Today in History: Feb. 12

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 12, the 43rd day of 2025. There are 322 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Also on this date:

In 1554, Lady Jane Grey, who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were beheaded after being condemned for high treason.

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York City.

In 1912, Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1914, groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 2002, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević went on trial in The Hague, charged with genocide and war crimes. (Milošević died in 2006 before the trial could conclude).

In 2019, Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was convicted in New York of running an industrial-scale drug smuggling operation, murder and money laundering. (Guzman is currently serving a life sentence at the federal supermax prison facility in Florence, Colorado.)

Today’s birthdays: Film director Costa-Gavras is 92. Author Judy Blume is 87. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is 83. Country singer Moe Bandy is 81. Musician Michael McDonald is 73. Actor-talk show host Arsenio Hall is 69. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is 60. Actor Josh Brolin is 57. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky is 56. Actor Christina Ricci is 45.