Post by farmgal on Oct 10, 2012 21:43:36 GMT -5
October 12 is the 286th day of this leap year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 80 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 26
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1492 Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) arrived in the Western Hemisphere. One of the purposes of his explorations was to spread Christianity.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus
1518 Martin Luther’s hearing before the papal legate, Thomas Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534) began in Augsburg and continued through 14 October.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cardinal_Cajetan
1692 The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phips
1773 America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insane_asylum#18th_century
1786 Thomas Jefferson composes romantic letter. On this day in 1786, a lovesick Thomas Jefferson composes a romantic and introspective letter to a woman named Maria Cosway.
Early in 1786, widower Thomas Jefferson met Maria Cosway in Paris while he was serving as the U.S. minister to France. Cosway was born to English parents in Italy and, by the time she met Jefferson, had become an accomplished painter and musician. She was also married. The two developed a deep friendship and possibly more, although a sexual relationship has never been proven. The usually self-contained Jefferson acted like a giddy schoolboy during their relationship, at one point leaping over a stone fountain while the two were out walking and falling and breaking his right wrist. After the wrist healed, a chagrined Jefferson sat down and wrote a now-famous love letter to Mariah, who had just departed Paris for London with her husband for an undetermined time. The letter revealed him to be a lovesick man whose intellect battled with a heart aching for a woman he could not have.
In the letter, now known to historians as "A Dialogue between the Head and Heart," Jefferson pines for a woman who has made him "the most wretched of all earthly beings" and at the same time chides himself for giving in to emotional attachments. The dialogue reveals Jefferson's struggle between his desire for Cosway and his need to maintain his integrity (she was, after all, married). The letter concludes with Jefferson's reason winning over the desires of his heart. He wrote that the only "effective security against such pain of unrequited love, is to retire within ourselves and to suffice for our own happiness." Two years later, however, his letters to her still expressed great longing.
In 1787, Jefferson wrote to Cosway while traveling in Italy, painting an idyllic picture of the two of them together one day in the future: "we will breakfast every day¡[go] away to the Desert, dine under the bowers of Marly, and forget that we are ever to part again." He wrote to her again in 1788 from Paris and expressed his "tenderness of affection" and wished for her presence though he knew he "had no right to ask."
Eventually Jefferson's physical separation from Maria and the hopelessness of a relationship with her cooled his ardor. After returning to America in 1789, his letters to her grew less frequent; partly due to the fact that he was increasingly preoccupied by his position as President George Washington's secretary of state. She, however, continued to write to him and vented her frustration at his growing aloofness. In his last letters, he spoke more of his scientific studies than of his love and desire for her, finally admitting that his love for her had been relegated to fond memories of when their relationship had been "pure."
Cosway left England in 1789 after her husband died and moved to a village in Italy to open a convent school for girls.
[a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson"]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson[/a][/url]
1792 First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
1793 The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_North_Carolina
1836 A third early season storm produced heavy snow in the northeastern U.S. Bridgewater NY received 18 inches, a foot of snow fell at Madison NY, and for the third time all the mountains of the northeastern U.S. were whitened. (David Ludlum)
1850 Classes began at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first medical school entirely for women.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Medical_College_of_Pennsylvania
1853 John Morrissey wins boxing title, when Yankee Sullivan leaves ring after 36th round.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Morrissey
1861 Confederate ironclad Manassas attacks Union's Richmond on Mississippi
1892 The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage.
1901 President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
1913 Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois), now Concordia University Chicago, was dedicated after its relocation from Addison, Illinois.
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 Forest fires ravaged parts of Minnesota from the Duluth area northeastward, claiming the lives of 600 persons. Smoke with a smell of burnt wood spread to Albany NY and Washington D.C. in 24 hours. Smoke was noted at Charleston SC on the 14th, and by the 15th was reported in northeastern Texas. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
1920 Man O'War's last race & win. The crowning event of Man o' War's career came in a match race against the celebrated Canadian horse Sir Barton, the first winner of the Triple Crown. On October 12, 1920, he and Man o' War met in Windsor, Ontario. Man o' War won by seven lengths! In his career "Big Red" won 20 of 21 races.
1920 Construction of the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River began. The tunnel would provide a direct link between Twelfth Street in Jersey City, NJ and Canal Street in New York City. The tunnel has two tubes more than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) long. It was opened to traffic on 13 Nov 1927. The Holland Tunnel was named for Clifford Milburn Holland, (1883-1924), the civil engineer who died while directing the tunnel's construction.
1928 The Iron Lung was used by its first patient, a young girl at the Children's Hospital in Boston. It was an artificial respirator that enabled her to breathe despite being paralyzed by polio. This negative pressure ventilator, invented by a young Harvard doctor, Philip Drinker, was the first widely used device of its kind. From the neck down, the patient's body lay in a sealed galvanized iron box. The 3 x 7 ft, 700-lb apparatus was powered by two household vacuum cleaners. As air was pumped out of the metal box, the patient's lungs drew in air, which was expelled as the air pump cycle next increased pressure, in a cycle to mimic a normal breathing rate.
1933 The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
1933 John Dillinger escapes from the Allen County, OH, jail
1936 The success in making of X-ray moving pictures of internal organs of the human body was reported at the 37th annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society in Cleveland by Drs William H. Stewart, William J. Hoffman and Francis H. Ghiselin from the Manhattan, NY, Lenox Hill Hospital. They used a home 16-mm camera to film moving X-ray images on a fluorescopic screen at 16 frames per second (reduced to 12 or 8 fps for thicker bodies). Two seconds exposure could capture two or three beats of the heart, the act of breathing, movements of the diaphragm or motion of joints. Film clip loops could be projected to show repeating motion. Movies were shown at the next convention on 2 Oct 1937.
1942 World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Got¨ dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1953 "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York
1962 The "Columbus Day Big Blow" occurred in the Pacific Northwest. It was probably the most damaging windstorm of record west of the Cascade Mountains. Winds reached hurricane force, with gusts above 100 mph. More than 3.5 billion board feet of timber were blown down, and communications were severely disrupted due to downed power lines. The storm claimed 48 lives, and caused 210 million dollars damage. (David Ludlum)
1967 Dean Rusk criticizes Congress while fighting continues in South Vietnam. At a news conference, Secretary of State Dean Rusk makes controversial comments in which he says that congressional proposals for peace initiatives¡ªa bombing halt or limitation, United Nations action, or a new Geneva conference¡ªwere futile because of Hanoi's opposition.
Without the pressure of the bombing, he asked, "Where would be the incentive for peace?" He added that the Vietnam War was a test of Asia's ability to withstand the threat of "a billion Chinese...armed with nuclear weapons." Critics claimed that he had invoked the familiar "yellow peril" of Chinese power.
1970 Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
1971 Jesus Christ Superstar debuted on Broadway.
1972 Racial violence breaks out aboard U.S. Navy ships. On this day, racial violence flares aboard U.S. Navy ships. Forty six sailors are injured in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk enroute to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. The incident broke out when a black sailor was summoned for questioning regarding an altercation that took place during the crew's liberty in Subic Bay (in the Philippines). The sailor refused to make a statement and he and his friends started a brawl that resulted in sixty sailors being injured during the fighting. Eventually 26 men, all black, were charged with assault and rioting and were ordered to appear before a court-martial in San Diego.
Four days later, a group of about 12 black sailors aboard the USS Hassayampa, a fleet oiler docked at Subic Bay, told ship's officers that they would not sail with the ship when the ship put to sea. The group demanded the return of money that allegedly had been stolen from the wallet of one of the group. The ship's leadership failed to act quickly enough to defuse the situation and later that day, a group of seven white sailors were set upon by the group and beaten. It took the arrival of a Marine detachment to restore order. Six black sailors were charged with assault and rioting.
These incidents indicated the depth of the racial problems in the Navy. All of the services had experienced similar problems earlier, but the Navy had lagged behind the others in addressing the issues that contributed to the racial tensions that erupted on the Kitty Hawk and the Hassayampa. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations, instituted new race relations programs and made significant changes to Naval Regulations to address many of the very real issues raised by the black sailors regarding racial injustice in the Navy.
www.history.navy.mil/library/special/racial_incidents.htm
1976 The U.S. swine flu vaccinations were halted in nine states after three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot. On 16 Dec, increasingly concerned about reports of the vaccine touching off neurological problems, especially the rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the U.S. government suspended the program. The nationwide vaccination effort began as a result of a novel virus that was first identified at Fort Dix, N.J., and labeled a "killer flu." Experts compared it to the Spanish flu of 1918 and sounded the alarm of a possible major pandemic. In fact, the virus never moved outside the Fort Dix area. Later research showed it would probably have been much less deadly than the Spanish flu.
1976 The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Zedong as chairman of Communist Party of China.
1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
1979 The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip.
1983 In Bryant Park, Maine, the last call on a crank phone was made, marking the end of the community's hand-operated telephone system. The Bryant Pond Telephone Co. had been a family operation, with its switchboard in the back room of Elden Hathaway's house. He had bought stock in the telephone business in 1951 with about 100 subscribers, and had himself strung wire to add more. With his wife and daughter, they acted as switchboard operators and hand-connected calls. At age 65, he decided to sell out to the Oxford County Telephone & Telegraph Co. which announced its intention to replace crank with dial phones, despite the fervent efforts of residents at town meetings and their lawyers.
1986 Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China.
1987 Floyd, the only hurricane to make landfall the entire season, moved across the Florida Keys. Floyd produced wind gusts to 59 mph at Duck Key, and up to nine inches of rain in southern Florida. Sixteen cities in the Ohio Valley and the Middle Mississippi Valley reported record low temperatures for the date. Record lows included 27 degrees at Paducah KY, and 24 degrees at Rockford IL and Springfield IL. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1987 Minnesota Twins beat Detroit Tigers for AL pennant
1988 Twenty cities in the Upper Midwest reported record low temperatures for the date, including International Falls MN with a reading of 17 degrees. The town of Embarass MN reported a morning low of 8 degrees. Snow showers in the northeastern U.S. produced five inches at Corry PA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Temperatures again warmed into the 80s in the Central Plains Region and the Middle Mississippi Valley, with 90s in the south central U.S. Six cities reported record high temperatures for the date, including Fort Smith AR with a reading of 92 degrees. Strong winds along a cold front crossing the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Valley gusted to 61 mph at Johnstown PA. (The National Weather Summary)
1994 NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14).
1997 John Denver dies in an ultra-light aircraft accident. To those who bought records like "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by the millions in the 1970s, John Denver was much more than just a great songwriter and performer. With his oversized glasses, bowl haircut and down vest, he was an unlikely fashion icon, and with his vocal environmentalism, he was the living embodiment of an outdoorsy lifestyle that many 20-something baby boomers would adopt as their own during the "Me" decade. There never was and there probably never will be a star quite like John Denver, who died on this day in 1997 when his ultra-light aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay on the California coast.
Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in 1943, not in the mountains of Colorado but in Roswell, New Mexico, John Denver rose to fame as a recording artist in 1971, when "Take Me Home, Country Roads" rose all the way to #2 on the Billboard pop chart. In fact, Denver already had a share in a #1 hit as the writer of "Leaving On A Jet Plane," a chart-topper for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969. But it was his 1971 breakout as a performer of his own material that made him a household name. Over the course of the 1970s, John Denver earned five more top-10 singles, including the #1 hits "Sunshine On My Shoulders" (1974), "Annie's Song" (1974), "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (1975) and "I'm Sorry" (1975). Even more impressive, he released an astonishing 11 albums that were certified Platinum by the RIAA, making him one of the most successful recording artists of the 70s, and launching him into a successful career in film and television as well.
By the 1990s, Denver was still a popular touring musician, though he was no longer recording new material with significant commercial success. Over the course of his career, he had become an accomplished private pilot with more than 2,700 hours on various single- and multi-engine aircraft, with both an instrument and a Lear Jet rating. On October 12, 1997, however, he was flying an aircraft with which he was relatively unfamiliar, and with which he had previously experienced control problems, according to a later investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. At approximately 5:30 pm local time, after a smooth takeoff from a Pacific Grove airfield and under ideal flying conditions, Denver apparently lost control of his Long-EZ ultra-light craft several hundred feet over Monterey Bay, leading to the fatal crash.
A movie star and political activist as well as a musician, John Denver was one of the biggest stars of his generation, and is credited by the Recording Industry Association of America with selling more than 32 million albums in the United States alone.
1999 The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.
2000 USS Cole attacked by terrorists. At 12:15 p.m. local time, a motorized rubber dinghy loaded with explosives blows a 40-by-40-foot hole in the port side of the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer that was refueling at Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the attack, which was carried out by two suicide terrorists alleged to be members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.
The Cole had come to Aden at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula to refuel on its way to join U.S. warships that were enforcing the trade sanctions against Iraq. It was scheduled to remain in the port for just four hours, indicating that the terrorists had precise information about the destroyer's unannounced visit to the Aden fueling station. The terrorists' small boat joined a group of harbor ships aiding the Cole moor at a refueling, and they succeeded in reaching the U.S. warship unchallenged. Their dinghy then exploded in a massive explosion that ripped through the Cole's port side, badly damaging the engine room and adjoining mess and living quarters. Witnesses on the Cole said both terrorists stood up in the moment before the blast.
The explosion caused extensive flooding in the warship, causing the ship to list slightly, but by the evening crew members had managed to stop the flooding and keep the Cole afloat. In the aftermath of the attack, President Bill Clinton ordered American ships in the Persian Gulf to leave port and head to open waters. A large team of U.S. investigators was immediately sent to Aden to investigate the incident, including a group of FBI agents who were focused exclusively on possible links to Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden had been formally charged in the U.S. with masterminding the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Six men believed to be involved in the Cole attack were soon arrested in Yemen. Lacking cooperation by Yemeni authorities, the FBI has failed to conclusively link the attack to bin Laden.
2002 Terrorists kill 202 in Bali. On this day in 2002, three bombings shatter the peace in the town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The blasts, the work of militant Islamist terrorists, left 202 people dead and more than 200 others injured, many with severe burns. The attacks shocked residents and those familiar with the mostly Hindu island, long known as a tranquil and friendly island paradise.
The most deadly of the three blasts occurred when a large bomb, estimated to be about 1,200 kilograms, was detonated in a van outside the town's Sari Club nightclub. The explosion left a large crater in the ground and was said to have blown the windows out of buildings throughout the town. Many of those killed and injured in the blast were young visitors vacationing on the island, most from Australia. Thirty-eight Indonesians, mainly Balinese, were killed.
Two other bombs were also detonated that day: one, packed in a backpack, was detonated in a bar and another was exploded in the street in front of the American consulate. All three were thought to be the work of the regional militant Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah, which is believed to have links to al-Qaida. Jemaah Islamiah is also alleged to be responsible for the bombing of a Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 and the Australian embassy to Indonesia in 2004, as well as the suicide bombing of three restaurants in Bali on October 1, 2005. The second attack on Bali killed 22 people, including the bombers, and injured more than 100 others.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation and the former home of President Barack Obama.
Births
1537 King Edward VI of England was born (d. 6 Jul 1553). His reign saw the transformation of the Anglican Church into a recognizably Protestant body with, among other things, the development of the first Book of Common Prayer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Edward_VI
1576 Thomas Dudley (d 1653) colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during which he sometimes clashed with his rival John Winthrop. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. As Governor, Dudley signed the Charter creating Harvard College. Thomas Dudley Gate at Harvard College was named in his honor, as is the non-residential Dudley House. Dudley's descendants were early governors, ministers, judges, as well as his daughter, Anne Bradstreet, the nation's first poet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dudley
1710 Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and statesman, (Originally spelled: Jonathan Trumble, was changed for an unknown reason) was one of the few Americans who served as governor in both a pre-Revolutionary colony and a post-Revolutionary state. During the American Revolution he was the only colonial governor who supported the American side.(d. 1785)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Trumbull
1712 William Shippen, Sr. (d 1801) American physician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a civic and educational leader who represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shippen,_Sr.
1787 Asa Thurston, missionary to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (d. 11 Mar 1868).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=T&word=THURSTON.ASA
1844 George Washington Cable (d 1925) American novelist notable for the realism of his portrayals of Creole life in his native Louisiana. His fiction has been thought to anticipate that of William Faulkner.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Cable
1860 Elmer Ambrose Sperry (d 1930) American electrical engineer and inventor of the gyrocompass. In the 1890's he made useful inventions in electric mining machinery, and patent electric brake and control system for street- or tramcars. In 1908, he patented the active gyrostabilizer which acted to stop a ship's roll as soon as it started. He patented the first gyrocompass designed expressly for the marine environment in 1910. This "spinning wheel" gyro was a significant improvement over the traditional magnetic compass of the day and changed the course of naval history. The first Sperry gyrocompass was tested at-sea aboard the USS Delaware in 1911 and established Sperry as a world leader in the manufacture of military gyrocompasses for the next 80 years.
1883 C. Harold Lowden, American evangelical and reformed sacred music composer, (d. 27 Feb 1963).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/l/o/w/lowden_ch.htm
1893 Velvalee Dickinson (b ca. 1980), was convicted of espionage against the United States on behalf of Japan during World War II. Known as the "Doll Woman", she used her business in New York City to send information on U.S. Naval forces to contacts in South America via steganographic messages. She was finally caught when one of her contacts in Buenos Aires moved and her messages were returned.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvalee_Dickinson
1904 Lester Dent (d 1959) prolific pulp fiction author of numerous stories, best known as the main author of the series of stories about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The 159 novels written over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Dent
1906 Joe Cronin, American baseball player and executive (d. 1984)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cronin
1906 John Murray (d 1984) was a playwright best known for writing the 1937 play Room Service with Allen Boretz.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murray_(playwright)
1908 Paul Engle (d 1991), American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program (IWP), both at the University of Iowa.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Engle
1908 Ann Petry (d 1997) American author who became the first black woman writer with book sales topping a million copies for her novel The Street.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Petry
1910 Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (d 16 Jan 1985) poet, critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics (Illiad and Aeneid) "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students." He was best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin. In addition, he also composed several books of his own poetry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fitzgerald
1923 Jean Nidetch Brooklyn, founded Weight Watchers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Nidetch
1925 William Steinkraus US, equestrian jumper (Olympic-gold-1968)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Steinkraus
1929 Martin Robert Coles American author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University
1932 Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist
1932 Ned Jarrett, American race car driver
1934 Richard Meier American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.
1935 Anthony Christopher "Tony" Kubek Milwaukee, Wisconsin), retired American professional baseball player and television broadcaster.
1937 Robert Mangold, North Tonawanda, New York, American minimalist artist.
1947 Chris Wallace, American journalist, , currently the host of the Fox Network program, Fox News Sunday. Wallace has won three Emmy Awards, the Dupont-Columbia Silver Baton Award, and a Peabody Award. Wallace has been with Fox News since 2003. As a previous moderator of Meet the Press, Wallace is the only person to date to have served as host/moderator of more than one of the major Sunday political talk shows.
1950 David Duane "Dave" Freudenthal, 31st and current Governor of Wyoming. A Democrat, he was reelected to his second term on November 7, 2006, and announced on March 4, 2010, that he would not attempt to seek a third term as Governor
1951 Edward Randall "Ed" Royce, American politician. He has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing the 40th District of California (map) in northern Orange County, including portions of Stanton, Cypress, Buena Park, Fullerton, Anaheim, Placentia, and Orange. Previously, he had served as representative from the 39th District of California.
1958 Stephen "Steve" Austria, Republican member of the US House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 7th congressional district since 2009. The district stretches from Springfield to the southern suburbs of Columbus.
1959 Anna Escobedo Cabral, 42nd Treasurer of the United States
1963 Lane Frost, American professional bull rider (d. 1989)
Deaths
638 Pope Honorius I.
642 Pope John IV.
1845 Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney) (b 1780) English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane, and she was supported in her efforts by the reigning monarch. Since 2001, she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note.
1852 John Lloyd Stephens (b 1805) American traveler and archaeologist whose exploration of Maya ruins in Central America and Mexico (1839-40 and 1841-42) generated the archaeology of Middle America. In 1939, as a lawyer ostensibly on a mission for the U.S. State Department, Stephens went in search of Mayan ruins, which were then all but unknown. He was accompanied by architect Frederick Catherwood, whose meticulous drawings illustrate Stephens' subsequent books. In Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Stephens described coming upon the ruined city of Copan, which he found so captivating that he promptly purchased the site. It is now owned by the Honduran government.
1864 Roger Taney, 5th Supreme Court Chief Justice, first Roman Catholic to hold that office or sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. He was also the eleventh United States Attorney General. He is most remembered for delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), that ruled, among other things, that African Americans, being considered "of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race" at the time the Constitution was drafted, could not be considered citizens of the United States.
1870 Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (b. 1807)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee
1881 Josiah Gilbert Holland (b. 24 July 1819), American news editor and hymnist,
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/h/o/l/holland_jg.htm
1898 Calvin Fairbank, American abolitionist minister, who spent more than 17 years in prison for his anti-slavery activities. (b. 1816)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Fairbank
1901 Eduard Raimond Baierlein, Lutheran missionary among the Chippewa Indians near Frankenmuth, Michigan, died in Germany (b. 29 Apr 1819).
1912 Lewis Boss (b 1846) American astronomer best known for his compilation of two catalogues of stars (1910, 1937). In 1882 he led an expedition to Chile to observe a transit of Venus. About 1895 Boss began to plan a general catalog of stars, giving their positions and motions. After 1906, the project had support from the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C. With an enlarged staff he observed the northern stars from Albany and the southern stars from Argentina. With the new data, he corrected catalogs that had been compiled in the past, and in 1910 he published the Preliminary General Catalogue of 6,188 Stars for the Epoch 1900. The work unfinished upon his death was completed by his son Benjamin in 1937 (General Catalogue of 33,342 Stars for the Epoch 1950, 5 vol.)
1914 Margaret E. Knight (b 1838) Prolific American inventor of machines and mechanisms for a variety of industrial and everyday purposes. She began inventing at an early age, as she was said to have contrived a safety device for controlling shuttles in powered textile looms when she was 12 years old. In 1868, she invented an attachment for paper-bag-folding machines that allowed the production of square-bottomed bags, which she patented in 1870. She also received patents for a dress and skirt shield (1883), a clasp for robes (1884), and a spit (1885). Later, among others, she received six patents over a span of years for machines used in the manufacturing of shoes. Although she was not the first woman to receive a patent, she was one of the most prolific, with 27 patents to her credit.
1940 Tom Mix, American actor (b. 1880)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix
1946 Joseph Stilwell, American general (b. 1883)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stilwell
1954 George Welch (b 1918) World War II flying ace, a Medal of Honor nominee, and an experimental aircraft pilot after the war. Welch is best known both for being one of over 17 United States Army Air Forces fighter pilots able to get airborne to engage Japanese forces in the attack on Pearl Harbor and for allegedly being the first pilot to break the sound barrier (two weeks before Chuck Yeager) in his prototype XP-86 Sabre. However, the flight is generally not recognized as an official record because of a lack of a verifiable speed measurement and the fact that it was done in a dive, whereas Yeager's X-1 completed the feat in level flight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Welch_(pilot)
1965 Paul Hermann Mueller (b 1899) Swiss chemist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1948 for discovering the potent toxic effects on insects of DDT. With its chemical derivatives, DDT became the most widely used insecticide for more than 20 years and was a major factor in increased world food production.
1971 Dean Acheson, American statesman, American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War.[1] Acheson helped design the Marshall Plan and played a central role in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (b. 1893)
1971 Gene Vincent, American rock musician, pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. He is a member of the Rock and Roll and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. (b. 1935)
1987 Alf Landon, American Republican politician, who served as the 26th Governor of Kansas from 1933–1937. He was best known for being the Republican Party's (GOP) nominee for President of the United States, defeated in a landslide by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. (b. 1887)
1987 Philleo Nash US Bureau of Indian Affairs (1961-67) )b 1909)
1988 Ken Murray (b 1903) American entertainer and author.
1988 Coby Whitmore, American painter and magazine illustrator, known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, and a commercial artist whose work included advertisements for Gallo Wine and other national brands. He additionally became known as a race-car designer. (b. 1913)
1989 Carmen Cavallaro, American pianist (b. 1913)
1989 Jay Ward, American animator (Rocky and Bullwinkle) (b. 1920)
1997 John Denver, American singer (b. 1943)
1999 Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)
2002 Ray Conniff, American bandleader and musician (b. 1916)
2003 Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (b. 1928)
2003 Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (b. 1931)
2005 C. DeLores Tucker (née Cynthia DeLores Nottage) (b 1927) U.S. politician and civil rights activist best known for her participation in the Civil Rights Movement and stance against gangsta rap music.
Christian Feast Day:
Heribert of Cologne (private feast day)
St. Hilda's Day
Wilfrid of York
October 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Martyrs Andronicus, Probus, and Tarachus at Tarsus in Cilicia (304)
St. Cosmas the Hymnographer, Bishop of Maiuma (ca 787)
Martyr Domnica of Anazarbus in Cilicia (286)
Hieromartyr Maximilian, bishop of Noricum (ca 284)
St. Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours (397)
Saints Amphilochius (1452), Macarius (1480) and Tarasius (1440), abbots, and Theodosius (15th century), monk, of Glushitsa (Glushetskry) Monastery, Vologda, disciples of St. Dionysius of Glushitsa
St. Euphrosyne (Mezenova) the Faster, schema-abbess of Siberia (1918)
New Hiero-confessor Nicholas (Mogilevsky), metropolitan of Alma-Ata (1955)
Greek Calendar:
Virgin Martyr Anastasia of Rome (ca 250)
St. Theodotus, Bishop of Ephesus
Martyrs Malfethos and Anthea
St. Jason, Bishop of Damascus
St. Symeon the New Theologian (1022)
St. Theosebius the God-bearer, of Arsinoe in Cyprus
Other commemorations
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Jerusalem” (48) and “Kaluga” (1748)
Freethought Day (United States)
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daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct12.html
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_12
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/columbus-reaches-the-new-world
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_12.htm
www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm#lk
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1012.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_12_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
There are 80 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 26
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1492 Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) arrived in the Western Hemisphere. One of the purposes of his explorations was to spread Christianity.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus
1518 Martin Luther’s hearing before the papal legate, Thomas Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534) began in Augsburg and continued through 14 October.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cardinal_Cajetan
1692 The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phips
1773 America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insane_asylum#18th_century
1786 Thomas Jefferson composes romantic letter. On this day in 1786, a lovesick Thomas Jefferson composes a romantic and introspective letter to a woman named Maria Cosway.
Early in 1786, widower Thomas Jefferson met Maria Cosway in Paris while he was serving as the U.S. minister to France. Cosway was born to English parents in Italy and, by the time she met Jefferson, had become an accomplished painter and musician. She was also married. The two developed a deep friendship and possibly more, although a sexual relationship has never been proven. The usually self-contained Jefferson acted like a giddy schoolboy during their relationship, at one point leaping over a stone fountain while the two were out walking and falling and breaking his right wrist. After the wrist healed, a chagrined Jefferson sat down and wrote a now-famous love letter to Mariah, who had just departed Paris for London with her husband for an undetermined time. The letter revealed him to be a lovesick man whose intellect battled with a heart aching for a woman he could not have.
In the letter, now known to historians as "A Dialogue between the Head and Heart," Jefferson pines for a woman who has made him "the most wretched of all earthly beings" and at the same time chides himself for giving in to emotional attachments. The dialogue reveals Jefferson's struggle between his desire for Cosway and his need to maintain his integrity (she was, after all, married). The letter concludes with Jefferson's reason winning over the desires of his heart. He wrote that the only "effective security against such pain of unrequited love, is to retire within ourselves and to suffice for our own happiness." Two years later, however, his letters to her still expressed great longing.
In 1787, Jefferson wrote to Cosway while traveling in Italy, painting an idyllic picture of the two of them together one day in the future: "we will breakfast every day¡[go] away to the Desert, dine under the bowers of Marly, and forget that we are ever to part again." He wrote to her again in 1788 from Paris and expressed his "tenderness of affection" and wished for her presence though he knew he "had no right to ask."
Eventually Jefferson's physical separation from Maria and the hopelessness of a relationship with her cooled his ardor. After returning to America in 1789, his letters to her grew less frequent; partly due to the fact that he was increasingly preoccupied by his position as President George Washington's secretary of state. She, however, continued to write to him and vented her frustration at his growing aloofness. In his last letters, he spoke more of his scientific studies than of his love and desire for her, finally admitting that his love for her had been relegated to fond memories of when their relationship had been "pure."
Cosway left England in 1789 after her husband died and moved to a village in Italy to open a convent school for girls.
[a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson"]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson[/a][/url]
1792 First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
1793 The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_North_Carolina
1836 A third early season storm produced heavy snow in the northeastern U.S. Bridgewater NY received 18 inches, a foot of snow fell at Madison NY, and for the third time all the mountains of the northeastern U.S. were whitened. (David Ludlum)
1850 Classes began at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first medical school entirely for women.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Medical_College_of_Pennsylvania
1853 John Morrissey wins boxing title, when Yankee Sullivan leaves ring after 36th round.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Morrissey
1861 Confederate ironclad Manassas attacks Union's Richmond on Mississippi
1892 The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage.
1901 President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
1913 Concordia Teachers College (River Forest, Illinois), now Concordia University Chicago, was dedicated after its relocation from Addison, Illinois.
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 Forest fires ravaged parts of Minnesota from the Duluth area northeastward, claiming the lives of 600 persons. Smoke with a smell of burnt wood spread to Albany NY and Washington D.C. in 24 hours. Smoke was noted at Charleston SC on the 14th, and by the 15th was reported in northeastern Texas. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
1920 Man O'War's last race & win. The crowning event of Man o' War's career came in a match race against the celebrated Canadian horse Sir Barton, the first winner of the Triple Crown. On October 12, 1920, he and Man o' War met in Windsor, Ontario. Man o' War won by seven lengths! In his career "Big Red" won 20 of 21 races.
1920 Construction of the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River began. The tunnel would provide a direct link between Twelfth Street in Jersey City, NJ and Canal Street in New York City. The tunnel has two tubes more than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) long. It was opened to traffic on 13 Nov 1927. The Holland Tunnel was named for Clifford Milburn Holland, (1883-1924), the civil engineer who died while directing the tunnel's construction.
1928 The Iron Lung was used by its first patient, a young girl at the Children's Hospital in Boston. It was an artificial respirator that enabled her to breathe despite being paralyzed by polio. This negative pressure ventilator, invented by a young Harvard doctor, Philip Drinker, was the first widely used device of its kind. From the neck down, the patient's body lay in a sealed galvanized iron box. The 3 x 7 ft, 700-lb apparatus was powered by two household vacuum cleaners. As air was pumped out of the metal box, the patient's lungs drew in air, which was expelled as the air pump cycle next increased pressure, in a cycle to mimic a normal breathing rate.
1933 The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
1933 John Dillinger escapes from the Allen County, OH, jail
1936 The success in making of X-ray moving pictures of internal organs of the human body was reported at the 37th annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society in Cleveland by Drs William H. Stewart, William J. Hoffman and Francis H. Ghiselin from the Manhattan, NY, Lenox Hill Hospital. They used a home 16-mm camera to film moving X-ray images on a fluorescopic screen at 16 frames per second (reduced to 12 or 8 fps for thicker bodies). Two seconds exposure could capture two or three beats of the heart, the act of breathing, movements of the diaphragm or motion of joints. Film clip loops could be projected to show repeating motion. Movies were shown at the next convention on 2 Oct 1937.
1942 World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Got¨ dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1953 "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York
1962 The "Columbus Day Big Blow" occurred in the Pacific Northwest. It was probably the most damaging windstorm of record west of the Cascade Mountains. Winds reached hurricane force, with gusts above 100 mph. More than 3.5 billion board feet of timber were blown down, and communications were severely disrupted due to downed power lines. The storm claimed 48 lives, and caused 210 million dollars damage. (David Ludlum)
1967 Dean Rusk criticizes Congress while fighting continues in South Vietnam. At a news conference, Secretary of State Dean Rusk makes controversial comments in which he says that congressional proposals for peace initiatives¡ªa bombing halt or limitation, United Nations action, or a new Geneva conference¡ªwere futile because of Hanoi's opposition.
Without the pressure of the bombing, he asked, "Where would be the incentive for peace?" He added that the Vietnam War was a test of Asia's ability to withstand the threat of "a billion Chinese...armed with nuclear weapons." Critics claimed that he had invoked the familiar "yellow peril" of Chinese power.
1970 Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
1971 Jesus Christ Superstar debuted on Broadway.
1972 Racial violence breaks out aboard U.S. Navy ships. On this day, racial violence flares aboard U.S. Navy ships. Forty six sailors are injured in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk enroute to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. The incident broke out when a black sailor was summoned for questioning regarding an altercation that took place during the crew's liberty in Subic Bay (in the Philippines). The sailor refused to make a statement and he and his friends started a brawl that resulted in sixty sailors being injured during the fighting. Eventually 26 men, all black, were charged with assault and rioting and were ordered to appear before a court-martial in San Diego.
Four days later, a group of about 12 black sailors aboard the USS Hassayampa, a fleet oiler docked at Subic Bay, told ship's officers that they would not sail with the ship when the ship put to sea. The group demanded the return of money that allegedly had been stolen from the wallet of one of the group. The ship's leadership failed to act quickly enough to defuse the situation and later that day, a group of seven white sailors were set upon by the group and beaten. It took the arrival of a Marine detachment to restore order. Six black sailors were charged with assault and rioting.
These incidents indicated the depth of the racial problems in the Navy. All of the services had experienced similar problems earlier, but the Navy had lagged behind the others in addressing the issues that contributed to the racial tensions that erupted on the Kitty Hawk and the Hassayampa. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations, instituted new race relations programs and made significant changes to Naval Regulations to address many of the very real issues raised by the black sailors regarding racial injustice in the Navy.
www.history.navy.mil/library/special/racial_incidents.htm
1976 The U.S. swine flu vaccinations were halted in nine states after three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot. On 16 Dec, increasingly concerned about reports of the vaccine touching off neurological problems, especially the rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the U.S. government suspended the program. The nationwide vaccination effort began as a result of a novel virus that was first identified at Fort Dix, N.J., and labeled a "killer flu." Experts compared it to the Spanish flu of 1918 and sounded the alarm of a possible major pandemic. In fact, the virus never moved outside the Fort Dix area. Later research showed it would probably have been much less deadly than the Spanish flu.
1976 The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Zedong as chairman of Communist Party of China.
1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
1979 The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip.
1983 In Bryant Park, Maine, the last call on a crank phone was made, marking the end of the community's hand-operated telephone system. The Bryant Pond Telephone Co. had been a family operation, with its switchboard in the back room of Elden Hathaway's house. He had bought stock in the telephone business in 1951 with about 100 subscribers, and had himself strung wire to add more. With his wife and daughter, they acted as switchboard operators and hand-connected calls. At age 65, he decided to sell out to the Oxford County Telephone & Telegraph Co. which announced its intention to replace crank with dial phones, despite the fervent efforts of residents at town meetings and their lawyers.
1986 Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China.
1987 Floyd, the only hurricane to make landfall the entire season, moved across the Florida Keys. Floyd produced wind gusts to 59 mph at Duck Key, and up to nine inches of rain in southern Florida. Sixteen cities in the Ohio Valley and the Middle Mississippi Valley reported record low temperatures for the date. Record lows included 27 degrees at Paducah KY, and 24 degrees at Rockford IL and Springfield IL. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1987 Minnesota Twins beat Detroit Tigers for AL pennant
1988 Twenty cities in the Upper Midwest reported record low temperatures for the date, including International Falls MN with a reading of 17 degrees. The town of Embarass MN reported a morning low of 8 degrees. Snow showers in the northeastern U.S. produced five inches at Corry PA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Temperatures again warmed into the 80s in the Central Plains Region and the Middle Mississippi Valley, with 90s in the south central U.S. Six cities reported record high temperatures for the date, including Fort Smith AR with a reading of 92 degrees. Strong winds along a cold front crossing the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Valley gusted to 61 mph at Johnstown PA. (The National Weather Summary)
1994 NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14).
1997 John Denver dies in an ultra-light aircraft accident. To those who bought records like "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by the millions in the 1970s, John Denver was much more than just a great songwriter and performer. With his oversized glasses, bowl haircut and down vest, he was an unlikely fashion icon, and with his vocal environmentalism, he was the living embodiment of an outdoorsy lifestyle that many 20-something baby boomers would adopt as their own during the "Me" decade. There never was and there probably never will be a star quite like John Denver, who died on this day in 1997 when his ultra-light aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay on the California coast.
Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in 1943, not in the mountains of Colorado but in Roswell, New Mexico, John Denver rose to fame as a recording artist in 1971, when "Take Me Home, Country Roads" rose all the way to #2 on the Billboard pop chart. In fact, Denver already had a share in a #1 hit as the writer of "Leaving On A Jet Plane," a chart-topper for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969. But it was his 1971 breakout as a performer of his own material that made him a household name. Over the course of the 1970s, John Denver earned five more top-10 singles, including the #1 hits "Sunshine On My Shoulders" (1974), "Annie's Song" (1974), "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (1975) and "I'm Sorry" (1975). Even more impressive, he released an astonishing 11 albums that were certified Platinum by the RIAA, making him one of the most successful recording artists of the 70s, and launching him into a successful career in film and television as well.
By the 1990s, Denver was still a popular touring musician, though he was no longer recording new material with significant commercial success. Over the course of his career, he had become an accomplished private pilot with more than 2,700 hours on various single- and multi-engine aircraft, with both an instrument and a Lear Jet rating. On October 12, 1997, however, he was flying an aircraft with which he was relatively unfamiliar, and with which he had previously experienced control problems, according to a later investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. At approximately 5:30 pm local time, after a smooth takeoff from a Pacific Grove airfield and under ideal flying conditions, Denver apparently lost control of his Long-EZ ultra-light craft several hundred feet over Monterey Bay, leading to the fatal crash.
A movie star and political activist as well as a musician, John Denver was one of the biggest stars of his generation, and is credited by the Recording Industry Association of America with selling more than 32 million albums in the United States alone.
1999 The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.
2000 USS Cole attacked by terrorists. At 12:15 p.m. local time, a motorized rubber dinghy loaded with explosives blows a 40-by-40-foot hole in the port side of the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer that was refueling at Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the attack, which was carried out by two suicide terrorists alleged to be members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.
The Cole had come to Aden at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula to refuel on its way to join U.S. warships that were enforcing the trade sanctions against Iraq. It was scheduled to remain in the port for just four hours, indicating that the terrorists had precise information about the destroyer's unannounced visit to the Aden fueling station. The terrorists' small boat joined a group of harbor ships aiding the Cole moor at a refueling, and they succeeded in reaching the U.S. warship unchallenged. Their dinghy then exploded in a massive explosion that ripped through the Cole's port side, badly damaging the engine room and adjoining mess and living quarters. Witnesses on the Cole said both terrorists stood up in the moment before the blast.
The explosion caused extensive flooding in the warship, causing the ship to list slightly, but by the evening crew members had managed to stop the flooding and keep the Cole afloat. In the aftermath of the attack, President Bill Clinton ordered American ships in the Persian Gulf to leave port and head to open waters. A large team of U.S. investigators was immediately sent to Aden to investigate the incident, including a group of FBI agents who were focused exclusively on possible links to Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden had been formally charged in the U.S. with masterminding the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Six men believed to be involved in the Cole attack were soon arrested in Yemen. Lacking cooperation by Yemeni authorities, the FBI has failed to conclusively link the attack to bin Laden.
2002 Terrorists kill 202 in Bali. On this day in 2002, three bombings shatter the peace in the town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The blasts, the work of militant Islamist terrorists, left 202 people dead and more than 200 others injured, many with severe burns. The attacks shocked residents and those familiar with the mostly Hindu island, long known as a tranquil and friendly island paradise.
The most deadly of the three blasts occurred when a large bomb, estimated to be about 1,200 kilograms, was detonated in a van outside the town's Sari Club nightclub. The explosion left a large crater in the ground and was said to have blown the windows out of buildings throughout the town. Many of those killed and injured in the blast were young visitors vacationing on the island, most from Australia. Thirty-eight Indonesians, mainly Balinese, were killed.
Two other bombs were also detonated that day: one, packed in a backpack, was detonated in a bar and another was exploded in the street in front of the American consulate. All three were thought to be the work of the regional militant Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah, which is believed to have links to al-Qaida. Jemaah Islamiah is also alleged to be responsible for the bombing of a Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 and the Australian embassy to Indonesia in 2004, as well as the suicide bombing of three restaurants in Bali on October 1, 2005. The second attack on Bali killed 22 people, including the bombers, and injured more than 100 others.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation and the former home of President Barack Obama.
Births
1537 King Edward VI of England was born (d. 6 Jul 1553). His reign saw the transformation of the Anglican Church into a recognizably Protestant body with, among other things, the development of the first Book of Common Prayer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Edward_VI
1576 Thomas Dudley (d 1653) colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during which he sometimes clashed with his rival John Winthrop. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. As Governor, Dudley signed the Charter creating Harvard College. Thomas Dudley Gate at Harvard College was named in his honor, as is the non-residential Dudley House. Dudley's descendants were early governors, ministers, judges, as well as his daughter, Anne Bradstreet, the nation's first poet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dudley
1710 Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and statesman, (Originally spelled: Jonathan Trumble, was changed for an unknown reason) was one of the few Americans who served as governor in both a pre-Revolutionary colony and a post-Revolutionary state. During the American Revolution he was the only colonial governor who supported the American side.(d. 1785)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Trumbull
1712 William Shippen, Sr. (d 1801) American physician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a civic and educational leader who represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shippen,_Sr.
1787 Asa Thurston, missionary to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (d. 11 Mar 1868).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=T&word=THURSTON.ASA
1844 George Washington Cable (d 1925) American novelist notable for the realism of his portrayals of Creole life in his native Louisiana. His fiction has been thought to anticipate that of William Faulkner.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Cable
1860 Elmer Ambrose Sperry (d 1930) American electrical engineer and inventor of the gyrocompass. In the 1890's he made useful inventions in electric mining machinery, and patent electric brake and control system for street- or tramcars. In 1908, he patented the active gyrostabilizer which acted to stop a ship's roll as soon as it started. He patented the first gyrocompass designed expressly for the marine environment in 1910. This "spinning wheel" gyro was a significant improvement over the traditional magnetic compass of the day and changed the course of naval history. The first Sperry gyrocompass was tested at-sea aboard the USS Delaware in 1911 and established Sperry as a world leader in the manufacture of military gyrocompasses for the next 80 years.
1883 C. Harold Lowden, American evangelical and reformed sacred music composer, (d. 27 Feb 1963).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/l/o/w/lowden_ch.htm
1893 Velvalee Dickinson (b ca. 1980), was convicted of espionage against the United States on behalf of Japan during World War II. Known as the "Doll Woman", she used her business in New York City to send information on U.S. Naval forces to contacts in South America via steganographic messages. She was finally caught when one of her contacts in Buenos Aires moved and her messages were returned.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvalee_Dickinson
1904 Lester Dent (d 1959) prolific pulp fiction author of numerous stories, best known as the main author of the series of stories about the superhuman scientist and adventurer, Doc Savage. The 159 novels written over 16 years were credited to the house name Kenneth Robeson.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Dent
1906 Joe Cronin, American baseball player and executive (d. 1984)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cronin
1906 John Murray (d 1984) was a playwright best known for writing the 1937 play Room Service with Allen Boretz.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murray_(playwright)
1908 Paul Engle (d 1991), American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program (IWP), both at the University of Iowa.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Engle
1908 Ann Petry (d 1997) American author who became the first black woman writer with book sales topping a million copies for her novel The Street.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Petry
1910 Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (d 16 Jan 1985) poet, critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics (Illiad and Aeneid) "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students." He was best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin. In addition, he also composed several books of his own poetry.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fitzgerald
1923 Jean Nidetch Brooklyn, founded Weight Watchers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Nidetch
1925 William Steinkraus US, equestrian jumper (Olympic-gold-1968)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Steinkraus
1929 Martin Robert Coles American author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University
1932 Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist
1932 Ned Jarrett, American race car driver
1934 Richard Meier American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.
1935 Anthony Christopher "Tony" Kubek Milwaukee, Wisconsin), retired American professional baseball player and television broadcaster.
1937 Robert Mangold, North Tonawanda, New York, American minimalist artist.
1947 Chris Wallace, American journalist, , currently the host of the Fox Network program, Fox News Sunday. Wallace has won three Emmy Awards, the Dupont-Columbia Silver Baton Award, and a Peabody Award. Wallace has been with Fox News since 2003. As a previous moderator of Meet the Press, Wallace is the only person to date to have served as host/moderator of more than one of the major Sunday political talk shows.
1950 David Duane "Dave" Freudenthal, 31st and current Governor of Wyoming. A Democrat, he was reelected to his second term on November 7, 2006, and announced on March 4, 2010, that he would not attempt to seek a third term as Governor
1951 Edward Randall "Ed" Royce, American politician. He has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing the 40th District of California (map) in northern Orange County, including portions of Stanton, Cypress, Buena Park, Fullerton, Anaheim, Placentia, and Orange. Previously, he had served as representative from the 39th District of California.
1958 Stephen "Steve" Austria, Republican member of the US House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 7th congressional district since 2009. The district stretches from Springfield to the southern suburbs of Columbus.
1959 Anna Escobedo Cabral, 42nd Treasurer of the United States
1963 Lane Frost, American professional bull rider (d. 1989)
Deaths
638 Pope Honorius I.
642 Pope John IV.
1845 Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney) (b 1780) English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane, and she was supported in her efforts by the reigning monarch. Since 2001, she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note.
1852 John Lloyd Stephens (b 1805) American traveler and archaeologist whose exploration of Maya ruins in Central America and Mexico (1839-40 and 1841-42) generated the archaeology of Middle America. In 1939, as a lawyer ostensibly on a mission for the U.S. State Department, Stephens went in search of Mayan ruins, which were then all but unknown. He was accompanied by architect Frederick Catherwood, whose meticulous drawings illustrate Stephens' subsequent books. In Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Stephens described coming upon the ruined city of Copan, which he found so captivating that he promptly purchased the site. It is now owned by the Honduran government.
1864 Roger Taney, 5th Supreme Court Chief Justice, first Roman Catholic to hold that office or sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. He was also the eleventh United States Attorney General. He is most remembered for delivering the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), that ruled, among other things, that African Americans, being considered "of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race" at the time the Constitution was drafted, could not be considered citizens of the United States.
1870 Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (b. 1807)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee
1881 Josiah Gilbert Holland (b. 24 July 1819), American news editor and hymnist,
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/h/o/l/holland_jg.htm
1898 Calvin Fairbank, American abolitionist minister, who spent more than 17 years in prison for his anti-slavery activities. (b. 1816)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Fairbank
1901 Eduard Raimond Baierlein, Lutheran missionary among the Chippewa Indians near Frankenmuth, Michigan, died in Germany (b. 29 Apr 1819).
1912 Lewis Boss (b 1846) American astronomer best known for his compilation of two catalogues of stars (1910, 1937). In 1882 he led an expedition to Chile to observe a transit of Venus. About 1895 Boss began to plan a general catalog of stars, giving their positions and motions. After 1906, the project had support from the Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C. With an enlarged staff he observed the northern stars from Albany and the southern stars from Argentina. With the new data, he corrected catalogs that had been compiled in the past, and in 1910 he published the Preliminary General Catalogue of 6,188 Stars for the Epoch 1900. The work unfinished upon his death was completed by his son Benjamin in 1937 (General Catalogue of 33,342 Stars for the Epoch 1950, 5 vol.)
1914 Margaret E. Knight (b 1838) Prolific American inventor of machines and mechanisms for a variety of industrial and everyday purposes. She began inventing at an early age, as she was said to have contrived a safety device for controlling shuttles in powered textile looms when she was 12 years old. In 1868, she invented an attachment for paper-bag-folding machines that allowed the production of square-bottomed bags, which she patented in 1870. She also received patents for a dress and skirt shield (1883), a clasp for robes (1884), and a spit (1885). Later, among others, she received six patents over a span of years for machines used in the manufacturing of shoes. Although she was not the first woman to receive a patent, she was one of the most prolific, with 27 patents to her credit.
1940 Tom Mix, American actor (b. 1880)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix
1946 Joseph Stilwell, American general (b. 1883)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stilwell
1954 George Welch (b 1918) World War II flying ace, a Medal of Honor nominee, and an experimental aircraft pilot after the war. Welch is best known both for being one of over 17 United States Army Air Forces fighter pilots able to get airborne to engage Japanese forces in the attack on Pearl Harbor and for allegedly being the first pilot to break the sound barrier (two weeks before Chuck Yeager) in his prototype XP-86 Sabre. However, the flight is generally not recognized as an official record because of a lack of a verifiable speed measurement and the fact that it was done in a dive, whereas Yeager's X-1 completed the feat in level flight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Welch_(pilot)
1965 Paul Hermann Mueller (b 1899) Swiss chemist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1948 for discovering the potent toxic effects on insects of DDT. With its chemical derivatives, DDT became the most widely used insecticide for more than 20 years and was a major factor in increased world food production.
1971 Dean Acheson, American statesman, American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War.[1] Acheson helped design the Marshall Plan and played a central role in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (b. 1893)
1971 Gene Vincent, American rock musician, pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. He is a member of the Rock and Roll and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. (b. 1935)
1987 Alf Landon, American Republican politician, who served as the 26th Governor of Kansas from 1933–1937. He was best known for being the Republican Party's (GOP) nominee for President of the United States, defeated in a landslide by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. (b. 1887)
1987 Philleo Nash US Bureau of Indian Affairs (1961-67) )b 1909)
1988 Ken Murray (b 1903) American entertainer and author.
1988 Coby Whitmore, American painter and magazine illustrator, known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, and a commercial artist whose work included advertisements for Gallo Wine and other national brands. He additionally became known as a race-car designer. (b. 1913)
1989 Carmen Cavallaro, American pianist (b. 1913)
1989 Jay Ward, American animator (Rocky and Bullwinkle) (b. 1920)
1997 John Denver, American singer (b. 1943)
1999 Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)
2002 Ray Conniff, American bandleader and musician (b. 1916)
2003 Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (b. 1928)
2003 Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (b. 1931)
2005 C. DeLores Tucker (née Cynthia DeLores Nottage) (b 1927) U.S. politician and civil rights activist best known for her participation in the Civil Rights Movement and stance against gangsta rap music.
Christian Feast Day:
Heribert of Cologne (private feast day)
St. Hilda's Day
Wilfrid of York
October 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Martyrs Andronicus, Probus, and Tarachus at Tarsus in Cilicia (304)
St. Cosmas the Hymnographer, Bishop of Maiuma (ca 787)
Martyr Domnica of Anazarbus in Cilicia (286)
Hieromartyr Maximilian, bishop of Noricum (ca 284)
St. Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours (397)
Saints Amphilochius (1452), Macarius (1480) and Tarasius (1440), abbots, and Theodosius (15th century), monk, of Glushitsa (Glushetskry) Monastery, Vologda, disciples of St. Dionysius of Glushitsa
St. Euphrosyne (Mezenova) the Faster, schema-abbess of Siberia (1918)
New Hiero-confessor Nicholas (Mogilevsky), metropolitan of Alma-Ata (1955)
Greek Calendar:
Virgin Martyr Anastasia of Rome (ca 250)
St. Theodotus, Bishop of Ephesus
Martyrs Malfethos and Anthea
St. Jason, Bishop of Damascus
St. Symeon the New Theologian (1022)
St. Theosebius the God-bearer, of Arsinoe in Cyprus
Other commemorations
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Jerusalem” (48) and “Kaluga” (1748)
Freethought Day (United States)
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daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct12.html
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_12
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/columbus-reaches-the-new-world
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_12.htm
www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm#lk
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1012.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_12_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)