What Happened This Day In History - October 12

October 12

1492		Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas.
1576		Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximillian II, as Holy Roman Emperor.
1609		The song "Three Blind Mice" is published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.
1702		Admiral Sir George Rooke defeats the French fleet off Vigo.
1722		Shah Sultan Husayn surrenders the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afgan rebels after a seven month siege.
1809		Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies under mysterious circumstances in Tennessee.
1899		The Anglo-Boer War begins.
1872		Apache leader Cochise signs a peace treaty with General Howard in Arizona Territory.
1933		Alcatraz Island is made a federal maximum security prison.
1943		The U.S. Fifth Army begins an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
1949		Eugenie Anderson becomes the first woman U.S. ambassador.
1960		Inejiro Asanuma, leaders of the Japan Socialist Party, is assassinated during a live TV broadcast.
1964		1964 USSR launches Voskhod I, first spacecraft with multi-person crew; it is also the first mission in which the crew did not wear space suits.
1970		President Richard Nixon announces the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.
1971		The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23.
1984		The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates at bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; 5 others are killed and 31 wounded.
1994		NASA loses contact with the Magellan probe spacecraft in the thick atmosphere of Venus.
1999		Chief of Army Staff Perez Musharraf seizes power in Pakistan through a bloodless military coup.
2000		Suicide bombers at Aden, Yemen, damage USS Cole; 17 crew members killed and over 35 wounded.
2002		Terrorist bombers kill over 200 and wound over 300 more at the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali.
Born on October 12
1537		Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour.
1868		Charles Sumner Greene, architect.
1929		Richard Coles, child psychologist and author.
1932		Dick Gregory, comedian and social activist.
1935		Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor.
1944		Angel Rippon, first female journalist to present BBC national television news on a permanent basis.
1947		Chris 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.
1949		Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramirez Sanches), one of the most infamous political terrorists of the 1970s; currently (2013) serving a life term in France.
1955		Ante Gotvina, Croatian lieutenant general; convicted in 2011 of war crimes during the Croatian civil war, his conviction was overturned in 2012.
1968		Hugh 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).