October 12
Events
Pre-1600
- 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia conquer Babylon, ending the Babylonian empire.
- 633 - Battle of Hatfield Chase: King Edwin of Northumbria is defeated and killed by an alliance under Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Gwynedd.
- 1279 - The Nichiren Shōshū branch of Buddhism is founded in Japan.
- 1398 - In the Treaty of Salynas, Lithuania cedes Samogitia to the Teutonic Knights.
- 1406 - Chen Yanxiang, the only person from Indonesia known to have visited dynastic Korea, reaches Seoul after having set out from Java four months before.
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus's first expedition makes landfall on San Salvador Island in the Caribbean.
1601–1900
- 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 Province of Massachusetts Bay Governor William Phips.
- 1748 - War of Jenkins' Ear: A British squadron wins a tactical victory over a Spanish squadron off Havana.
- 1773 - America's first insane asylum opens.
- 1792 - The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.
- 1793 - The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- 1798 - Flemish and Luxembourgish peasants launch the rebellion against French rule known as the Peasants' War.
- 1799 - Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute.
- 1810 - The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest in celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
- 1822 - Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor.
- 1849 - The city of Manizales, Colombia, is founded by 'The Expedition of the 20'.
- 1856 - An M 7.7–8.3 earthquake off the Greek island of Crete cause major damage as far as Egypt and Malta.
- 1871 - The British in India enact the Criminal Tribes Act, naming many local communities "Criminal Tribes".
- 1890 - Uddevalla Suffrage Association is formed.
- 1892 - The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools.
1901–present
- 1901 - President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
- 1909 - Foundation of Coritiba Foot Ball Club.
- 1915 - World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied 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 Boston Children's Hospital.
- 1933 - The military Alcatraz Citadel becomes the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
- 1944 - World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.
- 1945 - World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
- 1945 - The Lao Issara took control of Laos' government and reaffirmed the country's independence.
- 1959 - At the national congress of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance in Peru, a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party who later form APRA Rebelde.
- 1960 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.
- 1962 - The Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities. There was at least U.S. $230 million in damages and 46 people died.
- 1963 - After nearly 23 years of imprisonment, Reverend Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit missionary, was released from the Soviet Union.
- 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 pressure suits.
- 1967 - A bomb explodes on board Cyprus Airways Flight 284 while flying over the Mediterranean Sea, killing 66.
- 1968 - Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization continues as President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.
- 1971 - The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.
- 1973 - President Nixon nominates House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as the successor to Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
- 1976 - Indian Airlines Flight 171 crashes at Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India, killing 95.
- 1977 - Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao Zedong as paramount leader of China.
- 1979 - Typhoon Tip becomes the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded.
- 1983 - Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from the Lockheed Corporation, and is sentenced to four years in jail.
- 1984 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds at least 31 others.
- 1988 - Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down execution-style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.
- 1992 - A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 510 died.
- 1994 - The Magellan spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Venus.
- 1994 - Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 746 crashes near Natanz, Iran, killing all 66 people on board.
- 1996 - New Zealand holds its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional representation system, which led to Jim Bolger's National Party forming a coalition government with Winston Peters's New Zealand First.
- 1997 - The Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria kills 43 people at a fake roadblock.
- 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.
- 2000 - The USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, is badly damaged by two al-Qaeda suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
- 2002 - Terrorists detonate bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, killing 202 and wounding over 200.
- 2005 - The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying two cosmonauts in orbit for five days.
- 2010 - The Finnish Yle TV2 channel's Ajankohtainen kakkonen current affairs program airs controversial Homoilta episode, which leads to the resignation of almost 50,000 Finns from the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
- 2012 - The European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
- 2013 - An apartment building collapse in Medellín, Colombia results in the deaths of twelve people.
- 2017 - The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO. Israel immediately follows.
- 2018 - Princess Eugenie marries Jack Brooksbank at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
- 2019 - Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, killing 10 and forcing the evacuation of one million people.
- 2019 - Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.
- 2019 - The Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans, which is under construction, collapses, killing three workers and injuring 30 others.
- 2022 - 2022 Bratislava shooting, killing 3 and injuring one. The shooting occurred outside of a gay bar in Bratislava known as Tepláreň. Two people died as a result of the shooting: Juraj Vankulič, a non-binary person, and Matúš Horváth, a bisexual man. The perpetrator was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot the morning after the attack.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1008 - Go-Ichijō, emperor of Japan
- 1240 - Trần Thánh Tông, emperor of Vietnam
- 1350 - Dmitri Donskoi, Grand Duke of Moscow
- 1490 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer and priest
- 1533 - Asakura Yoshikage, Japanese ruler
- 1537 - Edward VI, king of England
- 1555 - Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, English diplomat
- 1558 - Maximilian III, archduke of Austria
- 1559 - Jacques Sirmond, French scholar and Jesuit
- 1576 - Thomas Dudley, English-American soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
1601–1900
- 1602 - William Chillingworth, English scholar and theologian
- 1614 - Henry More, English philosopher
- 1687 - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German lute player and composer
- 1710 - Jonathan Trumbull, American colonel and politician, 16th Governor of Connecticut
- 1725 - Étienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist
- 1792 - Christian Gmelin, German chemist and pharmacist
- 1798 - Pedro I, emperor of Brazil
- 1801 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss lawyer and politician, 5th President of the Swiss Confederation
- 1815 - William J. Hardee, American general
- 1826 - Kathinka Kraft, Norwegian memoirist
- 1838 - George Thorn, Australian politician, 6th Premier of Queensland
- 1840 - Helena Modjeska, Polish-American actress
- 1855 - Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor and academic
- 1860 - Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American engineer and businessman, co-invented the gyrocompass
- 1864 - Kamini Roy, British India's first female graduate, Bengali poet, social activist, and feminist writer
- 1865 - Arthur Harden, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1866 - Ramsay MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1868 - August Horch, German engineer and businessman, founded Audi
- 1868 - Mariano Trías, Filipino general and politician, 1st Vice President of the Philippines
- 1872 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer and educator
- 1874 - Jimmy Burke, American baseball player and manager
- 1875 - Aleister Crowley, English magician and author
- 1878 - Truxtun Hare, American football player and hammer thrower
- 1880 - Louis Hémon, French-Canadian author
- 1880 - Kullervo Manner, Finnish Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister of the FSWR and the Supreme Commander of the Red Guards
- 1889 - Dietrich von Hildebrand, German Catholic philosopher and author
- 1891 - Edith Stein, Polish nun and martyr; later canonized
- 1891 - Fumimaro Konoe, Japanese soldier and politician, 39th Prime Minister of Japan
- 1892 - Gilda dalla Rizza, Italian soprano and actress
- 1893 - Velvalee Dickinson, American spy
- 1894 - Elisabeth of Romania, queen consort of Greece
- 1896 - Eugenio Montale, Italian poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate