On This Day - What Happened On October 12 | Britannica

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1492 New World sighted The New World was “discovered” this day in 1492 when land (most likely San Salvador) was sighted in the Caribbean from the Pinta, one of the three ships that participated in Christopher Columbus's historic voyage. Architect of the Capitol

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Luciano Pavarotti Italian opera singer bornOctober 12, 1935Modena, ItalydiedSeptember 6, 2007 (aged 71)Modena, ItalyGretchen Ertl/AP/REX/Shutterstock.com 1975 Marion Jones American athlete 1968 Hugh Jackman Australian performer 1935 Luciano Pavarotti Italian opera singer 1872 Ralph Vaughan Williams English composer 1798 Pedro I emperor of Brazil See All Biographies On This Day

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2001 The centennial Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the United Nations and the organization's secretary-general, Kofi Annan. How much do you know about the Nobel Prize?AP/Wide World Photos 2000 While preparing to refuel in the Yemeni port of Aden, the USS Cole, a U.S. naval destroyer, was attacked by suicide bombers associated with al-Qaeda; 17 sailors were killed and 39 wounded.U.S. Department of Defense 1999 American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, who was considered one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the game, died at age 63. Take our basketball quiz© Bettmann/Getty Images 1998 American college student Matthew Shepard died in Fort Collins, Colorado, several days after being beaten by two men and left in the cold in Laramie, Wyoming; Shepard's homosexuality was believed to have motivated the attack, and his death contributed to the expansion of federal hate-crime legislation.Official White House Photo by Pete Souza 1968 Equatorial Guinea gained its independence from Spain. Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about AfricaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1915 During World War I, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed for assisting Allied soldiers in escaping from German-occupied Belgium. Test your knowledge of World War IGeorge Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: LC-DIG-ggbain-20235) 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt officially changed the name of the president's residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. from Executive Mansion to the White House. Take a tour of the White House© MedioImages/Getty Images 1898 A landmark in labour union history, a coal-mine riot took place in Virden, Illinois, when strikebreakers were brought in. Test your knowledge of U.S. history 1896 Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, prose writer, editor, and translator who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975, was born in Genoa. Take our quiz about Nobel laureates in literatureCourtesy of the Italian Foreign Office, Rome 1866 Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Party prime minister of the United Kingdom—in the Labour governments of 1924 and 1929–31 and in the national coalition government of 1931–35—was born. Test your knowledge of prime ministersCentral Press Photos Ltd. 1810 The first Oktoberfest was celebrated in Munich, in the form of a horse race held in honour of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria (who later became King Louis I) to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Learn key facts about OktoberfestJoe Viesti/The Viesti Collection SIGN UP FOR History's Biggest Headlines Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors. SIGN UP Thanks for signing up for Today in History. Your first newsletter will arrive soon! SIGN UP By clicking "Sign Up" you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.