October 12
Today in America's Present Past
1492 | Explorer Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World.
1692 | Civil Rights: Salem Witch trials conclude.
1710 | Politician Jonathan Trumbull was born.
1712 | Physician and politician William Shippen was born.
1740 | Cleric George Whitefield kicks off a revival in Boston to 30,000 people, which launches the “Great Awakening.”
1773 | First American mental asylum opens in Virginia.
1775 | Cleric and activist Lyman Beecher was born.
1792 | The first celebration of Columbus Day occurs in New York.
1794 | Composer James Lyon died.
1854 | Ashmun Institute (later Lincoln University) opened.
1859 | Self-proclaimed Emperor of the USA, Emperor Norton issues an edict abolishing the U.S. Congress.
1860 | Entrepreneur Elmer Ambrose Sperry was born.
1864 | SCOTUS: Justice Roger B. Taney died.
1870 | Robert E. Lee died.
1871 | POTUS: Republican President Grant condemns the Ku Klux Klan.
1892 | As a part of a Columbus Day celebration, the first U.S. government school had students recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
1893 | Japanese spy Velvalee Dickinson was born.
1898 | Civil Rights: “Battle of Virden,” a coal strike in Illinois.
1898 | Cleric Calvin Fairbank died.
1900 | The first modern submarine is commissioned by the Navy as the USS Holland, named for its designer, John Philip Holland.
1901 | POTUS: Republican President Roosevelt renamed the Executive Mansion to the White House.
1904 | Educator Charles Dowd died.
1908 | Poet Paul Engle was born.
1910 | Poet Robert Fitzgerald was born.
1914 | Inventor Margaret E. Knight died.
1919 | Navy Cross recipient Doris Miller was born.
1923 | Entrepreneur Jean Nidetch was born.
1928 | First use of an “Iron lung” in Massachusetts.
1929 | Psychologist Robert Coles was born.
1933 | Outlaw Machine Gun Kelly was sentenced to life in prison.
1933 | Outlaw John Dillinger escaped from jail in Ohio.
1936 | Painter Edwin Blashfield died.
1944 | Columbus Day Riot in NYC.
1946 | General Joseph W. Stilwell died.
1947 | Journalist Chris Wallace was born.
1954 | WWII Ace George Welch died.
1960 | Cold War: USSR Secretary Khrushchev banged his shoe on the podium at the UN headquarters in NYC.
1961 | Aviator Eugene Bullard died.
1963 | Bull rider Lane Frost was born.
1964 | President Kennedy’s girlfriend, Mary Pinchot Meyer, was murdered.
1965 | Fighter pilot Scott O’Grady was born.
1970 | Actor and podcaster Kirk Cameron was born.
1971 | Diplomat Dean Acheson died.
1972 | Civil Rights: 46 sailors were injured in a race riot on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.
1987 | Politician Alf Landon died.
1990 | Entrepreneur Tom Carvel died.
1992 | Actor Josh Hutcherson was born.
1997 | Musician John Denver died.
1998 | Mathew Shepard died.
1999 | Basketballer Wilt Chamberlain died.
2000 | War on Terror: U.S.S. Cole is attacked by al-Qaeda.
2003 | Jockey Bill Shoemaker died.
2007 | Vice President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
2024 | Activist Lilly Ledbetter died.