On this day

July 4, 2012

Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

Historical Context for July 4, 2012

In 2012, the world population was approximately 7,201,202,485 people[†]

Notable Deaths

Hiren Bhattacharyya

2012Hiren Bhattacharyya, Indian poet and author (born 1932)[†]

Hiren Bhattacharyya, popularly known as Hiruda, was an Indian poet and lyricist best for his works in the Assamese literature. He had innumerable works published in Assamese and achieved many prizes and accolades for his poetry. In 2012, Bhattacharyya died at hospital due to undergoing treatment for lung and urinary tract infection since 14 June.

Jimmy Bivins

2012Jimmy Bivins, American boxer (born 1919)[†]

James Louis Bivins, was an American boxer whose professional career ran from 1940 to 1955. He was born in Dry Branch, Georgia. Although he was never given the opportunity to fight for a world title, despite at one point being the number one contender in both the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, Bivins fought and defeated many of the great fighters of his era and won the "Duration" Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight titles. In recognition of his achievements in the ring - among other things, he defeated eight of the eleven world champions he faced - Bivins was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. He was also the one-time husband of Dollree Mapp, the subject of prominent Supreme Court case regarding the rights of search and seizures.

2012Jeong Min-hyeong, South Korean footballer (born 1987)[†]

Jeong Min-Hyeong was a South Korean footballer who played as a midfielder for Busan IPark in the K-League.

Eric Sykes

2012Eric Sykes, English actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1923)[†]

Eric Sykes was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, which include collaboration on some scripts for The Goon Show. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series.

Historical Events

Higgs boson

2012The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.[†]

The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a massive scalar boson that couples to particles whose mass arises from their interactions with the Higgs Field, has zero spin, even (positive) parity, no electric charge, and no colour charge. It is also very unstable, decaying into other particles almost immediately upon generation.

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Headlines from July 4, 2012

Sibling Success: The Power of 2

By Alexis Swerdloff

In New York, where it’s tough enough for a single person to climb the ladder, brothers and sisters who make a shared name for themselves stand out like rarefied creatures.

Styles1663 words

A Pop Sweetie With Edge

By A.O. Scott

“Katy Perry: Part of Me” documents the 2011 concert tour of that pop singer, who is an energetic, industrious personification of the paradoxes that contemporary commercial music encompasses.

Culture872 words

Creating His Own Gravity

By Jon Caramanica

Frank Ocean has written songs for Beyoncé and Justin Bieber. Now he has his first full-length studio album, “Channel Orange.”

Arts&Leisure1786 words

A Tablet to Rival the Leader

By David Pogue

Google’s Nexus 7, a sleek, full-blown tablet with the latest version of Android 4.1, is playing Follow the Leader with Apple’s iPad, David Pogue says.

Business1309 words