February 12, Pope Francis meets Russian Orthodox Church's leader

Today is Thursday, Feb. 12, the 43rd day of 2026. There are 322 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 12, 2016, Pope Francis embraced Patriarch Kirill in the first meeting between a pontiff and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The meeting in Havana was a landmark development in the 1,000-year schism that has divided Christianity.

Also on this date:

In 1554, Lady Jane Grey, who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were beheaded after being condemned for high treason.

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York City.

In 1912, Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1914, groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

In 2002, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević went on trial in The Hague, charged with genocide and war crimes. (Milošević died in 2006 before the trial could conclude).

In 2019, Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was convicted in New York of running an industrial-scale drug smuggling operation, murder and money laundering. (Guzman is currently serving a life sentence at the federal supermax prison facility in Florence, Colorado.)