On this day, Feb. 12
1809 Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now LaRue) County, Kentucky.
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, was founded.
1914 Groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (A year later on this date, the cornerstone was laid.)
1973 Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.
1999 The Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.
2002 Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic went on trial in The Hague, accused of war crimes (he died in 2006 before the trial could conclude).
2012 Adele emerged as the top winner at the Grammy Awards, winning six trophies, including record and song of the year for “Rolling in the Deep” and album of the year for “21″, in a ceremony shadowed by the death of Whitney Houston the day before.
2013 The manhunt for a rogue ex-Los Angeles cop Christopher Dorner, who was seeking revenge for his firing, came to an end with his apparent suicide in a mountain cabin following a gunbattle with law enforcement; authorities blamed him for killing four people, including two officers.
2017 At the Grammy Awards, Adele took home all five awards she was nominated for, including album of the year for “25” as well as record and song of the year for “Hello.”
2019 Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was convicted in New York of running an industrialscale smuggling operation. (Guzman is serving a life sentence at the federal supermax prison facility in Florence, Colo.)
2021 Lawyers for Donald Trump defended him against impeachment at his Senate trial by accusing Democrats of waging a campaign of “hatred” against the former president and manipulating his words in the lead-up to the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol.
Today’s birthdays: Movie director CostaGavras, 91. Actor Joe Don Baker, 88. Author Judy Blume, 86. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, 82. Country singer Moe Bandy, 80. Actor Maud Adams, 79. Actor Cliff DeYoung, 78. Actor Michael Ironside, 74. Rock musician Steve Hackett, 74. Rock singer Michael McDonald, 72. Actor Joanna Kerns, 71. Actor Zach Grenier, 70. Actor-talk show host Arsenio Hall, 68. Actor John Michael Higgins, 61. Actor Raphael Sbarge, 60. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 59. Actor Christine Elise, 59. Actor Josh Brolin, 56. Singer Chynna Phillips, 56. Rock musician Jim Creeggan (Barenaked Ladies), 54. Actor Jesse Spencer, 45. Rapper Gucci Mane, 44. Actor Sarah Lancaster, 44. Actor Christina Ricci, 44. Actor Jennifer Stone, 31. Actors Baylie and Rylie Cregut (TV: “Raising Hope”) are 14.