August 12 in History

Cleopatra VII ends her life with an alleged asp bite, extinguishing the last spark of Egypt's independent Ptolemaic dynasty and handing the Nile valley to Rome as a province. This final act transforms Egypt from a sovereign kingdom into the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, ending three centuries of Greek rule that began with Alexander the Great.

The Hawaiian flag drops from ʻIolani Palace as U.S. forces hoist their own banner, formally transferring sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to Washington. This annexation ceremony instantly ended Hawaiian independence and set in motion a century of American military dominance across the Pacific.

Sue Hendrickson spotted protruding T. rex bones after her truck tire deflated on August 12, 1990, leading to the discovery of the most complete Tyrannosaurus ever found. This specimen preserved eighty percent of its skeleton, including a massive skull with intact teeth, because rushing water and mud buried it immediately after death. The find revolutionized paleontology by providing an unprecedented look at T. rex anatomy that previous fragmented fossils could never offer.

Cleopatra was the first of her dynasty — descendants of Ptolemy, Alexander's general — to actually learn Egyptian. The Ptolemies had ruled Egypt for 250 years and spoke only Greek. She spoke nine languages and presented herself as the goddess Isis. Her relationships with Caesar and then Antony were political alliances as much as anything; she needed Roman power to hold her throne against her own family. When Octavian's forces arrived and Antony died believing her dead, she chose suicide over appearing in a Roman triumph. The asp story is probably myth. The political calculation was real.

The nuclear submarine Kursk exploded and sank to the floor of the Barents Sea during a naval exercise, trapping 118 sailors in a catastrophe that the Russian government initially concealed from the public. Moscow's refusal to accept foreign rescue assistance for days sealed the crew's fate and exposed the dangerous deterioration of Russia's post-Soviet military.

Ian Fleming served in British Naval Intelligence during World War II and spent those years inventing operations, some of which worked and some of which didn't. The ones that didn't could have been James Bond plots. He started writing the Bond novels in 1952 at his Jamaica estate, partly to distract himself from his impending marriage. He wrote one a year, in January, before returning to London. He didn't think much of them as literature. He thought they were entertaining. He was right about the second part.

The Crusaders won the Battle of Ascalon on August 12, 1099, routing the Fatimid army sent to reclaim Jerusalem. The city had fallen to the Crusaders five weeks earlier. Godfrey of Bouillon refused the title of King of Jerusalem — he wouldn't wear a crown of gold where Christ had worn thorns. He accepted 'Defender of the Holy Sepulchre' instead. He died a year later. Jerusalem changed hands several more times.