This Day In History for February 12

1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in present-day Larue County, Ky. Naturalist Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England.

On this date:
In 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.
In 1795, the University of North Carolina became the first U.S. state university to admit students with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus for two weeks.
In 1818, Chile officially proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially renouncing Spanish rule.
In 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.)
In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.
In 1915, the cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C., a year to the day after groundbreaking.
In 1940, the radio play "The Adventures of Superman" debuted with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.
In 1959, the redesigned Lincoln penny - with an image of the Lincoln Memorial replacing two ears of wheat on the reverse side - went into circulation.
In 1973, Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.
In 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice; Clinton told Americans he was "profoundly sorry" for what he'd said and done in the Monica Lewinsky affair that triggered it all.