OCTOBER 12TH

Today is Sunday, Oct 12, the 286th day of 2008.
There are 80 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Oct. 12, 1492 (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21 New Style), Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.

On this date:

• In 1870, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.
• In 1908, the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs 8-3 in Game 3 of the World Series, played in Chicago.
• In 1915, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans in occupied Belgium during World War I.
• In 1918, the Cloquet Fire erupted in Minnesota, claiming some 450 lives.
• In 1933, bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.
• In 1960, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a U.N. General Assembly session by pounding his desk with a shoe when a speaker criticized his country.
• In 1968, the Summer Games of the 19th Olympiad officially opened in Mexico City.
• In 1968, Equatorial Guinea became independent of Spain.
• In 2000, 17 sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.
• In 2002, a bomb blamed on Islamic militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Ten years ago:

• Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, died five days after being beaten and lashed to a fence; two men were charged with his murder. (Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences.)
• Three Americans, Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Dr. Ferid Murad, won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for blood vessel research.

Five years ago:

• A suicide attack outside a Baghdad hotel full of Americans killed six bystanders.
• Doctors in Dallas succeeded in separating 2-year-old conjoined twins from Egypt.
• Germany won the Women's Soccer World Cup 2-1 over Sweden in the eighth minute of overtime.
• Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker died in San Marino, Calif., at age 72.
• Philanthropist Joan B. Kroc died in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., at age 75.
• British wartime hero Patrick Dalzel-Job, whose exploits made him a model for James Bond, died in Plockton, Scotland, at age 90.

One year ago:

• 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.
• A fiery, 34-vehicle pileup at a freeway tunnel in Santa Clarita, Calif., left three people dead.
• A jury in Panama City, Fla., acquitted seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse in a black teenager's death.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actress Antonia Rey is 81.
• Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 76.
• Former Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, is 76.
• Singer Sam Moore (formerly of Sam and Dave) is 73.
• Sportscaster Tony Kubek is 72.
• TV reporter Chris Wallace is 61.
• Actress-singer Susan Anton is 58.
• Rock singer-musician Pat DiNizio is 53.
• Actor Carlos Bernard is 46.
• Jazz musician Chris Botti is 46.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Claude McKnight (Take 6) is 46.
• Rock singer Bob Schneider is 43.
• Actor Hugh Jackman is 40.
• Actor Adam Rich is 40.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Garfield Bright (Shai) is 39.
• Country musician Martie Maguire (The Dixie Chicks) is 39.
• Actor Kirk Cameron is 38.
• Actor Marcus T. Paulk ("Moesha") is 22.
• Actor Josh Hutcherson is 16.

Thought for Today:

"Some people always sigh in thanking God."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806-1861).

"Let's all be careful out there!"