October 12

539 BC – The army of Persia under the command of Gubaruva takes Babylon, bringing down the Babylonian empire, fulfilling the ‘writing on the wall’: מנא מנא תקל ופרסין Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin

1492 – Christopher Columbus’ first expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, somewhere in the Bahamas.

1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Province of Massachusetts Bay Governor William Phips.

1773 – Eastern State Hospital, America’s first insane asylum, opens in Williamsburg, Virginia.

1792 – The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.

1793 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the U.S., is laid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

1810 – The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest.

1822 – After earlier declaring Brazil’s independence from Portugal, Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed Emperor.

1849 – The city of Manizales, Colombia, is founded by ‘The Expedition of the 20’.

1870 – Robert E. Lee dies, age 63, at Lexington, Virginia of a stroke suffered 2 weeks earlier.

1892 –On the 400th anniversary of the Columbus expedition, President Harrison proclaims the day ‘Columbus Day’ .

1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the “Executive Mansion” to the “White House”.

1918 – A massive forest fire in western Carlton County, Minnesota, kills 453 people, and causes over $72 million in damages.

1928 – The “Iron Lung” negative pressure respirator is used for the first time at Boston Children’s Hospital on a patient suffering from polio.

1933 – The military Alcatraz Citadel is converted to the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.

1945 – U.S. Army Combat Medic Corporal Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor.

1962 – A windstorm resulting from Typhoon Freda strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities, killing 46 people and causing over $230 million in damages.

1970 – ‘Vietnamization’ of the Vietnam war continues as President Nixon announces that the U.S. will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.

1973 – President Nixon nominates House Majority Leader Gerald R. Ford as the successor to Vice President Agnew.

2000 – The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer, USS Cole is damaged by two Al Qaida suicide bombers in the Yemeni port of Aden, during a port visit, killing 17 and wounding 39 crew members.

2017 – The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

2019 – In New Orleans, the Hard Rock Hotel, which is under construction, collapses, killing 2 and injuring 20.