Historical Events on Sunday, 12th October

12/10/2022

2022 Bratislava shooting, killing 3 (including the perpetrator) and injuring one. The shooting occurred outside of a gay bar in Bratislava known as Tepláreň. Two people (excluding the perpetrator) died as a result of the shooting: Juraj Vankulič, a non-binary person, and Matúš Horváth, a bisexual man. The perpetrator (Juraj Krajčík) was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot the morning after the attack.

On 12 October 2022, two people were killed, and a third person was wounded in a shooting outside of the front entrance of Tepláreň, a gay bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, a well-known spot frequented by the local LGBTQ community. The shooting claimed two victims: Juraj Vankulič, a non-binary person, and Matúš Horváth, a bisexual man. The perpetrator was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot the morning after the attack.

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12/10/2019

Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, killing 10 and forcing the evacuation of one million people.

Typhoon Hagibis, known in Japan as Typhoon No.19 or the Reiwa 1 East Japan Typhoon , was a large, extremely powerful and costly tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction in Japan and is one of the costliest typhoons on record. The nineteenth named storm, ninth typhoon, and third super typhoon of the 2019 Pacific typhoon season, it was the strongest typhoon to strike mainland Japan in decades, and one of the largest typhoons ever recorded, with a peak gale-force diameter of 825 nautical miles. The typhoon raised global media attention, as it greatly affected the 2019 Rugby World Cup being hosted by Japan. With a death toll of 139, Hagibis was also the deadliest typhoon to strike Japan since Typhoon Fran in 1976.

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Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.

Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialized in the 5000 metres. Kipchoge is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, and was the world record holder in the marathon from 2018 to 2023, until that record was broken by Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. Kipchoge has run 4 of the 10 fastest marathons in history, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest marathon runners of all time.

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The Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans, which is under construction, collapses, killing three workers and injuring 30 others.

1031 Canal was a partially collapsed 190-foot-tall (58 m) multi-use high-rise building in New Orleans, Louisiana, located at 1031 Canal Street in the Central Business District. If completed, the project would have been known as the Hard Rock Hotel New Orleans.

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12/10/2018

Princess Eugenie marries Jack Brooksbank at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank, is a member of the British royal family. She is the younger daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, and a niece of King Charles III. At birth, Eugenie was sixth in the line of succession to the British throne and is 12th as of 2026.

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12/10/2017

The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO. Israel immediately follows.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It has 194 member states and 12 associate members, as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector. Headquartered in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions.

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12/10/2013

An apartment building collapse in Medellín, Colombia results in the deaths of twelve people.

The collapse of the Space Building occurred on the night of October 12, 2013, when Tower 6 of the Space Building, a residential apartment complex, collapsed in Medellín, Colombia, killing 12 people. Local authorities evacuated the rest of the building to avoid an imminent new collapse. The cost of the building was more than $40.6 billion.

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12/10/2012

The European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The supranational union has a total area of 4,233,255 km2 (1,634,469 sq mi), an estimated population of approximately 451 million (2025), and the EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around €18.802 trillion (2025), accounting for approximately one sixth of global economic output. The EU is often described as a sui generis political entity combining characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

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12/10/2010

The Finnish Yle TV2 channel's Ajankohtainen kakkonen current affairs program airs controversial Homoilta episode (literally "gay night"), which leads to the resignation of almost 50,000 Finns from the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Yle TV2 is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Yle. TV2 was launched in 1965 as the successor to the former television channels TES-TV (Tesvisio) and Tamvisio and broadcasts public service programming, sports, drama, children's, youth, and music programmes. With Yle TV1, it is one of the three main television channels of Yle.

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12/10/2005

The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying two cosmonauts in orbit for five days.

Shenzhou 6 was the second human spaceflight of the Chinese space program, launched on October 12, 2005, on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The Shenzhou spacecraft carried a crew of Fèi Jùnlóng (费俊龙) and Niè Hǎishèng (聂海胜) for five days in low Earth orbit. It launched three days before the second anniversary of China's first human spaceflight, Shenzhou 5.

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12/10/2002

Terrorists detonate bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, killing 202 and wounding over 200.

Terrorist attacks took place on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. Bombings killed 202 people—including 88 Australians and 38 local Indonesians—and injured a further 209, making it the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history.

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12/10/2000

The USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, is badly damaged by two al-Qaeda suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.

USS Cole (DDG-67) is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer home-ported in Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, during World War II. Cole is one of 62 authorized Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, and one of 21 members of the Flight I-class that used the 5 in(127 mm)/54 caliber gun mounts found on the earliest of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and was delivered to the Navy on 11 March 1996.

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12/10/1999

Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

Pervez Musharraf was a Pakistani politician and a military officer who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Against the background of immense pressure from civil society, the aggrieved public, the business community, and diplomats of friendly countries to address the economic mismanagement and bad governance, the Pakistan Armed Forces had finally overthrown Nawaz Sharif's government and proclaimed him the chief executive of Pakistan once Nawaz Sharif targeted Musharraf's life by directing the hijacking of his plane.

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The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.

Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus. It sits on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It covers 8,665 square kilometres (3,346 sq mi) and has a population of around 245,000. Its capital and largest city is Sukhumi.

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12/10/1997

The Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria kills 43 people at a fake roadblock.

The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Algeria. This is an incomplete list; the total number of massacres reported is far more numerous.

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12/10/1996

New Zealand holds its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional representation system, which led to Jim Bolger's National Party forming a coalition government with Winston Peters's New Zealand First.

New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island —and over 600 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.

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12/10/1994

The Magellan spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Venus.

The Magellan spacecraft was a 1,035-kilogram (2,282 lb) robotic space probe launched by NASA on May 4, 1989. Its mission objectives were to map the surface of Venus by using synthetic-aperture radar and to measure the planetary gravitational field.

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Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 746 crashes near Natanz, Iran, killing all 66 people on board.

Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 746 was a Fokker F-28 flight of Iran Aseman Airlines operating on the Isfahan–Tehran route in Iran. The flight crashed near the town of Natanz on October 12, 1994, killing all the passengers and crew members.

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12/10/1992

A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 510 died.

The 1992 Cairo earthquake, also known as the Dahshur earthquake, occurred at 15:09 local time on 12 October, with an epicenter in the Western Desert near Dahshur, Giza, 35 km (22 mi) south of Egypt's capital city, Cairo. The earthquake had a magnitude of either 5.8 or 5.9, but was unusually destructive for its size, causing 561 deaths and injuring 12,392 people. It also made "over half a million people homeless", destroying or significantly damaging "129,000 residential buildings and houses" in tens of cities and villages across 16 governorates, in Greater Cairo, the Delta, and northern Upper Egypt. It was the most damaging seismic event to affect Egypt since 1847.

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12/10/1988

Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down execution-style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.

Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the Victoria Police Act 2013.

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12/10/1984

The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds at least 31 others.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.

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12/10/1983

Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from the Lockheed Corporation, and is sentenced to four years in jail.

Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. Known for his background in construction and earthy and tenacious political style, Tanaka is the only modern Japanese prime minister who did not finish high school or graduate from a university.

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12/10/1979

Typhoon Tip becomes the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded.

Typhoon Tip, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Warling, was the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded worldwide. The forty-third tropical depression, nineteenth tropical storm, twelfth typhoon, and third super typhoon of the 1979 Pacific typhoon season, Tip developed out of a disturbance within the monsoon trough on October 4 near Pohnpei in Micronesia. Initially, Tropical Storm Roger to the northwest hindered the development and motion of the system, although after the storm tracked farther north, Tip was able to intensify due to more favorable conditions within the region. After passing Guam, Tip rapidly intensified and reached peak sustained winds of 305 km/h (190 mph) and a worldwide record-low sea-level pressure of 870 hPa (25.69 inHg) on October 12. At its peak, Tip was the largest tropical cyclone on record, with a windfield diameter of 2,220 km (1,380 mi). The typhoon briefly entered the area of warning responsibility for PAGASA on October 13, which gave it the Filipino name Warling. Tip slowly weakened as it continued west-northwestward and later turned to the northeast, in response to an approaching trough. After its approach, Tip made landfall in southern Japan on October 19, and became an extratropical cyclone shortly after its landfall. The system's extratropical remnants continued moving east-northeastward, until they dissipated near the Aleutian Islands on October 24.

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12/10/1977

Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao Zedong as paramount leader of China.

Hua Guofeng was a Chinese politician who served as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the 2nd premier of China. As the successor of Mao Zedong, Hua held the top offices of the government, party, and the military after the deaths of Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai, but was gradually forced out of power between December 1978 and June 1981, and subsequently retreated from the political limelight, though still remaining a member of the Central Committee until 2002.

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12/10/1976

Indian Airlines Flight 171 crashes at Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India, killing 95.

Indian Airlines Flight 171 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Bombay Airport on 12 October 1976 after suffering an uncontained engine failure, killing all 95 people on board. Metal fatigue in the No. 2 engine's 10th stage high-pressure compressor disk had caused it to disintegrate. The resulting fragments severed fuel lines, causing fuel to leak into the engine and ignite, producing an uncontrolled fire that eventually affected control surfaces, leading to a loss of control.

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12/10/1973

President Nixon nominates House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as the successor to Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was the 38th president of the United States. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, and served until 1977. As the second vice president under Nixon, succeeding Spiro Agnew who resigned in 1973, Ford's presidency was overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal. Before his vice presidency, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 24 years.

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12/10/1971

The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.

The 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire, officially known as the 2,500-year celebration of the Empire of Iran, was hosted by the Pahlavi dynasty in the Imperial State of Iran in October 1971. Concentrated at Persepolis, it consisted of an elaborate set of grand festivities that sought to honour the legacy of the Achaemenid Empire, which was founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. The event was aimed at highlighting ancient Iranian history and also showcasing the country's contemporary advances under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been reigning as the Shah of Iran since 1941. The site brought sixty members of royalty and heads of state from abroad.

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12/10/1970

Vietnam War: Vietnamization continues as President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.

Vietnamization was a policy enacted in early 1969 by the Richard Nixon administration aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by expanding, equipping, and training the South Vietnamese armed forces (ARVN) and increasing their combat role, while at the same reducing involvement of U.S. combat troops. The policy of Vietnamization, despite its successful execution, was ultimately a failure as the improved ARVN forces were unable to stop North Vietnam and its People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The South Vietnamese government collapsed with the fall of Saigon in April 1975 and north and south Vietnam were subsequently unified under communism as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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12/10/1968

Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.

Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equator and in the African region of Guinea. As of 2025, the country has a population of 1,853,559, over 85% of whom are members of the Fang people, the country's dominant ethnic group. The Bubi people, indigenous to Bioko, are the second largest group at approximately 6.5% of the population. Its capital is Ciudad de la Paz, replacing former capital Malabo in 2026, while its largest city is Bata.

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12/10/1967

A bomb explodes on board Cyprus Airways Flight 284 while flying over the Mediterranean Sea, killing 66.

Cyprus Airways Flight 284 was a de Havilland Comet that exploded during a flight to Nicosia International Airport on 12 October 1967 after a bomb was detonated in the cabin. The airliner crashed in the Mediterranean Sea and all 66 passengers and crew members on board were killed.

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12/10/1964

The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.

Voskhod 1 was the seventh crewed Soviet space flight. Flown by cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov, and Boris Yegorov, it launched 12 October 1964, and returned on the 13th. Voskhod 1 was the first human spaceflight to carry more than one crewman into orbit, the first flight without the use of spacesuits, and the first to carry either an engineer or a physician into outer space. It also set a crewed spacecraft altitude record of 336 km (209 mi).

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12/10/1963

After nearly 23 years of imprisonment, Reverend Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit missionary, was released from the Soviet Union.

Walter Joseph Ciszek, S.J. was a Polish-American Jesuit priest of the Russian Greek Catholic Church who clandestinely conducted missionary work in the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1963.

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12/10/1962

The Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities. There was at least U.S. $230 million in damages and 46 people died.

The Columbus Day storm of 1962 was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, 1962. Typhoon Freda was the twenty-eighth tropical depression, the twenty-third tropical storm, and the eighteenth typhoon of the 1962 Pacific typhoon season. Freda originated from a tropical disturbance over the Northwest Pacific on September 28. On October 3, the system strengthened into a tropical storm and was given the name Freda, before becoming a typhoon later that day, while moving northeastward. The storm quickly intensified, reaching its peak as a Category 3-equivalent typhoon on October 5, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 948 millibars (28.0 inHg). Freda maintained its intensity for another day, before beginning to gradually weaken, later on October 6. On October 9, Freda weakened into a tropical storm, before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on the next day. On October 11, Freda turned eastward and accelerated across the North Pacific, before striking the Pacific Northwest on the next day. On October 13, the cyclone made landfall on Washington and Vancouver Island, and then curved northwestward. Afterward, the system moved into Canada and weakened, before being absorbed by another developing storm to the south on October 17.

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12/10/1960

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. As leader of the Soviet Union, he stunned the world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin, embarking on a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

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12/10/1959

At the national congress of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance in Peru, a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party who later form APRA Rebelde.

APRA Rebelde was formed in 1959 as a splinter group of the Peruvian APRA. It was founded by a group that was expelled from APRA at a National Congress on October 12. The leader of the APRA Rebelde started orienting itself towards the radical Marxist left. In 1962, the group was refounded as the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

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12/10/1945

World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.

Desmond Thomas Doss was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II. Due to his religious beliefs, he refused to carry a weapon.

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The Lao Issara took control of Laos' government and reaffirmed the country's independence.

The Lao Issara was an anti-French nationalist movement formed on 12 October 1945 by Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa. The short-lived movement emerged after the Japanese defeat in World War II and became the government of Laos before the return of the French. It aimed to prevent the French from restoring their control over Laos. The group disbanded in 1949.

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12/10/1944

World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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12/10/1933

The military Alcatraz Citadel becomes the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.

Fort Alcatraz was a United States Army coastal fortification on Alcatraz Island near the mouth of San Francisco Bay in California, part of the Third System of fixed fortifications, although very different from most other Third System works. Initially completed in 1859, it was also used for mustering and training recruits and new units for the Civil War from 1861 and began secondary use as a long-term military prison in 1868.

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12/10/1928

An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Boston Children's Hospital.

An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator, a mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space to stimulate breathing. It assists breathing when muscle control is lost, or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability. Need for this treatment may result from diseases including polio and botulism and certain poisons.

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12/10/1918

A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.

The Cloquet Fire was an immense forest fire in northern Minnesota, United States, in October 1918, caused by sparks on the local railroads amid dry conditions. The fire left much of western Carlton County devastated, mostly affecting Moose Lake, Cloquet, and Kettle River. Cloquet was hardest hit by the fires; it was the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history in terms of the number of casualties in a single day. It is also the third-deadliest wildfire in recorded history, behind the Peshtigo fire of 1871 and a 1936 wildfire that occurred in Kursha-2.

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12/10/1917

World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single-day loss of life in New Zealand history.

The First Battle of Passchendaele took place on 12 October 1917 during the First World War, in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. The attack was part of the Third Battle of Ypres and was fought west of Passchendaele village. The British had planned to capture the ridges south and east of the city of Ypres as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 mi (8.0 km) from the railway junction at Roulers, which was an important part of the supply system of the German 4th Army.

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12/10/1915

World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

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12/10/1909

Foundation of Coritiba Foot Ball Club.

Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as the Coxa, is a Brazilian football club from Curitiba, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Founded in 1909 by German immigrants, it is the oldest football club and the club with the most titles in the state.

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12/10/1901

President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt served as vice president under William McKinley for six months, and became president after McKinley's assassination in 1901. Upon assuming the office, he was 42 years old, making him the youngest person to serve as president. Roosevelt was popular as a driving force for antitrust legislation, which earned him the nickname "the Trust Buster".

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12/10/1892

The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools.

The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States. The first version was written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union army officer in the Civil War who later wrote a book on how to teach patriotism to children in public schools. In 1892, Francis Bellamy revised Balch's verse as part of a magazine promotion surrounding the World's Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas.

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12/10/1890

Uddevalla Suffrage Association is formed.

The Uddevalla Suffrage Association was a late-19th-century political movement founded in Uddevalla, Sweden. Local historians and the Swedish Social Democratic Party consider it the first political predecessor of the Swedish labour movement in the province of Bohuslän. Its purpose was to bring about universal suffrage in Sweden: At the time, suffrage in the country was restricted to men and based on personal wealth, therefore excluding most of the urban and rural working class from the electoral process. The Uddevalla Suffrage Association was one of many groups throughout Sweden that helped bring democratic thought into the common discourse and make way for the political breakthrough of the labour movement.

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12/10/1871

The British in India enact the Criminal Tribes Act, naming many local communities "Criminal Tribes".

Since the 1870s, various pieces of colonial legislation in India during British rule were collectively called the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA). Such legislations criminalised entire communities by designating them and their members as habitual criminals.

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12/10/1856

An M 7.7–8.3 earthquake off the Greek island of Crete cause major damage as far as Egypt and Malta.

The 1856 Heraklion earthquake, also known as the Crete earthquake or Rhodes earthquake, occurred on the morning of October 12 at 02:45 am local time. This extremely catastrophic earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.7 to 8.3 at a depth of approximately 61 to 100 km. The earthquake was felt over a very wide area extending from Sicily, Italy to the Levant and North Africa. On the Greek island of Crete, the effects of the earthquake were cataclysmic, over 500 bodies were recovered in the city of Heraklion. Shockwaves from the earthquake were felt intensely, covering all of the Ottoman Empire; present-day Turkey, Cyprus and the Middle East where damage and human losses were reported. In Malta, the Għajn Ħadid Tower—a coastal watchtower built around the year 1638—was severely damaged in the earthquake, when its upper floor collapsed. In Cairo, Egypt, the earthquake destroyed buildings, created seiches in canals, and killed several people. Off the Egyptian and Italian coasts, sailors reported feeling a seaquake.

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12/10/1849

The city of Manizales, Colombia, is founded by 'The Expedition of the 20'.

Manizales is a city in central Colombia. It is the capital of the Department of Caldas, and lies near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.

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12/10/1822

Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor.

Dom Pedro I, known in Brazil and in Portugal as "the Liberator" or "the Soldier King" in Portugal, was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil from 1822 to 1831 and King of Portugal in 1826.

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12/10/1810

The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest in celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is not a state of its own, and it ranks as the 11th-largest city in the European Union (EU). The metropolitan area has around 3 million inhabitants, and the broader Munich Metropolitan Region is home to about 6.2 million people. It is the third largest metropolitan region by GDP in the EU. Munich is located on the river Isar north of the Alps. It is the seat of the Upper Bavarian administrative region. With 4,500 people per km2, Munich is Germany's most densely populated municipality. It is also the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area after Vienna.

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12/10/1799

Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute.

Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin was a French balloonist and parachutist. She was the first to ascend solo and the first woman to make a parachute descent, from an altitude of 900 metres (3,000 ft) on 12 October 1799.

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12/10/1798

Flemish and Luxembourgish peasants launch the rebellion against French rule known as the Peasants' War.

The Peasants' War was a peasant revolt in 1798 against the French Republican occupiers of the Southern Netherlands, a region which now includes Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Germany. The French had annexed the region in 1795 and control of the region was officially ceded to the French after the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. The revolt is considered part of the French Revolutionary Wars.

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12/10/1793

The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Old East is a residence hall located at the north part of campus in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Built in 1793 by slave labor, it became the first state university building in the United States. The Wren Building at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was built in 1695, but William and Mary did not become a public university until 1906.

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12/10/1792

The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. He went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492 [OS]. He built La Navidad on the northwestern coast of the island of Hispaniola in late December 1492, the first European fort in the Americas. After the destruction of the fort by the indigenous Taíno people, Columbus established La Isabela on the central-northern coast of the island in late December 1493, the first stable settlement in the Americas.

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12/10/1773

America's first insane asylum opens.

Eastern State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. Built in 1773, it was the first public facility in the present-day United States constructed solely for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. The original building had burned but was reconstructed in 1985.

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12/10/1748

War of Jenkins' Ear: A British squadron wins a tactical victory over a Spanish squadron off Havana.

The War of Jenkins' Ear was fought between Great Britain and Spain from 1739 to 1748. Most of the fighting took place in New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations over by 1742. It is considered a related conflict of the 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession.

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12/10/1692

The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Province of Massachusetts Bay Governor William Phips.

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in the disease-ridden jails without trial.

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12/10/1654

The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100 people.

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is a part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad.

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12/10/1492

Christopher Columbus's first expedition makes landfall on San Salvador Island in the Caribbean. (Julian calendar)

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

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12/10/1406

Chen Yanxiang, the only person from Indonesia known to have visited dynastic Korea, reaches Seoul after having set out from Java four months before.

Chen Yanxiang was a merchant of Chinese origin, probably based on the Indonesian island of Java, who visited Joseon Korea and Muromachi Japan between 1394 and 1412. The only source for his life is the Korean Joseon Veritable Records, from which a "particularly colorful career" can be seen.

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12/10/1398

In the Treaty of Salynas, Lithuania cedes Samogitia to the Teutonic Knights.

The Treaty of Salynas was a peace treaty signed on 12 October 1398 by Vytautas the Great, the ruler of Lithuania, and Konrad von Jungingen, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. It was signed on an islet of the Neman River, probably between Kulautuva and the mouth of the Nevėžis River. It was the third time, after the Treaty of Königsberg (1384) and Treaty of Lyck (1390), that Vytautas promised Samogitia to the Knights. The territory was important to the Knights as it physically separated the Teutonic Knights in Prussia from its branch in Livonia. It was the first time that the Knights and Vytautas attempted to enforce the cession of Samogitia. However, it did not solve the territorial disputes over Samogitia and they dragged on until the Treaty of Melno in 1422.

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12/10/1279

The Nichiren Shōshū branch of Buddhism is founded in Japan.

Nichiren Shōshū is a branch of Nichiren Buddhism based on the traditionalist teachings of the 13th century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282), claiming him as its founder through his senior disciple Nikko Shonin (1246–1333), the founder of Head Temple Taiseki-ji, near Mount Fuji. The lay adherents of the sect are called Hokkeko members. The Enichizan Myohoji Temple in Los Angeles, California, serves as the temple headquarters within the United States.

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12/10/0633

Battle of Hatfield Chase: King Edwin of Northumbria is defeated and killed by an alliance under Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Gwynedd.

The Battle of Hatfield Chase was fought on 12 October 633 It pitted the Northumbrians against an alliance of Gwynedd and Mercia. The Northumbrians were led by Edwin and the Gwynedd-Mercian alliance was led by Cadwallon ap Cadfan and Penda. The site of the battle was a marshy area about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Doncaster on the south bank of the River Don, though this location has been disputed. It was a decisive victory for Gwynedd and the Mercians: Edwin was killed and his army defeated, leading to the temporary collapse of Northumbria.

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01/01/1970

The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia conquer Babylon, ending the Babylonian empire. (Julian calendar)

Cyrus II of Persia, commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly across most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create what would soon become the largest empire in history at the time. The Achaemenid Empire's greatest territorial extent was achieved under Darius the Great, whose rule stretched from Southeast Europe and Northeast Africa in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.

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