Date with History: September 12

Four boys and a dog find Lascaux, and Kennedy tells Houston why we go to the Moon.

One paperback for one calendar date: what happened on September 12, and who was born on it.

What happened on September 12

1940: Teenagers Discover the Lascaux Cave

Four teenagers exploring near Montignac in the Dordogne followed their dog into a hole and squeezed through a narrow opening into a vast chamber. Their flashlights found horses, aurochs and stags painted seventeen thousand years earlier. Lascaux overturned the picture of prehistoric people as brutish, revealing artists who understood anatomy, motion and how to use the cave wall's own contours.

1962: "We Choose to Go to the Moon"

President John F. Kennedy stood before 40,000 people in a sweltering Rice University stadium in Houston and framed the space race as human destiny. We go, he said, not because it is easy but because it is hard, because that goal will organize and measure the best of our energies. Apollo 11 landed seven years later; Kennedy did not live to see it.

Famous birthdays on September 12

1913 — Jesse Owens
Won four golds at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics, then came home to a segregated America.

1494 — Francis I of France
Renaissance king who built Chambord and hosted Leonardo da Vinci in his final years.

Nearby dates

September 11 · September 13 · All September dates

Part of Date with History, a 366-book collection with one book for every date of the year. 5″×8″ paperback, cream paper.

Historical selections are editorially researched. This is a date-specific book, not a personalized or custom-made product.