October
12
Independence
Day
Equatorial Guinea : October 12 1968
October
12 : International Girl-Child Day
The International
Day of the Girl Child initiative began as a project of Plan
International, a non-governmental organization that operates
worldwide. The idea for an international day of observance and
celebration grew out of Plan International's Because I Am a
Girl campaign, which raises awareness of the importance of nurturing
girls globally and in developing countries in particular. Plan
International representatives in Canada approached the Canadian
federal government to seek support for the initiative. A coalition
of supporters raised awareness of the initiative internationally.
International
Day of the Girl Child was formally proposed as a resolution
by Canada in the United Nations General Assembly. Rona Ambrose,
Canada's Minister for the Status of Women, sponsored the resolution;
a delegation of women and girls made presentations in support
of the initiative at the 55th United Nations Commission on the
Status of Women. On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General
Assembly voted to pass a resolution adopting October 11, 2012
as the inaugural International Day of the Girl Child. Each year's
Day of the Girl has a theme; the first was "ending child
marriage", and the second, in 2013, was "innovating
for girl's education".
October
12 : Spanish Language Day at the UN
http://www.un.org/es/events/spanishlanguageday/
Events
539 BC –
The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.
1216 – King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash,
probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge
1279 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk founder of Nichiren
Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon
1398 – The Treaty of Salynas is signed between Grand Duke of
Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Teutonic Knights, who received
Samogitia.
1492 – Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the
Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes
he has reached India.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar
this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal
and Spain.
1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands,
killing more than 100 people.
1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts
Governor William Phips.
1773 – America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane
and Disordered Minds' in Virginia
1792 – First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in
New York
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
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.
1822 – Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor of the Brazil
1823 – Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat.
1871 – Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by British rule in
India, which named over 160 local communities 'Criminal Tribes',
i.e. hereditary criminals. Repealed in 1949, after Independence
of India.
1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students
in many US public schools, as part of a celebration marking
the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage.
1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive
Mansion" to the White House.
1915 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by
a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from
Belgium
1917 – World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes
place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New
Zealand history.
1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.
1928 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at
Children's Hospital, Boston
1933 – The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz
Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
1942 – World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat
in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander,
Aritomo Gotō dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two
Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1944 – World War II: The Liberation of Athens from the German
invaders.
1945 – World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious
objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
1953 – "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth
Theatre, New York
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.
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 colonial policy being conducted in
Eastern Europe
1960 – Inejiro Asanuma, Chair of the Japanese Socialist Party,
is assassinated in Japan by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old.
The cameras were rolling at the time, so the moment was caught
on film.
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
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
1967 – Vietnam War: US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during
a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace
initiatives are futile because of North Vietnam's opposition
1968 – Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain
1970 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that
the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
1979 – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five
books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science
fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
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.
1983 – Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found
guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced
to 4 years in jail.
1984 – Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican
Army attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
and her cabinet. Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people
and wounds 31.
1986 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip,
Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China
1988 – Jaffna University Helidrop: Commandos of Indian Peace
Keeping Force raided the Jaffna University campus to capture
the LTTE chief and walked into a trap.
1988 – Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional
style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.
1991 – Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan
by republic's Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested
poll.
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).
1997 – Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock.
1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif
through a bloodless coup.
1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares
its independence from Georgia
2000 – The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two
suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least
39
2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali,
killing 202 and wounding over 300.
2005 – The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched
carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Hǎishèng for five days in orbit.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Heribert of Cologne (private feast day)
Wilfrid of York
October 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Children's Day or Feast of Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil)
Discovery of America by Columbus-related observances:
Descubrimiento de América (Mexico)
Día de la Hispanidad or Fiesta Nacional de España (Spain)
Día de la Raza, "Day of the Race" (Latin America)
Día de la Resistencia Indígena, "Day of Indigenous Resistance"
(Venezuela)
Día de las Américas, "Day of the Americas" (Uruguay)
Día de las Culturas, "Day of the Cultures" (Costa
Rica)
Discovery Day (the Bahamas)
Freethought Day (United States)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Equatorial
Guinea from Spain in 1968.
Mother's Day (Malawi)
For details, contact Datacentre
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