HISTORY TODAY: October 12


1492
Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas.


1576Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximilian II, as Holy Roman Emperor.
1702Admiral Sir George Rooke defeats the French fleet off Vigo.
1722Shah Sultan Husayn surrenders the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afghan rebels after a seven month siege.
1809Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies under mysterious circumstances in Tennessee.
1899The Anglo-Boer War begins.
1872Apache leader Cochise signs a peace treaty with General Howard in Arizona Territory.
1915Despite international protests, Edith Cavell, an English nurse in Belgium, is executed by Germans for aiding the escape of Allied prisoners.
1943The U.S. Fifth Army begins an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
1944The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end. The occupation has ruined the Greek economy and brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population, more than 40,000 of whom have died in Athens alone from starvation. [From MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History]
1960Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party, is assassinated during a live TV broadcast.
1964The USSR launches Voskhod I, the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew; it is also the first mission in which the crew does not wear space suits.
1970President Richard Nixon announces the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.
1971The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23.
1984The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; 5 people are killed and 31 wounded.
1999Chief of Army Staff Pervez Musharraf seizes power in Pakistan through a bloodless military coup.
2000Suicide bombers at Aden, Yemen, damage the USS Cole; 17 crew members are killed and over 35 are wounded.
2002
Terrorist bombers kill over 200 and wound over 300 more at the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali.

Born on October 12

1537Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour.
1868Charles Sumner Greene, architect.
1929Richard Coles, child psychologist and author.
1932Dick Gregory, comedian and social activist.
1935Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor.
1944Angela Rippon, first female journalist to present BBC national television news on a permanent basis.
1947Chris Wallace, former host/moderator of Meet the Press, currently (2013) host of Fox News Sunday; the three-time Emmy winner is the only person thus far to host more than one major Sunday political talk show.
1949Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramirez Sanchez), one of the most infamous political terrorists of the 1970s; currently (2013) serving a life term in France.
1955Ante Gotovina, Croatian lieutenant general; convicted in 2011 of war crimes during the Croatian civil war, his conviction was overturned in 2012.
1968Hugh Jackman, actor; well known for his recurring role as Wolverine in the X-Men films, his many awards include a Golden Globe (Les Miserables, 2013) and a Tony Award Special Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Theatre Community (2012).

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