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".
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 |