Today in History - Oct. 12

Today is Monday, Oct. 12, the 285th day of 2009. There are 80 days left in the year. This is Columbus Day in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.

On this date:

In 1870, Gen. Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.

In 1915, English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans in occupied Belgium during World War I.

In 1918, the Cloquet Fire erupted in Minnesota, claiming some 450 lives.

In 1933, bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.

In 1949, Eugenie Anderson was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to be the U.S. ambassador to Denmark; she became the first American woman to hold an ambassadorship.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a U.N. General Assembly session by pounding his desk with a shoe when a speaker criticized his country.

In 1968, the Summer Games of the 19th Olympiad officially opened in Mexico City. Equatorial Guinea became independent of Spain.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.

In 2000, 17 sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen.

In 2002, a bomb blamed on Islamic militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Ten years ago: Pakistan’s military overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Ahmed H. Zewail of the California Institute of Technology won the Nobel Prize for chemistry; Dutch scientists Gerardus ‘t Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman won the Nobel Prize for physics. NBA Hall-of-Famer Wilt Chamberlain died at his Los Angeles home at age 63.

Five years ago: A jury in Baton Rouge, La., took 80 minutes to find suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace. (Lee was later sentenced to death for Pace’s killing.) The Seattle Storm won their first WNBA title with a 74-60 victory over the Connecticut Sun.

One year ago: Global finance ministers meeting in Washington kept searching for ways to tackle the unfolding financial crisis; in Paris, nations in Europe’s single-currency zone agreed to temporarily guarantee bank refinancing and pledged to prevent bank failures. North Korea said it would resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the United States removed the communist country from a list of states that sponsored terrorism. A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Richard Garriott, the sixth paying space traveler, along with another American and a Russian crew member, lifted off from Kazakhstan for the international space station. The Arizona Cardinals became the first team in NFL history to block a punt to score the winning TD in overtime in their 30-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Antonia Rey is 82. Comedian-activist Dick Gregory is 77. Former Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, is 77. Singer Sam Moore (formerly of Sam and Dave) is 74. Broadcast journalist Chris Wallace is 62. Actress-singer Susan Anton is 59. Rock singer-musician Pat DiNizio (The Smithereens) is 54. Actor Carlos Bernard is 47. Jazz musician Chris Botti is 47. R&B singer Claude McKnight (Take 6) is 47. Rock singer Bob Schneider is 44. Actor Hugh Jackman is 41. Actor Adam Rich is 41. R&B singer Garfield Bright (Shai) is 40. Country musician Martie Maguire (The Dixie Chicks) is 40. Actor Kirk Cameron is 39. Champion skier Bode Miller is 32. Arizona Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson is 30. Actor Marcus T. Paulk (”Moesha”) is 23. Actor Josh Hutcherson is 17.

Thought for Today: “If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock.” — Arthur J. Goldberg, American jurist and statesman (1908-1990).