October 12

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

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 - 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.
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
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
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
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
1958 - Atlanta synagogue bombing
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 - 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 - 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
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 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 - Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.
1999 - The Day of 6 Billion: The 6 billionth human in the world is born.
2000 - In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members 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
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 (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)
1798 - Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (d. 1834)
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)
1887 - Paula von Preradović , Croatian-Austrian poet (d. 1951)
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)
1932 - Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist
1934 - Richard Meier, Americian architect
1935 - Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor
1944 - Angela Rippon, British television personality
1947 - Chris Wallace, American journalist
1950 - Susan Anton, American actress
1950 - Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor
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
1957 - Kristen Bjorn, British film director
1962 - Deborah Foreman, American actress
1962 - Carlos Bernard, American actor
1963 - Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer
1966 - Brian Kennedy, Northern Irish musician and author
1968 - Hugh Jackman, Australian actor and singer
1968 - Adam Rich, American actor
1969 - Martie Maguire, American musician (Dixie Chicks)
1970 - Kirk Cameron, American actor
1970 - Tanyon Sturtze, baseball player
1970 - Rodney Begnaud, professional wrestler
1970 - Charlie Ward, American 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 - Bode Miller, American alpine ski-racer
1979 - Jordan Pundik, American singer (New Found Glory)
1981 - Shola Ameobi, English footballer
1982 - Molly Bennett, Irish singer
1984 - Matthew Dewey, Australian composer

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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
1993 - Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1902)
1993 - Tofik Bakhramov, Russian footballer (b. 1926)
1997 - John Denver, American singer (b. 1943)
1998 - Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (b. 1976)
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 - 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
Bl. Camillus Constanzi
St. Domnina
St. Edistius
St. Fiace
St. Felix and Cyprian
St. Heribert
St. Maximilian of Lorch
St. Monas
St. Pantalus

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

External links

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

Gourt Home::Gourt :: October 12

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links