October 12

Sunday 12, 2003:

Michael Schumacher clinches his 6th Formula One championship, an all-time record

Saturday 12, 2002:

Bali bombing: In Bali, terrorists detonate bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, killing 202 and wounding over 300

Friday 12, 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

Thursday 12, 2000:

In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crewmembers and wounding at least 39

Tuesday 12, 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.

Monday 12, 1998:

U.S. Congress passes Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Sunday 12, 1997:

Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock

Wednesday 12, 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)

Saturday 12, 1991:

Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll

Wednesday 12, 1988:

two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia

Friday 12, 1984:

Brighton hotel bombing: Margaret Thatcher survives an IRA bomb, which shredded her bathroom barely two minutes after she had left it

Wednesday 12, 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

Tuesday 12, 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

Thursday 12, 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

Monday 12, 1970:

Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas

Saturday 12, 1968:

Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain

Thursday 12, 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

Monday 12, 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

Friday 12, 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

Wednesday 12, 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

Monday 12, 1953:

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

Wednesday 12, 1938:

Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz

Thursday 12, 1933:

The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice

Friday 12, 1928:

An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston

Tuesday 12, 1915:

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

Wednesday 12, 1892:

To mark 400 anniversary Columbus Day holiday, the Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in unison by students in US public schools

Wednesday 12, 1859:

Self-described "Emperor of the United States" Joshua A. Norton 'orders' the U.S. Congress to dissolve

Friday 12, 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

Saturday 12, 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

Friday 12, 1792:

First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York

Tuesday 12, 1773:

America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia

Sunday 12, 1681:

A London woman is publicly flogged for the crime of "involving herself in politics"

Monday 12, 1654:

The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100.

Monday 12, 1609:

"Three Blind Mice" published by London teenage songwriter Thomas Ravenscroft

Tuesday 12, 1582:

Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

Wednesday 12, 1492:

Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean. The explorer believes he has reached East Asia

More on October, 12

• People Born on October, 12
• They left us on October, 12