📜 This Day in History

January 12

• 475Basiliscus became Byzantine emperor after Zeno was forced to flee Constantinople.
• 1777Mission Santa Clara de Asís, a Spanish mission in California that formed the basis of both the city of Santa Clara and Santa Clara University, was established by the Franciscans.
• 1879Anglo-Zulu War: Natal Native Contingent and British troops defeated Zulu forces in the Action at Sihayo's Kraal.
• 1916Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann became the first German aviators to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest military honour.
• 1967Seventy-three-year-old psychology professor James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
• 2010An earthquake registering 7.0 Mw struck Haiti, killing more than 100,000 people.

Born on this day

• 1729Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher, academic, and politician (died 1797)
• 1863Swami Vivekananda, Indian monk and philosopher (died 1902)
• 1876Jack London, American novelist and journalist (died 1916)
• 1949Haruki Murakami, Japanese novelist, short-story writer, and essayist