizontally, the right moves vertically. Diagonal lines require moving both simultaneously, which is where most people discover their limitations.

Over 100 million units have been sold since 1960. It was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998 and named to the Toy Industry Association’s Century of Toys list in 2003. It appeared in Toy Story (1995). The original glass screen was changed to plastic for safety. The red plastic frame has never changed.

Trivia: There are artists who create extraordinarily detailed Etch A Sketch portraits, including realistic faces and architectural drawings, without ever lifting the stylus. They cannot save their work without disassembling the toy. Some frame them carefully and never shake them again. Others, inevitably, shake them by accident.

Billboard Number One on July 12

• 1952: “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” — Vera Lynn (No. 1: July 12 through September 12, 1952). Nine weeks at the top, making it one of the longest-running No. 1 hits of the early chart era. Vera Lynn was already known as “The Forces’ Sweetheart” from her WWII performances for British troops. This was her only U.S. No. 1 and the first by a British artist on the American charts.
• 1969: “In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)” — Zager and Evans (No. 1: July 12 through August 22, 1969). Six weeks at the top. Written by Denny Zager in 1964, it sat in a drawer for five years before they recorded it. It cost $500 to produce. They pressed 1,000 copies themselves. It reached No. 1 in 6 countries. They never charted again.
• 1986: “Holding Back the Years” — Simply Red (No. 1: July 12-18, 1986). Mick Hucknall wrote the song at age 17. It took nearly a decade to reach No. 1.
• 2003: “Crazy in Love” — Beyonce featuring Jay-Z (No. 1: July 12 through September 5, 2003). Eight weeks at the top. The horn riff is sampled from The Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman” (1970). It announced Beyonce as a solo force in terms no one could misread.

Born on July 12

• Julius Caesar (100 BC) — Roman general, statesman, and writer who transformed the Roman Republic into what would become the Roman Empire, though he did not live to see it formalized. He crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, conquered Gaul, reformed the Roman calendar (the Julian calendar), and was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC, by a group of senators who considered him a tyrant. The month of July is named after him.
• Henry David Thoreau (1817) — American essayist, poet, and philosopher best known for Walden (1854), an account of two years spent living deliberately in a cabin he built himself near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. He also wrote “Civil Disobedience” (1849), which influenced Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and countless others. He lived simply, which is why Simplicity Day falls on his birthday, and not because he would have approved of a designated observance day.
• George Eastman (1854) — American inventor and businessman who founded Eastman Kodak and made photography accessible to ordinary people by developing roll film and the simple box camera. His Kodak Brownie (1900) put cameras in the hands of the general public for the first time. He gave away approximately $100 million during his lifetime to universities and cultural institutions. He died by suicide in 1932, leaving a note that read: “To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?”
• Claude Bernard (1813) — French physiologist widely regarded as the father of modern experimental medicine. He established the concept of homeostasis (the body’s ability to regulate its internal environment) and demonstrated the role of the pancreas in digestion and the liver in glucose regulation. His wife and daughters were active anti-vivisection campaigners, which made for interesting dinner conversations.
• Louis B. Mayer (1884) — Russian-born American film producer who co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924 and ran it for nearly 30 years. MGM under Mayer had more major stars under contract simultaneously than any studio before or since, including Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, and Spencer Tracy. He was, by most accounts, not easy to work for.
• Oscar Hammerstein II (1895) — American lyricist and producer who partnered with Richard Rodgers to create some of the most enduring musicals in Broadway history, including Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards. The collaboration with Rodgers began in 1942 and ended only with Hammerstein’s death in 1960.
• Milton Berle (1908-2002) — American comedian and actor known as “Mr. Television” for his role in popularizing the medium in its earliest years. His Texaco Star Theater (1948-1956) was so popular that appliance stores reportedly sold out of TV sets on the nights it aired. He was the first major star of American television.
• Bill Cosby (1937) — American comedian and actor whose long career included the groundbreaking Cosby Show (1984-1992) and Fat Albert. He was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in 2018, a conviction that was vacated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021 on procedural grounds related to prosecutorial agreements. He has faced civil suits and public accusations from dozens of women spanning decades.
• Christine McVie (1943-2022) — English singer, songwriter, and keyboard player, core member of Fleetwood Mac. She wrote and sang some of the band’s most beloved songs, including “Say You Love Me,” “Little Lies,” “Everywhere,” and “You Make Loving Fun.” She passed away in November 2022 at age 79. Rumours (1977), which she helped define, remains one of the best-selling albums in history.
• Richard Simmons (1948-2024) — American fitness personality who made exercise accessible and joyful for people who had been excluded from mainstream fitness culture. His Sweatin’ to the Oldies series sold millions of copies. He was a genuinely kind presence in an industry not known for kindness. He passed away in July 2024.
• Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) — American painter known for precisely rendered, emotionally spare works set in rural Pennsylvania and Maine. His painting Christina’s World (1948) is one of the most recognized American paintings of the 20th century. He kept a series of intimate paintings of his neighbor Helga Testorf secret for 15 years before they were publicly revealed in 1986.
• Cheryl Ladd (1951) — American actress who joined Charlie’s Angels in 1977 to replace Farrah Fawcett and managed the considerable challenge of making the audience forget the previous lead. She largely succeeded.
• Brock Lesnar (1977) — American professional wrestler and former UFC Heavyweight Champion, one of the few people to hold major titles in both professional wrestling and legitimate mixed martial arts. He was also an NCAA Division I wrestling champion at the University of Minnesota.
• Topher Grace (1978) — American actor best known as Eric Forman on That ’70s Show (1998-2006). He is, to the best of available knowledge, the only person who uses Topher as a nickname for Christopher. No explanation has been offered and none appears forthcoming.
• Michelle Rodriguez (1978) — American actress best known for the Fast and Furious franchise and Lost. She has said in interviews that she will not play characters who are simply victims and has walked away from roles that required it.
• Rachel Brosnahan (1990) — American actress who won the Golden Globe, SAG Award, and Emmy for her role as Miriam “Midge” Maisel in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023). The show ran four seasons and she won acting awards for all of them.
• Loni Love (1971) — American comedian, actress, and co-host of The Real (2013-2022). She holds an electrical engineering degree from Prairie View A&M University, which she earned before pivoting to comedy. Both skill sets have served her well.

Birthday Quotes from July 12 Birthdays

“Without training, they lacked knowledge. Without knowledge, they lacked confidence. Without confidence, they lacked victory.”

“Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!”

“Most artists look for something fresh to paint. Frankly I find that quite boring. For me it is much more exciting to find fresh meaning in something familiar.”

“It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.”

“Number one, like yourself. Number two, you have to eat healthy. And number three, you’ve got to squeeze your buns. That’s my formula.”

“Do anything. If you do something right, we’ll use it. If you do something wrong, we’ll fix it. But do something, and do it now.”

Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts for July 12

• “I love firm hugs. Statues are so affectionate. Well, at least compared to my ex-wife.” — Jarod Kintz
• The Weapon X program that created Wolverine is meant to be read as Weapon Ten in Roman numerals. Captain America was Weapon I. Wolverine was the tenth attempt. The program had a very optimistic budget.
• Peter Finch’s birth name was William Mitchell. He was born in London, raised partly in Australia, and won a posthumous Academy Award for Network (1976), the only posthumous Best Actor win in Oscar history.
• The longest common one-syllable word in English is generally considered to be “screeched” at nine letters. “Strengths” is also nine letters and one syllable, and considerably easier to demonstrate in conversation.
• People who say “no pun intended” usually intended it.
• We don’t see optimistic technological predictions of the future the way we did in the 1980s, because we are the future. It turns out the future has different problems than anyone predicted.
• James Earl Jones was originally paid $7,000 for voicing Darth Vader in Star Wars (1977). His credit was omitted from the film at his own request. He felt the role was too small to take credit for. He later changed his mind.
• “If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin
• The sounds made by the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park were a combination of whale and donkey recordings. The T-Rex roar mixed a baby elephant, an alligator, and a tiger. Sound designer Gary Rydstrom did this work largely in his own garage.
• The word “skunk” comes from an Algonquian word meaning roughly “peeing fox.” This is accurate and the animal has done nothing to dispute it.
• The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and Weird Science were all filmed in and around Highland Park, Illinois. John Hughes grew up in the Chicago suburbs and rarely felt the need to pretend otherwise.
• The Seven Virtues, No. 3: Charity is a concern for, and active helping of, others. The opposing vice is greed. The full list: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.
• Bobby Jones won the 1930 Grand Slam of Golf at age 28 and then retired. He never played professionally. He never accepted prize money. Every major championship he won was as an amateur. He then co-founded Augusta National and the Masters, because apparently he had some free time.