October 12

Events
Up to 1900
539 BC The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.
1216 King John of England loses his own crown jewels in The Wash.
1492 In his first voyage, Christopher Columbus lands in the present-day Bahamas, in the belief that he'd reached East Asia.
1654 An explosion devastates the city of Delft, Netherlands, killing over 100 people.
1692 The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
1748 War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Havana between British and Spanish naval forces.
1773 The United States' first insane asylum opens in Virginia.
1792 First US celebration of Columbus Day, in New York City.
1799 Jeanne Genevieve Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute.
1810 The tradition of the Munich Oktoberfest begins.
1822 Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed Emperor.
1823 Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat.
1860 - The previously Introduced of the so-called Section 377 of the British Indian penal code (Law) was enacted in British India respectively.
1871 - The Introduction of the so-called Criminal Tribes Act was enacted in British India respectively.
1892 The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many public schools.
1899 First fighting of the Second Boer War.
1901 2000
1901 The 'Executive Mansion' is renamed the White House by US President Theodore Roosevelt.
1902 The Austria national football team plays its first game, defeating the Hungary national football team 5-0.
1915 World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad.
1917 World War I: The first Battle of Passchendaele takes place.
1918 A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.
1928 An iron lung respirator is first used at the Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
1931 The Christ the Redeemer statue on Sugar Loaf Mountain over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is officially inaugurated.
1942 World War II: Japanese ships retreat after defeat to the US in the Battle of Esperance on Guadalcanal.
1944 World War II: Athens, Greece, is liberated from occupying German forces.
1962 A storm hits the Pacific Northwest of the United States, killing 46 people.
1964 The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew.
1968 Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.
1968 The 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City begin.
1970 Vietnam War: Richard Nixon announces the withdrawal of 40,000 US troops before Christmas.
1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is first published.
1983 Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of bribery and sent to four years in jail.
1984 The Provisional IRA carries out the Brighton Hotel Bombing in an attempt to kill Margaret Thatcher, who escapes unhurt, though 5 people are killed and 31 injured.
1986 Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China.
1987 General Junhao Zhang fails the Juliet battalion in a skirmish versus the Han Chinese resulting in 50 casualties and the loss of a warehouse containing tonnes of gold.
1988 Birchandra Manu massacre in Tripura, India.
1991 Askar Akayev is confirmed as President of Kyrgyzstan.
1992 A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Cairo, Egypt kills 510 people.
1994 NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as it passes through the atmosphere of the planet Venus, probably because of the extreme gravity there.
1997 Sidi Daous massacre occurs in Algeria, as 43 people are killed at a fake roadblock.
1999 In Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf takes control in a military coup. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is placed under house arrest.
1999 Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.
1999 The UN officially designates this as the day that the world population reached six billion.
2000 The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers.
From 2001
2002 A terrorist bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali kills 202 people.
2003 Germany wins the FIFA Women's World Cup, defeating Sweden 2-1.
2005 The second Chinese space flight occurs as Shenzhou 6 is launched, with Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng on board.
2007 Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change win the Nobel Peace Prize.
2009 Elinor Ostrom becomes the first woman to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, sharing it with Oliver E. Williamson.
2012 The European Union wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
2013 Cyclone Phailin hits the east coast of India.
2013 51 people are killed after a truck plunges off a cliff in Peru.
2014 Southeastern India is hit by Cyclone Hudhud, while Japan is hit by a typhoon on the same day.
2019 Typhoon Hagibis hits Japan, becoming the most powerful storm to hit the country in over 60 years.
Births
Up to 1900
1006 Emperor Go-Ichijo of Japan (d. 1036).
1350 Dmitry Donskoy, Prince of Moscow (d. 1389).
1490 Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (d. 1548).
1537 Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days (d. 1554).
1537 King Edward VI of England (d. 1553).
1558 Archduke Maximilian II of Austria (d. 1618).
1576 Thomas Dudley, English-born American colonial magistrate (d. 1653).
1664 Praskovia Saltykova, Tsarina of Russia (d. 1723).
1687 Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer (d. 1750)
1710 Jonathan Trumbull, 16th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1785).
1775 Ludovico Micara, Italian cardinal (d. 1847).
1792 Christian Gmelin, German chemist (d. 1860).
1798 Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil and (as Pedro IV) King of Portugal (d. 1834).
1801 Friedrich Frey-Herose, Swiss statesman (d. 1873).
1812 Ascanio Sobrero, Italian chemist and inventor (d. 1888).
1815 William G. Hardee, American Confederate general (d. 1873).
1827 George Lawson, Canadian botanist (d. 1895).
1834 Infanta Amelia Philippina of Spain (d. 1905).
1840 Helena Modjeska, Polish actress (d. 1909).
1844 George Washington Cable, American writer (d. 1925).
1853 Edward F. Dunne, Governor of Illinois (d. 1937).
1855 Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (d. 1922).
1860 Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor (d. 1930).
1860 John G. Sargent, 53rd United States Attorney General (d. 1939).
1865 Arthur Harden, English chemist (d. 1940).
1866 Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1937).
1868 August Horch, German engineer and automobile pioneer, founder of Audi (d. 1951).
1868 Mariano Trias, 1st Vice President of the Philippines (d. 1914).
1872 Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (d. 1958)
1875 Aleister Crowley, English occultist and writer (d. 1947).
1877 Howard Mason Gore, American politician, 17th Governor of West Virginia (d. 1947).
1880 Louis Hemon, French novelist (d. 1913).
1882 Akiba Rubinstein, Polish chess player (d. 1961).
1891 Edith Stein, Roman Catholic nun (d. 1942).
1891 Fumimaro Konoe, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1945).
1894 Elisabeth of Romania (d. 1956).
1896 Eugenio Montale, Italian poet (d. 1981).
1901 1950
1904 Ding Ling, Chinese writer (d. 1986).
1905 Barney Battles Jr., Scottish footballer (d. 1979).
1906 Joe Cronin, American baseball player and executive (d. 1984).
1910 Robert Fitzgerald, American poet and translator (d. 1985).
1917 Roque Maspoli, Uruguayan footballer (d. 2004).
1920 Christopher Soames, Baron Soames, British politician (d. 1987).
1921 Art Clokey, American animator (d. 2010).
1921 Jaroslav Drobny, Czech tennis and ice hockey player (d. 2001).
1921 Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scottish rugby player and journalist.
1921 Kenneth Griffith, Welsh actor (d. 2006).
1923 Wendell Eugene, American jazz trombonist (d. 2017).
1923 Jean Nidetch, American businesswoman (d. 2015).
1924 Doris Grau, American actress (d. 1995).
1925 Essie Mae Washington-Williams, American educator (d. 2013).
1926 Allan Brown, Scottish footballer (d. 2011).
1928 Rangel Valchanov, Bulgarian actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2013).
1929 Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic-British television presenter (d. 2007).
1931 Ole-Johan Dahl, Norwegian computer scientist (d. 2002).
1932 Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist (d. 2017).
1932 Ned Jarrett, American racing driver.
1932 John Moffat, Danish-Canadian physicist.
1934 Richard Meier, American architect.
1934 Albert Shiryaev, Russian mathematician.
1934 Thomas L. Judge, Governor of Montana (d. 2006).
1935 Don Howe, English footballer (d. 2015).
1935 Shivraj Patil, Indian politician.
1935 Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera singer (d. 2007).
1937 Alberto Goldman, Brazilian politician (d. 2019).
1938 Bob Miller, American NHL broadcaster.
1939 Carolee Schneemann, American artist (d. 2019).
1942 Melvin Franklin, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 1995).
1942 Daliah Lavi, Israeli actress and singer (d. 2017).
1943 Jakob Kuhn, Swiss footballer and coach.
1944 Angela Rippon, British television journalist.
1945 Dusty Rhodes, American professional wrestler (d. 2015).
1946 Rosanna Marani, Italian journalist and television host.
1947 George Lam, Hong Kong actor and singer.
1948 Rick Parfitt, British musician (Status Quo) (d. 2016).
1948 John Engler, former Governor of Missouri.
1949 Carlos the Jackal, Venezuelan terrorist.
1950 Dave Freudenthal, 31st Governor of Wyoming.
1951 1975
1951 Ed Royce, American politician.
1952 Danielle Proulx, Canadian actress.
1952 Roger Heath-Brown, English mathematician.
1953 Les Dennis, English comedian and actor.
1953 David Threlfall, English actor.
1955 Ashley Adams, Australian target shooter (d. 2015).
1955 Einar Jan Aas, Norwegian footballer.
1955 Brian Flynn, Welsh footballer and coach.
1955 Ante Gotovina, Croatian general.
1955 Aggie MacKenzie, Scottish television presenter.
1956 Allan Evans, Scottish footballer.
1956 David Vanian, British singer (The Damned).
1958 Bryn Merrick, British musician (The Damned) (d. 2015).
1958 Hara Patnaik, Indian actor, director and writer (d. 2015).
1959 Anna Escobedo Cabral, 42nd Treasurer of the United States.
1960 Alexei Kudrin, Russian politician.
1962 Branko Crvenkovski, former President of the Republic of Macedonia.
1962 Chris Botti, American jazz trumpeter.
1963 Satoshi Kon, Japanese movie director and screenwriter (d. 2010).
1963 Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2012).
1963 Dave Legeno, British actor and mixed martial artist (d. 2014).
1963 Donna Williams, Australian author (d. 2017).
1964 Sally Rogers, British actress
1965 Anja Niedringhaus, German photojournalist (d. 2014).
1966 Rhona Martin, Scottish curler.
1966 Brian Kennedy, Northern Irish musician and actor.
1966 Jonathan Crombie, Canadian actor (d. 2015).
1966 Wim Jonk, Dutch footballer.
1966 Roberto Nestor Sensini, Argentine footballer.
1968 Hugh Jackman, Australian actor.
1968 Adam Rich, American actor.
1969 Martie Maguire, American musician (Dixie Chicks).
1969 Zejko Milinovic, Slovenian footballer.
1970 Kirk Cameron, American actor.
1970 Origa, Russian-Japanese singer (d. 2015).
1973 Martin Corry, English rugby player.
1974 Lascelles Brown, Jamaican-Canadian bobsledder.
1974 Marie Wilson, American actress.
1974 Stephen Lee, English snooker player.
1975 Marion Jones, American athlete.
From 1976
1977 Jessica Barker, Canadian actress.
1977 Bode Miller, American skier.
1979 Paula Barila Bolopa, Equatoguinean footballer and swimmer.
1980 Nadzeya Ostapchuk, Belarussian shot putter.
1980 Ledley King, English footballer.
1981 Shola Ameobi, English footballer.
1983 Katie Piper, English model and television host.
1985 Greig Laidlaw, Scottish rugby player.
1986 Tyler Blackburn, American actor and singer.
1987 Besian Idrizaj, Austrian footballer (d. 2010).
1988 Sam Whitelock, New Zealand rugby player.
1989 Aggro Santos, Brazilian-English rapper
1990 Melody, Spanish singer.
1991 Michael Carter-Williams, American basketball player
1992 Josh Hutcherson, American actor.
1992 Taylor Horn, American singer, songwriter and actress.
1995 Jordan Howe, Welsh paralympic athlete.
1997 Prince Boris of Bulgaria.
2001 Raymond Ochoa, American actor.
2004 Darci Lynne, American ventriloquist and singer.
Deaths
Up to 1900
322 BC Demosthenes, Greek statesman (b. 384 BC).
632 Edwin of Northumbria (b. 586).
638 Pope Honorius I
642 Pope John IV
1095 Leopold II of Austria (b. 1050).
1320 Michael IX Palaiologus, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 1277).
1492 Piero della Francesca, Italian painter (b. 1415).
1576 Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1527).
1600 Luis Molina, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1535).
1730 Frederick IV of Denmark (b. 1671).
1845 Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (b. 1780).
1850 Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1781).
1870 Robert E. Lee, American Confederate General (b. 1807).
1875 Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (b. 1827).
1891 Hobart B. Bigelow, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1834).
1896 Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish nobleman and politician (b. 1817).
1901 2000
1915 Edith Cavell, English nurse (b. 1865).
1920 Yu Gwan-sun, Korean independence leader (b. 1904).
1921 Philander C. Knox, United States Secretary of State (b. 1853).
1924 Anatole France, French writer (b. 1844).
1933 John Lister, English politician (b. 1847).
1937 Al Brady, American gangster, killed by FBI
1943 Willi Graf, German Resistance activist (b. 1918).
1946 Joseph Stilwell, American general (b. 1883).
1948 Alfred Kerr, German writer (b. 1867).
1956 Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872).
1957 Arie de Jong, Dutch linguist (b. 1865).
1960 Inejiro Asanuma, Japanese politician (b. 1898).
1965 Paul Hermann Muller, Swiss chemist (b. 1899).
1967 Ram Manohar Lohia, Indian activist and politician (b. 1910).
1969 Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912).
1970 Mustafa Zaidi, Pakistani poet (b. 1930).
1971 Dean Acheson, American politician (b. 1893).
1971 Gene Vincent, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935).
1973 Peter Aufschnaiter, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1899).
1980 Alberto Demicheli, Uruguayan politician (b. 1896).
1985 Johnny Olson, American television announcer (b. 1910).
1987 Alf Landon, American politician (b. 1887).
1993 Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1902).
1996 Rene Lacoste, French tennis player (b. 1904).
1997 John Denver, American singer (b. 1943).
1998 Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (b. 1976).
1999 Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936).
From 2001
2002 Ray Conniff, American bandleader and musician (b. 1916).
2002 Audrey Mestre, French diver (b. 1974).
2003 Jim Cairns, Australian politician (b. 1914).
2003 Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (b. 1931).
2006 Gillo Pontecorvo, Italian movie director (b. 1919).
2007 Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect (b. 1934).
2009 Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (b. 1974).
2010 Manuel Alexandre, Spanish actor (b. 1917).
2011 Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (b. 1941).
2012 Sukhdev Singh Kang, 14th Governor of Kerala (b. 1931).
2013 Oscar Hijuelos, American writer (b. 1951).
2014 Roberto Telch, Argentine footballer (b. 1943).
2014 Ali Mazrui, Kenyan professor and writer (b. 1931).
2015 Abdallah Kigoda, Tanzanian politician (b. 1953).
2015 Joan Leslie, American actress and dancer (b. 1925).
2017 Muntaka Connmassie, Nigerian jurist (b. 1946).
2018 Pik Botha, South African politician (b. 1932).
2019 Mel Aull, Canadian football player (b. 1928).
2019 Carlo Croccolo, Italian actor (b. 1927).
2019 Sara Danius, Swedish writer and professor (b. 1962).
2019 Reg Watson, Australian television producer (b. 1926).
2019 Yoshihiza Yoshikawa, Japanese sports shooter (b. 1936).
Observances
Many observances relating to Christopher Columbus reaching the Caribbean, celebrated around the Americas and Spain.
Independence Day (Equatorial Guinea).