On this day: December 12
POSTED: 10:32 PM PST Dec 11, 2012
UPDATED: 11:00 PM PST Dec 11, 2012
Ol' Blue Eyes is born, Boys Town is founded, the first motel opens, "The Godfather: Part II" premieres, and the U.S. Supreme Court decides the 2000 presidential election, all on this day.
Xiaoqiang Wang/IUCN
2006: The Baiji Yangtze freshwater dolphin is presumed functionally extinct when a scientific expedition ends an intense six-week search of China's heavily polluted Yangtze River without any results. The Baiji is the first large mammal brought to extinction due to human destruction of its habitat. From around 400 Baiji known in the early 1980s, numbers declined to 13 sightings in 1997, and none seen since September 2004.
