From Historynet: Today in History January 12

1872          Russian Grand Duke Alexis  goes on a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan  and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer . 

Buffalo Bill Cody  was his guide.

1879          The British-Zulu War begins. British troops -- under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus  -- invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.

1908          A wireless message is sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1913          Kiel and Wilhelmshaven become submarine bases in Germany.

1915          The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.

1926          U.S. coal talks break down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike drags on into its fifth month.

1927          U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg  claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles  is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua.

1932          Oliver Wendell Holmes  retires from the Supreme Court at age 90.

1938          Austria recognizes the Franco  government in Spain.

1940          Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland.

1943          Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.

1952          The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Binh, Vietnam.

1962          The United States resumes aid to the Laotian regime.

1973          Yassar Arafat  is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

1982          Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.

1991          The U.S. Congress gives the green light to military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf Crisis.

1998          Nineteen European nations agree to prohibit human cloning.

2010          An earthquake in Haiti kills an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people.