Events
- 539 BC – The army of
Cyrus the Great of Persia
takes
Babylon
.
- 1216 – King John of England
loses his
crown jewels in The
Wash
, probably near Fosdyke
, perhaps
near Sutton
Bridge
- 1279 – Nichiren, a
Japanese Buddhist monk founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the
Dai-Gohonzon
- 1398 – The Treaty of Salynas is signed between
Grand Duke of Lithuania
Vytautas the Great and the
Teutonic Knights, who received
Samogitia.
- 1492 – Christopher Columbus's expedition makes
landfall in the Caribbean
, specifically in The Bahamas
. The explorer believes he has reached
South Asia
- 1582 – Because of the
implementation of the Gregorian
calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy
, Poland
, Portugal
and Spain
.
- 1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates
the city in the Netherlands
, killing more than 100 people.
- 1692 – The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter
from Massachusetts Governor William
Phips.
- 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.
- 1822 – Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the
emperor of the Brazil

- 1823 – Charles Macintosh, of Scotland
, sells the first raincoat.
- 1871 – Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by
British rule in India, which
named over 160 local communities 'Criminal Tribes', i.e. hereditary criminals.
Repealed in 1949, after Independence of India.
- 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited
by students in many US public schools, as part of
a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's
voyage.
- 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 – World War I: The First Battle
of Passchendaele
takes place resulting in the largest single day
loss of life in New
Zealand
history.
- 1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people in
Minnesota
.
- 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
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese
ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of
Cape Esperance
with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotō dying from wounds suffered in
the battle and two Japanese destroyers
sunk by Allied air
attack.
- 1945 – World War
II: Desmond Doss is the first
conscientious objector to
receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
- 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
colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe
- 1960
– Inejiro Asanuma, Chair of the
Japanese Socialist Party, is assassinated in Japan
by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old. The
cameras were rolling at the time, so the moment was caught on
film.
- 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
are 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 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
Zedong as chairman of Communist Party of
China.
- 1979 – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy comedy science
fiction series by Douglas Adams is
published.
- 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
: The Provisional Irish Republican
Army attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet.
Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people and wounds 31.
- 1986 – Elizabeth II of the United
Kingdom and Prince
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's
Republic of China

- 1988 – Jaffna University Helidrop:
Commandos of Indian Peace Keeping Force raided the Jaffna
University campus to capture the LTTE chief and
walked into a trap.
- 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.
- 1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan
from 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
, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least
39
- 2002 – Terrorists
detonate
bombs
in Paddy's Pub and the
Sari
Club
in Kuta
, Bali
, killing
202 and wounding over 300.
- 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)
- 1558 – Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (d.
1618)
- 1558 – Jacques
Sirmond, French scholar and Jesuit (d. 1651)
- 1576 – Thomas
Dudley, English-born American colonial magistrate (d.
1653)
- 1602 – William Chillingworth, English
religious leader (d. 1644)
- 1710 – Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and
statesman (d. 1785)
- 1712 – William
Shippen, American physician and statesman (d. 1801)
- 1725 – Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French
pharmacist and entomologist (d. 1810)
- 1792 – Christian Gmelin, German chemist (d.
1860)
- 1798 – Pedro I
of Brazil (d. 1834)
- 1801 – Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss
statesman (d. 1873)
- 1840 – Helena
Modjeska, Polish actress (d. 1909)
- 1855 – Arthur
Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (d. 1922)
- 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, American 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)
- 1891 – Edith
Stein, Carmelite Catholic nun (d. 1942)
- 1892 – Gilda
dalla Rizza, Italian soprano (d. 1975)
- 1893 – Velvalee Dickinson, American spy (d.
1980)
- 1894 – Elisabeth of Romania (d. 1956)
- 1896 – Eugenio
Montale, Italian poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1981)
- 1904 – Ding Ling,
Chinese writer (d. 1986)
- 1904 – Lester
Dent, American writer (d. 1959)
- 1906 – Joe
Cronin, American baseball player and executive (d. 1984)
- 1908 – Paul
Engle, American writer (d. 1991)
- 1908 – Ann Petry, American novelist
(d. 1997)
- 1910 – Robert
Fitzgerald, American poet and translator (d. 1985)
- 1910 – Bob Sheppard, American
baseball announcer
- 1913 – Alice
Chetwynd Ley, British romance writer (d. 2004)
- 1916 – Alice
Childress, American actress and playwright (d. 1994)
- 1917 – Roque
Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer (d. 2004)
- 1919 – Gilles
Beaudoin, Quebec politician (d. 2007)
- 1920 – Christy
Ring, Irish hurler (d. 1979)
- 1923 – Goody
Petronelli, American boxing trainer and manager
- 1924 – Doris
Grau, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1925 – Denis
Lazure, Quebec politician (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Robert
Coles, American psychologist and author
- 1929 – Magnús
Magnússon, Icelandic television presenter (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Milica Kacin Wohinz, Slovenian
historian
- 1931 – Ole-Johan
Dahl, Norwegian computer scientist (d. 2002)
- 1932 – Dick
Gregory, American comedian and activist
- 1932 – Ned Jarrett, American race
car driver
- 1933 – Guido
Molinari, Canadian painter (d. 2004)
- 1934 – Richard
Meier, American architect
- 1934 – Albert Shiryaev, Russian
mathematician
- 1935 – Luciano
Pavarotti, Italian tenor (d. 2007)
- 1935 – Sam Moore, American R&B
singer (Sam & Dave)
- 1935 – Don Howe, English football
player and manager
- 1937 – Paul Hawkins, Australian racing
driver (d. 1969)
- 1937 – Robert Mangold, American
artist
- 1938 – Bob Miller, American NHL broadcaster
- 1941 – Michael
Mansfield, English barrister
- 1942 – Melvin
Franklin, American singer (The
Temptations) (d. 1995)
- 1944 – Angela
Rippon, British television personality
- 1945 – Aurore Clément, French actress
- 1945 – Dusty Rhodes,
American professional wrestler
- 1947 – Chris Wallace, American
journalist
- 1947 – George Lam, Hong Kong
singer
- 1948 – Rick
Parfitt, British musician (Status
Quo)
- 1949 – Ilich
Ramírez Sánchez, Venezuelan international terrorist
- 1949 – Stan Hansen, American
professional wrestler
- 1950 – Susan
Anton, American actress
- 1950 – Robin Askwith, English
actor
- 1950 – Caroline Ellis, English
actress
- 1950 – Dave Freudenthal,
American politician
- 1950 – Kaga Takeshi, Japanese
actor
- 1951 – Ed Royce,
American politician
- 1952 – Danielle
Proulx, Quebec actress
- 1953 – Les
Dennis, British comedian and presenter
- 1953 – Serge Lepeltier, French
politician
- 1955 – Ante
Gotovina, Croatian general
- 1955 – Jane Siberry, Canadian
musician
- 1956 – David
Vanian, British singer, (The
Damned)
- 1957 – Kristen
Bjorn, British film director
- 1958 – Bryn
Merrick, British musician, (The
Damned)
- 1959 – Anna
Escobedo Cabral, 42nd Treasurer of the United
States
- 1960 – Hiroyuki
Sanada, Japanese actor
- 1962 – Carlos
Bernard, American actor
- 1962 – Chris Botti, American jazz
musician
- 1962 – Branko Crvenkovski,
Macedonian politician
- 1962 – Deborah Foreman, American
actress
- 1963 – Lane
Frost, American professional bull rider (d. 1989)
- 1963 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese
anime director
- 1963 – Alan McDonald,
Northern Irish footballer
- 1963 – Luis Polonia, Dominican
baseball player
- 1965 – Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Canadian hockey
player
- 1965 – Scott O'Grady, American
military officer
- 1966 – Jonathan
Crombie, Canadian actor
- 1966 – Wim Jonk, Dutch football
player
- 1966 – Brian Kennedy,
Northern Irish musician and author
- 1967 – Paul Laine Canadian singer
composer
- 1968 – Bill
Auberlen, American race car driver
- 1968 – Hugh Jackman, Australian
actor and singer
- 1968 – Adam Rich, American actor
- 1969 – Martie
Maguire, American musician (Dixie
Chicks)
- 1969 – Dwayne Roloson, Canadian
hockey player
- 1969 – José Valentín,
American baseball player
- 1970 – Kirk
Cameron, American actor
- 1970 – Tanyon Sturtze, American
baseball player
- 1970 – Charlie Ward, American pro
basketball player
- 1970 – Julian,
American pornographic actor
- 1971 – Ahn Jae
Wook, South Korean actor and composer
- 1971 – Tony Fiore, American baseball
player
- 1972 – Irina
Pantaeva, Russian supermodel and actress
- 1972 – Juan Manuel Silva,
Argentine racing driver
- 1972 – Tom Van Mol, Belgian football
player
- 1972 – Mechele Linehan, American
convicted murderess
- 1973 – Lesli
Brea, Dominican baseball player
- 1973 – Martin Corry,
English rugby player
- 1974 – Stephen
Lee, English snooker player
- 1974 – Marie
Wilson, Canadian actress
- 1975 – Marion
Jones, American track and field athlete
- 1976 – Sarah
Lane, American television personality
- 1977 – Jessica
Barker, Canadian actress
- 1977 – Bode Miller, American alpine
ski-racer
- 1977 – Javier Toyo, Venezuelan
footballer
- 1977 – Young
Jeezy, American Rapper
- 1978 – Baden
Cooke, Australian cyclist
- 1978 – Marko Jaric, Serbian
basketball player
- 1979 – Jordan
Pundik, American singer (New Found
Glory)
- 1980 – Ledley
King, English footballer
- 1981 – Shola
Ameobi, English footballer
- 1981 – Tom Guiry, American actor
- 1981 – Brian Kerr,
Scottish footballer
- 1981 – Sneha, Indian
actress
- 1983 – Alex
Brosque, Australian footballer
- 1985 – Mike Green, Canadian ice
hockey player
- 1986 – Sergio
Peter, German footballer
- 1986 – Emmanuel Nwachi, Nigerian
footballer
- 1990 – Henri
Lansbury, English footballer
- 1992 – Josh
Hutcherson, American 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 (b.
1277)
- 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)
- 1875 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French
sculptor and painter (b. 1827)
- 1896 – Christian Emil
Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish nobleman and politician (b.
1817)
- 1898 – Calvin
Fairbank, American abolitionist minister (b. 1816)
- 1915 – Edith
Cavell, English nurse (b. 1865)
- 1920 – Yu
Gwan-sun, Korean independence fighter (b. 1904)
- 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)
- 1948 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs, educational
psychologist and psychoanalyst (b. 1885).
- 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)
- 1960 – Inejiro
Asanuma, Japanese politician (b. 1898)
- 1965 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist,
recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine (b. 1899)
- 1967 – Ram
Manohar Lohia, Indian Socialist
politician leader (b. 1910)
- 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)
- 1973 – Peter
Aufschnaiter, Austrian mountaineer, known from Seven Years in Tibet (b. 1899)
- 1978 – Nancy
Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistol Sid
Vicious (b. 1958)
- 1983 – The Grand
Wizard of Wrestling, Wrestling manager (b. 1929)
- 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 (b. 1953)
- 1987 – Alf
Landon, Governor of Kansas (b. 1887)
- 1988 – Ruth
Manning-Sanders, author of children's books (b. 1895)
- 1989 – Jay Ward,
American animator (Rocky and
Bullwinkle, etc.) (b. 1920)
- 1990 – Peter
Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author, philosopher and mountaineer
(b. 1899)
- 1991 – Sheila
Florance, Australian film and television actress (b. 1916)
- 1991 – Arkady Strugatsky,
Russian novelist (b. 1925)
- 1993 – Leon
Ames, American actor (b. 1902)
- 1993 – Tofik Bakhramov,
Azerbaijani linesman (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 (b. 1943)
- 1998 – Matthew
Shepard, American murder victim (b. 1976)
- 1998 – Mario Beaulieu, French
Canadian politician (b. 1930)
- 1999 – Wilt
Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)
- 1999 – Robert Marsden Hope,
Australian Justice and Royal Commissioner (b. 1919)
- 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)
- 2006 – Gillo
Pontecorvo, Italian film director (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Kisho
Kurokawa, Japanese architect (b. 1934)
- 2007 – Noel Coleman, British Actor
(b. 1919)
- 2008 – Karl
Chircop, Maltese politician (b. 1965)
- 2009 – Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian
cyclist (b. 1974)
- 2009 – Dickie
Peterson American musician (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances
October 12 is the
feast
day of the following
Roman
Catholic Saints:
October 12 is also a holiday in the following countries:
External links