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October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). There are 80 days remaining.

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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
• 1654 - The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100.
• 1681 - A London woman is publicly flogged for the crime of "involving herself in politics"
• 1709 - After a democratic voting, La Villa de San Francisco de Cuéllar was founded, which with time turned into San Felipe del Real Chihuahua and now it is known as the city of Chihuahua.
• 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
• 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)
• 1995 - Black motorist Johnny Gammage dies of asphxyation after being stopped by police in the nearly all-white Pittsburgh suburb of Brentwood
• 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
• 2005 - The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Hǎishèng for five days in orbit.
• 2005 - Apple Computer released the revolutionary Video iPod

Births

• 1008 - Emperor Go-Ichijō of Japan (d. 1036)
• 1350 - Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Prince of Moscovy (d. 1389)
• 1490 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (d. 1548)
• 1537 - King Edward VI of England (d. 1553)
• 1558 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (d. 1618)
• 1576 - Thomas Dudley, Massachusetts colonial magistrate (d. 1653)
• 1602 - William Chillingworth, English churchman (d. 1644)
• 1801 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1873)
• 1840 - Helena Modrzejewska, Polish-American actress (d. 1909)
• 1860 - Elmer Sperry, American inventor (d. 1930)
• 1865 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
• 1866 - Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1937)
• 1872 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (d. 1958)
• 1875 - Aleister Crowley, English occultist and author (d. 1947)
• 1896 - Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
• 1904 - Ding Ling, Chinese writer (d. 1986)
• 1906 - Joe Cronin, baseball player (d. 1984)
• 1908 - Ann Petry, American novelist (d. 1997)
• 1923 - Jean Nidetch, founder of Weight Watchers
• 1924 - Doris Grau, American actress (d. 1995)
• 1932 - Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist
• 1935 - Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor
• 1944 - Angela Rippon, British television personality
• 1950 - Susan Anton, American actress
• 1950 - Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor
• 1953 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician
• 1953 - Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter
• 1955 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian general
• 1962 - Carlos Bernard, American actor
• 1964 - Kevin Esmeier, American comedian and activist
• 1968 - Hugh Jackman, Australian actor and singer
• 1968 - Adam Rich, American actor
• 1969 - Martie Maguire, American musician (Dixie Chicks)
• 1970 - Kirk Cameron, American actor
• 1974 - Stephen Lee, English snooker player
• 1975 - Marion Jones, American athlete
• 1976 - Sarah Lane, American television personality
• 1970 - Tanyon Sturtze, Baseball Player
• 1979 - Jordan Pundik, American singer (New Found Glory)
• 1982 - Molly Bennett, Irish folk singer

Deaths

• 632 - Edwin of Deira, King of Northumbria and Bretwalda
• 638 - Pope Honorius I
• 642 - Pope John IV
• 1095 - Margrave Leopold II of Austria (b. 1050)
• 1176 - William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, English politician
• 1491 - Fritz Herlen, German artist
• 1492 - Piero della Francesca, Italian painter
• 1565 - Jean Ribault, French explorer and colonizer (b. 1520)
• 1576 - Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1527)
• 1590 - Kano Eitoku, Japanese painter (b. 1543)
• 1600 - Luis Molina, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1535)
• 1632 - Kutsuki Mototsuna, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1549)
• 1646 - François de Bassompierre, Marshal of France (b. 1579)
• 1678 - Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (b. 1621)
• 1679 - William Gurnall, English writer (b. 1617)
• 1685 - Christoph Ignaz Abele, Austrian jurist (b. 1628)
• 1730 - King Frederick IV of Denmark (b. 1671)
• 1758 - Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, British field marshal (b. 1680)
• 1845 - Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (b. 1780)
• 1870 - Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (b. 1807)
• 1898 - Calvin Fairbank, American abolitionist minister (b. 1816)
• 1915 - Edith Cavell, English nurse (b. 1865)
• 1924 - Anatole France, French author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
• 1940 - Tom Mix, American actor (b. 1880)
• 1946 - Joseph Stilwell, U.S. general (b. 1883)
• 1954 - George Welch, American pilot (b. 1918)
• 1965 - Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• 1969 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)
• 1971 - Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1893)
• 1971 - Gene Vincent, American musician (b. 1935)
• 1978 - Nancy Spungen, Girlfriend of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious b. 1958)
• 1984 - Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (bombing victim) (b. 1925)
• 1985 - Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (b. 1910)
• 1987 - Alf Landon, Governor of Kansas (b. 1887)
• 1993 - Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1902)
• 1993 - Tofik Bakhramov, Russian footballer (b. 1926)
• 1997 - John Denver, American singer (b. 1943)
• 1999 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)
• 2001 - Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, British politician (b. 1907)
• 2002 - Ray Conniff, American bandleader and musician (b. 1916)
• 2002 - Audrey Mestre, French diver (b. 1974)
• 2003 - Jim Cairns, Australian politician (b. 1914)
• 2003 - Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (b. 1928)
• 2003 - Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (b. 1931)
• 2005 - István Eörsi, Hungarian writer (b. 1931)
• 2005 - C. Delores Tucker, American politician and civil rights activist (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

• Roman festivals - Fortuna Redux, last day of the Ludi Augustales
• Hinduism - Dussehra (2005)
• Judaism - Yom Kippur begins at sunset (2005)
• RC Saints - Our Lady of the Pillar (Zaragoza, Spain); Saint Wilfrid
• Also see October 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Equatorial Guinea - Independence Day (from Spain, 1968)
• Malawi - Mother's Day
• Spain - Hispanic Day, the National Day
• Columbus Day (traditionally) - United States.
• El Dia de la Raza - Latin America.

External links

• BBC: On This Day

October 11 - October 13 - September 12 - November 12 -- listing of all days