October 12......

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

EVENTS

● 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.

● 1216 - King John lost his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge

● 1492 - (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21st New Style) 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

● 1775 - The United States Navy is formed.

● 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 declared his independence from Portugal, Peter I of Brazil is proclamed the emperor of Brazilian Empire.

● 1823 - Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat.

● 1850 - The first women's medical college opens, in Pennsylvania.

● 1859 - Self-described "Emperor of the United States" Joshua A. Norton issues a decree dissolving the U.S. Congress. Congress fails to notice.

● 1892 - The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in unison by students in US public schools.

● 1899 - Boer republic of South Africa declares war with England.

● 1901 - President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.

● 1915 - World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium

● 1917 - The First Battle of Passchendaele

● 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

● 1933 - Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio.

● 1938 - Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz

● 1942 - During World War II, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.

● 1942 - The USS Duncan is sunk by Japanese naval gunfire at the Battle of Cape Esperance

● 1953 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York

● 1959 - At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.

● 1960 - Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonialist policy being conducted in 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 - Labour voters are 'bonkers' says Hogg; A senior Conservative minister has stolen the show at the Conservative news conference by branding all Labour voters "bonkers". Quintin Hogg, Lord President of the Council and Secretary for Education and Science, made his quip after mounting a stinging attack on Labour's policies. "As I see the question," he told journalists gathered at Conservative Central office in London, "it is quite plainly between sanity on our side and madness on the other side."

● 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 - The Naked Ape steps out; Zoologist Dr Desmond Morris has stunned the world by writing about humans in the same way scientists describe animals. His new book, The Naked Ape, was published today. It was so named because out of the 193 species of monkeys and apes on the planet only man is not entirely covered in hair.

● 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 - The 19th Summer Olympic Games opened in Mexico City.

● 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

● 1971 - ''Jesus Christ Superstar,'' the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, opened on Broadway.

● 1972 - En route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk

● 1973 - President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-MI, to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president. Later it would be speculated there was a quid-pro-quo where Ford became VP with the promise of a pardon if Nixon was ever gone as President.

● 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.

● 1978 - Sex Pistol Vicious on murder charge; British punk rocker Sid Vicious is arrested on suspicion of murder after his girlfriend's body is found in their New York hotel room.

● 1979 - The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip.

● 1983 - Japan's former 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 at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in a direct attack on the British Government.

● 1986 - The superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control (Star Wars) or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.

● 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 - Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan's military takes power from democratically-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

● 1999 - The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.

● 2000 - The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers in an explosives-laden boat, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39

● 2001 - Prompted by a request by US President George W. Bush, an episode of America's Most Wanted features 22 most wanted terrorists

● 2001 - NBC News said an assistant to anchorman Tom Brokaw had tested positive for skin anthrax after opening a letter addressed to Brokaw.

● 2002 - Terrorists detonate bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300, many of them foreign tourists. Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida were blamed.

● 2003 - Thirty patients die in a mental hospital fire in Randilovshchina, Belarus.

● 2005 - The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Hǎishèng for five days in orbit.

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 (1547-53) (d. 1553)

● 1537 - Jane Grey, Queen of England (d. 1554)

● 1558 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (d. 1618)

● 1576 - Thomas Dudley, Massachusetts colonial magistrate (d. 1653)

● 1602 - William Chillingworth, English churchman (d. 1644)

● 1710 - Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (d. 1785)

● 1712 - William Shippen, American physician and Contental Congressman (d. 1801)

● 1725 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (d. 1810)

● 1742 - Johann Peter Melchior, German artist (d. 1825)

● 1798 - Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (d. 1834)

● 1801 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1873)

● 1840 - Helena Modrzejewska, Polish-born actress (d. 1909)

● 1855 - Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (d. 1922)

● 1858 - Isaac Newton Lewis, American army officer and inventor (d. 1931)

● 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)

● 1874 - Jimmy Burke, Baseball player (d. 1942)

● 1875 - Aleister Crowley, English occultist and author (d. 1947)

● 1880 - Louis Hémon, French novelist (d. 1913)

● 1887 - Paula von Preradović , Croatian-Austrian poet (d. 1951)

● 1889 - Perle Mesta, American diplomat (d. 1975)

● 1889 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (d. 1958)

● 1891 - Saint Edith Stein, German scholar and Carmelite nun and martyr; executed by Nazis because of Jewish background (d. 1942)

● 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)

● 1917 - Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer

● 1924 - Doris Grau, American actress (d. 1995)

● 1927 - Antonia Rey, Actress

● 1929 - Nappy Brown, Blues singer

● 1932 - Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist

● 1933 - Guido Molinari, Canadian painter (d. 2004)

● 1934 - Richard Meier, American architect

● 1934 - Albert Shiryaev, Russian mathematician

● 1935 - Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor

● 1935 - Sam Moore, American R&B singer (Sam & Dave)

● 1942 - Melvin Franklin, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 1995)

● 1944 - Angela Rippon, British television personality

● 1947 - Chris Wallace, American broadcast journalist

● 1948 - John Engler, Former Michigan governor

● 1950 - Susan Anton, American actress

● 1950 - Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor

● 1950 - Dave Freudenthal, Governor of Wyoming

● 1951 - Ed Royce, American politician

● 1953 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician

● 1953 - Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter

● 1955 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian general

● 1955 - Jane Siberry, Canadian musician

● 1955 - Pat DiNizio, Rock musician (The Smithereens)

● 1957 - Kristen Bjorn, British film director

● 1962 - Deborah Foreman, American actress

● 1962 - Claude McKnight, R&B singer (Take 6)

● 1962 - Carlos Bernard, American actor (''24'')

● 1963 - Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime director

● 1963 - Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer

● 1965 - Bob Schneider, Rock singer

● 1965 - Jean-Jacques Daigneault, National Hockey League defenseman

● 1966 - Brian Kennedy, Northern Irish musician and author

● 1968 - Hugh Jackman, Australian actor and singer

● 1968 - Adam Rich, American actor (''Eight is Enough'')

● 1969 - Martie Maguire, American musician (Dixie Chicks)

● 1969 - Garfield Bright, R&B singer (Shai)

● 1969 - Dwayne Roloson, Canadian NHL hockey player

● 1970 - Kirk Cameron, American actor (''Growing Pains'')

● 1970 - Tanyon Sturtze, baseball player

● 1970 - Rodney Begnaud, professional wrestler

● 1970 - Charlie Ward, American football and basketball player

● 1972 - Irina Pantaeva, Russian supermodel and actress

● 1973 - Rodney Mack, Professional wrestler

● 1974 - Stephen Lee, English snooker player

● 1975 - Marion Jones, American athlete

● 1976 - Sarah Lane, American television personality

● 1977 - Young Jeezy, African-American rapper

● 1977 - Cristie Kerr, Golfer

● 1977 - Bode Miller, American alpine ski-racer

● 1979 - Jordan Pundik, American singer (New Found Glory)

● 1978 - Baden Cooke, Australian cyclist

● 1981 - Shola Ameobi, English footballer

● 1982 - Molly Bennett, Irish singer

● 1986 - Marcus T. Paulk, Actor

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

● 1320 - Michael IX Palaeologus, co-ruling Eastern Roman Emperor

● 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)

● 1864 - U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, the author of the infamous Dred Scott decision on slavery, died at age 87.

● 1870 - Robert E. Lee, in Lexington, VA, 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)

● 1956 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872)

● 1958 - Gordon Griffith, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1907)

● 1965 - Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

● 1969 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)

● 1970 - Mustafa Zaidi, Pakistani poet (b. 1930)

● 1971 - Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1893)

● 1971 - Gene Vincent, Pioneering American rock'n'roll musician (b. 1935)

● 1978 - Nancy Spungen, Girlfriend of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious b. 1958)

● 1983 - The Grand Wizard of Wrestling, Wrestling manager

● 1984 - Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (bombing victim) (b. 1925)

● 1985 - Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (b. 1910)

● 1985 - Ricky Wilson, American musician; member of The B-52's

● 1987 - Alf Landon, Governor of Kansas (b. 1887)

● 1988 - Ruth Manning-Sanders, author of children's books(b. 1895)

● 1989 - Carmen Cavallaro, American popular pianist (b. 1913)

● 1991 - Arkady Strugatsky, Russian Novelist (b. 1925)

● 1993 - Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1902)

● 1993 - Tofik Bakhramov, Russian footballer (b. 1926)

● 1994 - Gérald Godin, Québécois poet and politician (b. 1938)

● 1996 - Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (b. 1911)

● 1996 - René Lacoste, French tennis player (b. 1904)

● 1997 - John Denver, American singer, died in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, CA supposedly after running out of gas. (b. 1943)

● 1998 - Matthew Shepard, American murder victim, a gay student at University of Wyoming, died five days after he was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie. (b. 1976)

● 1998 - Mario Beaulieu, French Canadian politician (b. 1930)

● 1999 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and NBA Hall of Fame member (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 Hall of Fame jockey (b. 1931)

● 2005 - C. Delores Tucker, American politician and civil rights activist (b. 1927)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● October 12th is the feast day of the following Roman Catholic Saints:

● St. Wilfrid
● St. Edwin
● St. Amicus
● St. Salvinus
● St. Seraphinus
● Blessed Camillus Constanzi
● St. Domnina
● St. Edistius
● St. Fiace
● St. Felix
● St. Cyprian
● St. Heribert
● St. Maximilian of Lorch
● St. Monas
● St. Pantalus
● Our Lady of the Pillar (Zaragoza, Spain)

● Roman festivals - Fortuna Redux, last day of the Ludi Augustales

● Equatorial Guinea - Independence Day (from Spain, 1968)

● Malawi - Mother's Day

● Spain - Hispanic Day, National Day

● Columbus Day (traditionally) - United States.

● El Dia de la Raza - Latin America.

● French Republican Calendar - Chanvre (Hemp) Day, twenty-first day in the Month of Vendémiaire

● Brazil - Children's Day and the day of Our Lady of Aparecida


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

The BBC Take on the day

On this day in the New York Times