Today is Wednesday, October 12, the 285th day of 2011. There are 80 days left in the year.
1492 ― Columbus arrives in the Bahamas; the real Columbus Day
1860 ― British and French troops capture Beijing
1918 ― First use of iron lung (Boston's Children Hospital)
1941 ― Russian government moves from Moscow to Volga as Nazis close in on Moscow
1942 ― U.S. navy defeats Japanese in WW II Battle of Cape Esperance
1960 ― Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe at U.N. General Assembly session
1976 ― Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao Zedong as chairman of Communist Party
1977 ― Psychic Romark attempts to drive blindfolded, smashed into cop van
1984 ― IRA bombs hotel where Margaret Thatcher is staying
1985 ― International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War receives Nobel Prize