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Sunday, October 12, 2008

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!"