Associated Press
On Oct. 12, 1492 (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21st New Style), Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.
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.
1935- Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Italy.
1960- Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a U.N. General Assembly session by pounding a shoe on his desk.
1971- “Jesus Christ Superstar,” a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, opened on Broadway.
1973- President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.
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.
1986- Superpower talks between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate.
1998- Matthew Shepard, a gay student at University of Wyoming, died five days after he was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie.
1999- Pakistan’s military overthrew the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
2000- Two al-Qaida suicide bombers in an explosives-laden boat rammed into the destroyer the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors.
2002- A bomb destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people. Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida were blamed.
2007- Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm over global warming.
2011- A Nigerian al-Qaida operative pleaded guilty to trying to bring down a jetliner with a bomb in his underwear minutes before the plane landed in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was later sentenced to life in prison.)
Today’s Birthdays:
Actor Hugh Jackman turns 47 years old today.
Jake Garn, Former U.S. senator, R-Utah, 69
Dick Gregory, Comedian, activist, 83
Sam Moore, R&B singer (Sam and Dave), 80
Chris Wallace, Broadcast journalist, 68
John Engler, Former governor of Michigan, 67
Susan Anton, Actress, 65
Adam Rich, Actor (“Eight is Enough”), 47
Martie Maguire, Country musician (Dixie Chicks), 46
Kirk Cameron, Actor (“Growing Pains”), 45
Bode Miller, U.S. Olympic skier, 38
Golfer Cristie Kerr turns 38 years old today.