August 12

1865 – Surgeon and scientist Joseph Lister performs the first antiseptic surgery.
1921 – Star Trek set designer Matt Jefferies is born. (see: Jefferies tube!)
1956 – Actor Bruce Greenwood (Christopher Pike in Star Trek 2009) is born.
1960 – NASA's Echo I, the first communications satellite, is launched. Its mission was to reflect microwave signals between points on Earth, similar to the way the Moon reflects light while the Sun is below the horizon.
1977 – The first free flight of NASA's space shuttle Enterprise. Free-flight tests served to verify the flight characteristics of the orbiter design, and were carried out under several aerodynamic and weight configurations.
1978 – NASA's "International Sun-Earth Explorer" is launched. It was the first artificial object placed at a so-called "libration point," proving that such an orbit between gravitational fields was possible.