12 October History
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas.
- 1576 - Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximillian II, as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1609 - The song "Three Blind Mice" is published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.
- 1702 - Admiral Sir George Rooke defeats the French fleet off Vigo.
- 1722 - Shah Sultan Husayn surrenders the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afgan rebels after a seven month siege.
- 1809 - Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies under mysterious circumstances in Tennessee.
- 1899 - The Anglo-Boer War begins.
- 1872 - Apache leader Cochise signs a peace treaty with General Howard in Arizona Territory.
- 1933 - Alcatraz Island is made a federal maximum security prison.
- 1943 - The U.S. Fifth Army begins an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
- 1949 - Eugenie Anderson becomes the first woman U.S. ambassador.
- 1970 - President Richard Nixon announces the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.
- 1971 - The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23.
12 October Birthdays
- 1537 - Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour.
- 1868 - Charles Sumner Greene, architect.
- 1929 - Richard Coles, child psychologist and author.
- 1932 - Dick Gregory, comedian and social activist.
- 1935 - Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor.