On this day

February 12: Red Hand Day

"Bar" suit from Dior's New Look

 1502 – Queen Isabella I issued an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of

Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity.
 1855 – The precursor of Michigan State University in East Lansing was
founded as the United States' first agricultural college.
 1947 – The French fashion company Dior unveiled its New Look collection (suit
pictured), which revolutionized women's dress and re-established Paris as
the centre of the fashion world after World War II.
 2001 – The NASA space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros,
becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
 2016 – In the first meeting between the leaders of the Catholic Church and
the Russian Orthodox Church, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of
Moscow signed the Havana Declaration at José Martí International Airport in
Cuba.