October 12
1492
Columbus landed in present-day Bahamas.
1870
Gen. Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.
1960
Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev created a disturbance at the U.N. General Assembly by pounding his desk with his shoe.
1964
The Soviets launched Voskhod I, the first space capsule to carry three people into orbit.
1999
NBA Hall-of-Famer Wilt Chamberlain died at his Bel Air home at age 63.
2000
17 U.S. sailors killed with the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
2002
A bomb destroyed a nightclub in Bali, killing 202, mostly tourists.
Birthdays
Luciano Pavarotti
1935–2007, Italian tenor.
Elmer Ambrose Sperry
inventor (1860)
Samuel Elmer Imes
chemist, physicist (1883)
Ann Petry
novelist (1908)
Charlie Ward
football (1962)
Hugh Jackman
actor (1968)