The 43rd day of the year
Born on 12 February
Every 12 February birthday from 1920 to 2026 was Aquarius, in every time zone.
- Star sign
- AquariusAir, fixed, ruled by Saturn.
- Birthstone
- AmethystThe same as on the 1912 list.
- Birth flower
- Violet, PrimroseUsually taken today to mean faithfulness and young love.
- Most common weekdays
- Thursday and Sunday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.
The Metal Rat's long year
The new year fell on 12 February in 1956, beginning the Fire Monkey, in 2002, the Water Horse, and in 2021, the Metal Ox; the next is 12 February 2040, the first day of the Metal Monkey, 84 years after the Fire Monkey of 1956.
2021 put a long stretch of early February into the year before. The Metal Rat of 2020 lasted until 11 February 2021, so every birth from 1 January to 11 February 2021 belongs to it, and 12 February was the Ox's first day. In 2002 the new year fell here too, so 11 February 2002 belongs to the Metal Snake of 2001 and 12 February 2002 was the first day of the Water Horse. Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026 a 12 February birthday fell before the new year in 28 and on or after it in 79.
It was Aquarius in all of them, in every time zone, so on this date the sign never needs the year and the animal sometimes does.
Your year
Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 12 February in any year.
Which Chinese animal, by year
From 1920 to 2026 the lunar new year, reckoned in Beijing, came after 12 February in 28 of the 107 years, and in those years a birthday on it belonged to the animal of the year before; in the other 79 the new year had already begun. It was the first day of the new year itself in 1956, 2002 and 2021.
Shaded: 12 February came before that year's new year. Hatched: the new year began on 12 February. How the new year is found →
Which weekday 12 February falls on
Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 12 February falls on every day of the week: Thursday 16, Sunday 16, Saturday 15, Monday 15, Tuesday 15, Friday 15, Wednesday 15.
Showing 12 February in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →
How common a birthday 12 February is
In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,788 babies were born on 12 February in each year of the twenty, making it the 242nd most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.
Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →
Born on 12 February
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Abraham Lincoln | 1809–1865 | president of the United States from 1861 to 1865 |
| Charles Darwin | 1809–1882 | English naturalist and biologist |
| Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor | 1768–1835 | Holy Roman Emperor from 1792 to 1806 and Emperor of Austria from 1804 to 1835 |
| Christina Ricci | 1980– | American actress |
| Anna Pavlova | 1881–1931 | Russian ballet dancer |
| Julian Schwinger | 1918–1994 | American theoretical physicist |
| Ehud Barak | 1942– | Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001 |
| Lou Andreas-Salomé | 1861–1937 | German-Russian essayist, philosopher, and psychoanalyst |
| Bill Russell | 1934–2022 | American basketball player |
| Josh Brolin | 1968– | American actor |
| Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | 2001– | Georgian footballer |
| Max Beckmann | 1884–1950 | German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer |
| Nicolás Otamendi | 1988– | Argentine association football player |
| Omar Bradley | 1893–1981 | United States Army general |
| Darren Aronofsky | 1969– | American filmmaker |
| George Meredith | 1828–1909 | British novelist and poet |
| Julius Streicher | 1885–1946 | German publisher, Nazi politician and convicted war criminal |
| Franco Zeffirelli | 1923–2019 | Italian director and politician |
Died on 12 February
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Immanuel Kant | 1724–1804 | German philosopher |
| Julio Cortázar | 1914–1984 | Argentine writer and translator |
| Lady Jane Grey | 1537–1554 | Queen of England and Ireland in July 1553 |
| Richard Dedekind | 1831–1916 | German mathematician |
| Jean Renoir | 1894–1979 | French film director and screenwriter |
| Friedrich Schleiermacher | 1768–1834 | German theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar |
| Pierre de Marivaux | 1688–1763 | French novelist and dramatist |
| Gordon Banks | 1937–2019 | English association football player |
| Thomas Bernhard | 1931–1989 | Austrian playwright and novelist |
| Dziga Vertov | 1896–1954 | Soviet documentary filmmaker |
| Hassan al-Banna | 1906–1949 | Egyptian Islamist leader and politician |
| Grant Wood | 1891–1942 | American painter |
Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.