◆ On this day

February 12

4 sourced moments from February 12 in history: Lady Jane Grey was beheaded at 17, seven months after her reign (1554); Charles Darwin is born in Shrewsbury (1809); The NAACP is founded on Lincoln's centennial (1909), plus 1 more.

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4 things happened on February 12

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2001 Space · Space Exploration

NEAR Shoemaker made the first asteroid landing in 2001

An orbiter never built to land settled onto asteroid Eros at walking pace in 2001, photographing the surface all the way down.

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1909 History · Modern

The NAACP is founded on Lincoln's centennial

Spurred by a deadly race riot, a biracial coalition launched what became America's oldest and largest civil rights organization.

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1809 Nature & Animals · Evolution

Charles Darwin is born in Shrewsbury

The naturalist whose voyage and patient study would reshape biology was born the same day as Abraham Lincoln.

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1554 History · Medieval

Lady Jane Grey was beheaded at 17, seven months after her reign

England's nine-day queen died on Tower Green in February 1554. The famous painting of the scene gets the setting wrong.

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