Your American History Reference Guide! - October 12
October 12
(Redirected from
12 October )
October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years ). There are 80 days remaining.
Events
1492 - Christopher Columbus 's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean . The explorer believes he has reached East Asia
1582 - Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy , Poland , Portugal and Spain .
1609 - "Three Blind Mice " published by London teenage songwriter Thomas Ravenscroft
1681 - A London woman is publicly flogged for the crime of "involving herself in politics"
1773 - America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia
1792 - First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York
1793 - The cornerstone of Old East , the oldest state university building in the United States , is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina
1810 - First Oktoberfest : The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen
1822 - Brazil becomes formally independent of Portugal ; Dom Pedro is proclaimed emperor
1847 - German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens founds Siemens AG & Halske
1859 - Self-described "Emperor of the United States" Joshua A. Norton 'orders' the U.S. Congress to dissolve
1892 - To mark 400 anniversary Columbus Day holiday, the Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in unison by students in US public schools
1915 - World War I : British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
1928 - An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston
1933 - The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island , is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
1938 - Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz
1953 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial " opens at Plymouth Theatre , New York
1960 - Cold War : Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a table at a General Assembly of the United Nations meeting to protest discussion of Soviet Union policy toward Eastern Europe
1962 - Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230 million in damages
1964 - The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits
1967 - Vietnam War : US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives were futile because of North Vietnam 's opposition
1968 - 1968 Summer Olympics open in Mexico City , Mexico
1968 - Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain
1970 - Vietnam War : US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
1972 - En route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin , a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk
1976 - The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party of China
1983 - Japan 's ex Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to 4 years in jail
1984 - Brighton hotel bombing : Margaret Thatcher survives an IRA bomb , which shredded her bathroom barely two minutes after she had left it
1988 - two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings , Australia
1991 - Askar Akayev , previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet , is confirmed president in an uncontested poll
1994 - NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14 )
1997 - Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria ; 43 killed at a fake roadblock
1998 - U.S. Congress passes Digital Millennium Copyright Act
1999 - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tries to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf , who is returning to Pakistan from abroad in a commercial airliner. Sharif orders the Karachi airport to not allow the plane to land. Army leaders refuse to accept the dismissal and, in a coup , oust Sharif's administration and take over the airport. The plane lands with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf assumes control of the country.
2000 - In Aden , Yemen , the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers , killing 17 crewmembers and wounding at least 39
2001 - War on Terrorism : Prompted by a request by US President George W. Bush , an episode of America's Most Wanted aired featuring 22 most wanted terrorists
2002 - Bali bombing : In Bali , terrorists detonate bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta , killing 202 and wounding over 300
2003 - Belarus mental hospital fire : Thirty patients die in a mental hospital fire in Randilovshchina , Belarus
2003 - Michael Schumacher clinches his 6th Formula One championship, an all-time record
Births
1008 - Emperor Go-Ichijo of Japan (d. 1036 )
1095 - Leopold II of Austria (b. 1050 )
1359 - Dmitry Donskoy , Grand Prince of Moscovia and Prince of Vladimir (d. 1389 )
1537 - King Edward VI of England (d. 1553 )
1558 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (d. 1618 )
1801 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé , member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1873 )
1817 - Bahá'u'lláh , prophet founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892 )
1840 - Helena Modrzejewska , (Madam Modjeska) Polish-American actress (d. 1909 )
1860 - Elmer Sperry , inventor (d. 1930 )
1866 - Ramsay MacDonald , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1937 )
1872 - Ralph Vaughan Williams , English composer (d. 1958 )
1875 - Aleister Crowley , occultist , author (d. 1947 )
1906 - Joe Cronin , Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1984 )
1908 - Ann Petry , novelist (d. 1997 )
1912 - Alice Childress , novelist (d. 1994 )
1918 - P.S. Ramakrishna Rao , film director (d. 1986 )
1923 - Jean Nidetch , founder of Weight Watchers
1924 - Doris Grau , actress, script supivisor and voice actress (d. 1995 )
1932 - Dick Gregory , American comedian, activist
1935 - Luciano Pavarotti , Italian tenor
1935 - Joan Rivers , American comedienne, television host
1944 - Angela Rippon , British television personality
1950 - Susan Anton , actress
1950 - Kaga Takeshi , Japanese actor, host of Iron Chef
1953 - Serge Lepeltier , French politician
1953 - Les Dennis , comedian and television presenter
1955 - Ante Gotovina , Croatian general
1968 - Hugh Jackman , actor, singer
1968 - Adam Rich , actor
1970 - Kirk Cameron , actor
1974 - Stephen Lee , English snooker player
1975 - Marion Jones , American track and field star
1976 - Sarah Lane , on-air talent on The Screen Savers
1988 - Jeremy Redmond , American pianist, singer
1970 - Tanyon Sturtze , American baseball pitcher
Deaths
632 - Edwin , king of Northumbria and Bretwalda
638 - Pope Honorius I
642 - Pope John IV
1095 - Margrave Leopold II of Austria
1576 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II
1845 - Elizabeth Fry , British social reformer and philanthropist (b. 1780 )
1870 - Robert E. Lee , United States Civil War general (Confederate)
1898 - Calvin Fairbank , abolitionist minister, (b. 1816 )
1915 - Edith Cavell , nurse
1924 - Anatole France , author, Nobel Prize winner
1940 - Tom Mix , actor
1946 - General Joseph Stilwell
1954 - George Welch , pilot (b. 1918 )
1969 - Sonja Henie , figure skater (b. 1912 )
1971 - Dean Acheson , United States Secretary of State
1971 - Gene Vincent , musician
1978 - Nancy Spungen Sid Vicious's girlfriend
1984 - Sir Anthony Berry , British politician , along with three of the other victims of the Brighton bombing
1985 - Johnny Olson , game show announcer
1987 - Alf Landon , governor of Kansas
1993 - Leon Ames , actor
1997 - John Denver , singer
1998 - Matthew Shepard , college student and gay-bashing victim (b. 1976 )
1999 - Wilt Chamberlain , basketball player (b. 1936 )
2001 - Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone , British politician
2002 - Ray Conniff , band leader, musician
2002 - Audrey Mestre , freediver
2003 - Jim Cairns , Australian politician
2003 - Joan Kroc , philanthropist
2003 - Willie Shoemaker , Hall of Fame jockey
Holidays and observances
External links
October 11 - October 13 - September 12 - November 12 -- listing of all days