Today is Friday, October 5, the 279th day of 2012. There are 87 days left in the year.
1762 ― The opera “Orfeo Ed Euridice” is produced (Vienna)
1864 ― Most of Calcutta destroyed by cyclone (approx 60,000 die)
1908 ― Bulgaria declares independence from Turkey, Ferdinand I becomes Tsar
1931 ― First nonstop transpacific flight, Japan to Washington (Herndon & Pangborn)
1953 ― Yankees break own record with fifth consecutive World Series win, Billy Martin’s 12 hits set record (World Series No. 50)
1962 ― Beatles release their first record “Love Me Do”
1970 ― Quebec separatists kidnap British trade commissioner James Cross
1978 ― Isaac Bashevis Singer wins the Nobel Prize for literature
1983 ― Lech Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize
1986 ― London Sunday Times reports Israel is stocking nuclear arms