October 12 in History

Historical Events on October 12

1492 Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached the Indies.

1915 World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium

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.

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.

1970 Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas

1986 Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit China.

1999 Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

1999 The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia

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Famous Birthdays on October 12

1798 Pedro I of Brazil

1872 Ralph Vaughan Williams

1875 Aleister Crowley

1945 Dusty Rhodes (wrestler)

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Famous Deaths on October 12

1870 Robert E. Lee

1946 Joseph Stilwell

1997 John Denver

1999 Wilt Chamberlain

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