Today in History: August 12

1099: The First Crusade ends with a Christian victory over a larger Fatimid army at the Battle of Ascalon, thus ensuring that Jerusalem would stay in Crusader hands.

1676: Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet (a/k/a “King Philip”) of the Wampanoags, ending what comes to be known as King Philip’s War.  Alderman is awarded the head as a trophy, which he sells for 30 shillings.

1848: George Stephenson, who started work in a coal mine and eventually became the “Father of British Steam Railways,” dies at Chesterfield, England.

1908: Ford Motor Co. builds the first Model T, which will go into production a month later.  At $850, it will sell for less than half as much as comparable vehicles.

1930: George Soros, whose skill in currency speculation was honed trading black market currency in Hungary after World War II, is born at Budapest.

1960: Echo I, a 100-foot-diameter polyester balloon, goes into orbit to become the world’s first communications satellite.

1989: The man who did more to create Silicon Valley than anyone else, William Bradford Shockley, dies at age 79.

1994: Woodstock ’94 proves that Thomas Wolfe was right: You can’t go home again.