February 12

February 12 in history:

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

• 1818, Chile officially proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially renouncing Spanish rule

• 1908, the first round-the-world automobile race began in New York. (It ended in Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas Flyer, declared the winners over teams from Germany and Italy.)

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

• 1915, the cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington D.C.

• 1940, the radio play "The Adventures of Superman" debuted with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel

• 1973, Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place

• 1997, the highest-ranking official to flee communist North Korea, Hwang Jang Yop, asked for political asylum at South Korea's consulate in Beijing.

• 1997, The Clinton administration gave permission to 10 U.S. news organizations to open bureaus in Cuba

• 1998, a federal judge threw out President Clinton's new line-item veto authority

• 1999, the Senate acquitted President Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice

• 2002, former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay expressed "profound sadness" about the collapse of the energy giant, but refused to testify at a Senate hearing.

• 2002, Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic went on trial in The Hague, accused of war crimes.

• 2002, Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi (they and a fourth man were later convicted of Pearl's murder).

• 2003, the U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties, sending the dispute to the Security Council. India conducted its fourth missile test of 2003, firing a supersonic cruise missile capable of hitting major cities in Pakistan

• 2006, a record 26.9 inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park