On This Day for August 12 - Phonograph invented by Thomas Alva Edison, William Blake is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. August 12 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY William Blake READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1877 Phonograph invented by Thomas Alva Edison READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2014: American actress Lauren Bacall—who was known for her portrayals of provocative women who hid their soft core underneath a layer of hard-edged pragmatism—died in New York. [Test your knowledge of women in classic cinema.] 2007: American television producer and talk-show host Merv Griffin—who hosted the long-running series The Merv Griffin Show (1962–63, 1965–86) and was the creator of two of television's most successful game shows, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune—died in Los Angeles. [Take our pop culture quiz.] 1990: The most complete and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex was found on South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, and it was nicknamed Sue, after Susan Hendrickson, the paleontologist who discovered the dinosaur fossil. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about dinosaurs.] 1966: During a press conference, John Lennon of the Beatles apologized for saying that his band was "more popular than Jesus now"; the comment had sparked protests and album burnings. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Beatles.] 1961: East Germany began construction of the Berlin Wall, which served as a symbol of the Cold War , separating East Berlin from West Berlin until 1989. [Read about five famous walls, including the Berlin Wall.] 1887: Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics for his contributions to the wave theory of matter and to other fundamentals of quantum mechanics, was born in Vienna. [How much do you know about physics?] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1930 George Soros American financier 1954 François Hollande president of France 1762 George IV king of United Kingdom 1887 Erwin Schrödinger Austrian physicist 1881 Cecil B. DeMille American film director 1907 Boy Charlton Australian athlete SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY   Advertisement   FOLLOW: To unsubscribe from Britannica e-mails, click here. Encyclopædia Britannica 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 United States © 2020 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help