Today is Friday, October 12, the 286th day of 2012. There are 80 days left in the year.
1492 ― Columbus arrives in the Bahamas; the real Columbus Day
1823 ― Charles Macintosh of Scotland begins selling raincoats (Macs)
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 Guo-feng succeeds Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party
1984 ― IRA bombs hotel where Margaret Thatcher is staying
1992 ― Expo '92 closes in Seville Spain