Today is Thursday, Oct. 12, the 285th day of 2017. There are 80 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 12, 1492 (according to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus’ expedition arrived in the present-day Bahamas.
On this date:
In 1792, the first recorded U.S. celebration of Columbus Day was held to mark the tricentennial of Christopher Columbus’ landing.
In 1810, the German festival Oktoberfest was first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
In 1823, Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat.
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In 1915, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium during World War I.
In 1917, the First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.
In 1933, bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.
In 1957, the Dr. Seuss Yuletide tale “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” was first published by Random House.
In 1960, Russia’s 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.
In 1964, the Soviet Union launched a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first mission involving more than one crew member (the flight lasted just over 24 hours).
In 1973, President Richard Nixon nominated House minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.
In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.
In 1997, singer John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, California; he was 53.
In 2000, 17 sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.
In 2002, bombs blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.
Today’s Birthdays:
Actress Antonia Rey is 90. Singer Sam Moore (formerly of Sam and Dave) is 82. Carlos the Jackal, Venezuelan terrorist and murderer is 68. Susan Anton, American actress and model is 67. Actor Hugh Jackman is 49. Olympic gold medal skier Bode Miller is 40. Rock singer Jordan Pundik (New Found Glory) is 38.
Thought for Today:
“Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honoured by posterity because he was the last to discover America.” — James Joyce, Irish author and poet (1882-1941).
