TODAY IS SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2017 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

1676 - “King Phillip’s War” came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.

1806 - Captain Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales, is succeeded by Captain William Bligh. 1829 - The city of Perth, Western Australia, is founded.

1851 - Isaac Singer was issued a patent on the double-headed sewing machine.

1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.

1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.

1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The US acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.

1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.

1962 - The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August 15. 1992 - The US, Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.

1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Second World War Holocaust victims. 2000 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.

2004 - The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4000 same-sex marriages that had been sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year.

2008 - Russia halted its five-day assault on Georgia.