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On this day in History Archives
 
At PaulsQuiz.com we aim to provide you with as much information as we possibly can. That's why we have built our On This Day in History section, to do just that. Our database is forever growing, we're adding more and more events from history to help you write your quiz questions.

Simply enter a date using the drop-down boxes below and click the 'Go' button to display events from the past that ocurred on that day.
 

 
12 October, 2006
A law is passed in France that makes denying the Armenian Genocide a crime. An enormous lake effect snow storm drops about 2 feet of heavy, water-laden snow on Western New York knocking out power for up to 10 days in some cases, and destroying or damaging tens of thousands of trees. The storm caused more than 1 billion dollars worth of damage.
12 October, 2005
The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Haishèng for five days in orbit.
12 October, 2002
Terrorists detonate bombs in Paddys Pub and the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.
12 October, 2000
The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39
12 October, 1999
Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup. The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.
12 October, 1997
Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock.
12 October, 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).
12 October, 1991
Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republics Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll.
12 October, 1988
Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia. NeXT launches its first public debut of the NeXT Computer at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California
12 October, 1986
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the Peoples Republic of China
12 October, 1984
Brighton hotel bombing: Margaret Thatcher survives an IRA bomb, which shredded her bathroom barely two minutes after she had left it.
12 October, 1983
Japans former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to 4 years in jail.
12 October, 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.
12 October, 1976
The Peoples Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party of China.
12 October, 1972
En route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk
12 October, 1970
Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
12 October, 1969
The Cleveland Browns play the New Orleans Saints in front of 71,274 people and win 27-17
12 October, 1968
Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain The 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City was inaugurated
12 October, 1967
Vietnam War: US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives were futile because of North Vietnams opposition
12 October, 1964
The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits
12 October, 1962
Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230 million in damages
12 October, 1960
Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonialist policy being conducted in Eastern Europe. Inejiro Asanuma is assassinated in Japan by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old. The camera was rolling at that time.
12 October, 1959
At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.
12 October, 1953
"The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York
12 October, 1948
The first Morris Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis, was produced at Cowley, Oxfordshire, UK.
12 October, 1942
World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Goto dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
12 October, 1941
This and the next day, German Nazis kill 11,000 Jews in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Einsatzkommando 6 massacres most of the remaining Jews of the city, marching them to a ravine where they were killed.
12 October, 1933
The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
12 October, 1928
An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Childrens Hospital, Boston
12 October, 1917
The First Battle of Passchendaele, now Passendale
12 October, 1915
World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
12 October, 1901
President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
12 October, 1899
Boer republic of South Africa declares war with England.
12 October, 1898
Establishment of the first town council in Mateur.
12 October, 1892
The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in unison by students in US public schools.
12 October, 1850
The first womens medical college opens, in Pennsylvania.
12 October, 1823
Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat.
12 October, 1822
Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor of the Brazilian Empire.
12 October, 1810
First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
12 October, 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
12 October, 1792
First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York
12 October, 1773
Americas first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Virginia
12 October, 1692
The Salem Witch Trials were ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
12 October, 1654
The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100.
12 October, 1582
Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
12 October, 1492
Christopher Columbuss expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached East Asia
12 October, 1216
King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge

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