October 12

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

Events

1492 - Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean. The Italian explorer believes he has reached East Asia.
1810 - First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
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 United States 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.
1933 - The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice who plans to incorporate the island into its Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
1938 - Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz.
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.
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 United States Congress for peace initiatives were futile because of North Vietnam's opposition.
1968 - 1968 Summer Olympics open in Mexico City, Mexico.
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 brakes out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. Nearly 50 sailors are injured.
1976 - The People's Republic of China announces the Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party of China.
1994 - NASA looses 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).
1998 - United States Congress passes Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
1999 - A military [[coup d'�tat|coup]] led by Pakistani Army Chief General Pervaiz Musharraf takes control of Pakistan and ousts the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
2000 - In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole (DDG 67) is badly damaged by two suicide bombers who placed a small boat laden with explosives along-side the United States Navy destroyer, 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 - 2002 Bali terrorist bombing: In Bali, terrorists detonate bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, killing 190 and wounding over 300.